Dr. Kawashima Anti-Social Behavior Experiment

Dr. Kawashima conducted an experiment 5 years ago on if video games cause anti-social behavior.

Kotaku.com has uncovered information about an anti-video game study performed by Brain Age mastermind Dr. Ryuta Kawashima in 2001.

An article originally published in an April 2001 issue of The Observer detailed research that Dr. Kawashima had done suggesting that playing video games stunts development in certain parts of the brain that allows people to control anti-social behavior. Dr. Kawashima tested his theory by comparing data of brain activity of children while playing video games and while taking the Kraepelin test, a thirty minute cycle of simple math problems similiar to one of the games in Brain Age.

His research revealed that, during the Kraepelin test, the children used both the left and right hemispheres of the frontal lobe (the brain’s center for learning, memory, emotion and impulse control),while playing video games only excercised the parts of their brains used for vision and tracking movement.

Dr. Kawashima later reported his findings at an education conference in the UK. Then, in an interview with The Observer, he made the following statement: “There is a problem we will have with a new generation of children — who play computer games — that we have never seen before. The implications are very serious for an increasingly violent society and these students will be doing more and more bad things if they are playing games and not doing other things like reading aloud or learning arithmetic.”

He also stated his thoughts on the importance of this issue on society, saying, “…ask them to play outside with other children and interact and to communicate with others as much as possible. This is how they will develop, retain their creativity and become good people

When asked for a comment, Nintendo stated that the study is five years old, and never established that game playing is harmful.

Source

Around The Net: