| Description | Does game play on improving participant's problem-solving ability, perspective shifting (using the Remote Association task), or change detection ability. These are common cognitive elements in video game play that relate to creative problem solving and have the potential to transfer to problems outside of video games. To address this questions, 62 participants were randomly assigned to either a Game (Roller Coaster Tycoon) condition or Control (filler task) condition and completed 3 tasks: a pre/post insight problem task, remote association task, and a change detection task. There was no difference in problem solving abilities at time 1 as expected, however participants in the game condition increased their problem solving ability at time 2 while those in the control condition did not. No differences between the conditions were found for the other two tasks. These data indicate that game play did not warm-up participants for either of these tasks, but did for the problem solving task. |
