Brain warming up effect through game play

Abstract

Does playing a game make them feel fun and subsequently increase their memory performance? When the participants played a horror game or watched a video of a horror game and then were given a memory test of the game screen, the group that actually played the game performed worse. It is also known that there are differences between game genres in terms of brain activity. Since horror games may have aroused unpleasant feelings and decreased memory performance, it is possible that performance would increase if pleasant feelings were aroused. Although there have been many studies measuring brain activity during game play, there have been few studies examining memory performance after game play. In the present study, we compared a group that played a game that aroused pleasant emotions with a group that simply watched a video of the game being played (style factor), and examined whether playing the game affected the memory of words immediately afterward. In addition, we compared two types of games, a racing game and an action game(genre factor), and also measured the degree of pleasant feelings during playing and watching (affective factor). The results showed an interaction between the genre factor and the emotion factor, with significantly worse memory performance in the action game group for those who found the game enjoyable.