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Playing TETRIS for science counter-regulatory affective processing in a motivationally "hot" context

Jason Rutter - Tue, 09/02/2010 - 13:58
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

We adapted the computer game TETRIS to investigate the process of affective-motivational counter-regulation, that is, attentional biases for emotional stimuli that are in opposition to the momentary Motivational focus. Counter-regulation is seen as a mechanism which should prevent escalation and impulsivity, and it should help to avoid becoming "locked up" in affective-motivational states. Accordingly, for a negative outcome focus condition (i.e., risk of losing a current high score), we hypothesized greater interference by positive distractors that were included in the game, whereas for a positive outcome focus (i.e., chance to improve one's current high score), we hypothesized greater interference by negative distractors. Supporting our hypotheses, we found the predicted interactions between distractor valence and type of outcome focus. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Phasic emotional reactions to video game events: A psychophysiological investigation

Jason Rutter - Mon, 09/04/2007 - 15:07
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

We examined emotional valence- and arousal-related phasic psychophysiological responses to different video game events among 36 young adults who played Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). Event-related changes in zygomaticus trial. or, corrugator supercilii, and orhicularis oculi electromyographic activity, skin conductance level, and cardiac interbeat intervals were recorded. Instantaneous game events elicited reliable psychophysiological responses indexing valence and arousal. A largely linear, positive dose-response relationship between rewards obtained in the game and phasic increases in arousal was revealed. The valence of the emotional response varied as a function of the player's active participation (active coping). In addition, not only positive events, but also some putatively negative events elicited positively valenced arousal. The findings extend our understanding of the phasic changes in the emotional state during video games and a dynamic flow of events and action and may have several applied implications (e.g., for game design).

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