Making the most of potential: potential games and genotypic convergence.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Edhan O
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8385380 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundSerious games are now widely used in many contexts, including psychological research and clinical use. One area of growing interest is that of cognitive assessment, which seeks to measure different cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and perception. Measuring these functions at both the population and individual levels can inform research and indicate health issues. Attention is an important function to assess, as an accurate measure of attention can help diagnose many common disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dementia. However, using games to assess attention poses unique problems, as games inherently manipulate attention through elements such as sound effects, graphics, and rewards, and research on adding game elements to assessments (ie, gamification) has shown mixed results. The process for developing cognitive tasks is robust, with high psychometric standards that must be met before these tasks are used for assessment. Although games offer more diverse approaches for assessment, there is no standard for how they should be developed or evaluated.ObjectiveTo better understand the field and provide guidance to interdisciplinary researchers, we aim to answer the question: How are digital games used for the cognitive assessment of attention made and measured?MethodsWe searched several databases for papers that described a digital game used to assess attention that could be deployed remotely without specialized hardware. We used Rayyan, a systematic review software, to screen the records before conducting a systematic review.ResultsThe initial database search returned 49,365 papers. Our screening process resulted in a total of 74 papers that used a digital game to measure cognitive functions related to attention. Across the studies in our review, we found three approaches to making assessment games: gamifying cognitive tasks, creating custom games based on theories of cognition, and exploring potential assessment properties of commercial games. With regard to measuring the assessment properties of these games (eg, how accurately they assess attention), we found three approaches: comparison to a traditional cognitive task, comparison to a clinical diagnosis, and comparison to knowledge of cognition; however, most studies in our review did not evaluate the game's properties (eg, if participants enjoyed the game).ConclusionsOur review provides an overview of how games used for the assessment of attention are developed and evaluated. We further identified three barriers to advancing the field: reliance on assumptions, lack of evaluation, and lack of integration and standardization. We then recommend the best practices to address these barriers. Our review can act as a resource to help guide the field toward more standardized approaches and rigorous evaluation required for the widespread adoption of assessment games.
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Project description:The question of how games should be taught is still a controversial subject. There has been a growing number of studies on teaching games and coaching sports since the first publication of Bunker and Thorpe on Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). In this sense, the present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to systematically review the scientific literature about the effects of technical and tactical approach interventions on skill execution and decision making, and to examine the influence of the teacher/coach management style. A systematic literature search was carried out in accordance with PRISMA guidelines in Web of Science (WOS), PubMed (Medline), Scopus, and SportDiscus electronic databases. A total of seven and six studies were deemed to meet the inclusion criteria for decision making and skill execution, respectively. Meta-analysis results showed that tactical interventions achieved significant improvements in decision making (effect size = 0.89 with 95% confidence interval (CI) from 0.12 to 1.65), but they did not show significant improvements in skill execution (effect size = 0.89 with 95% CI from -0.45 to 2.23) compared to technical approaches. However, the heterogeneity of interventions was large and the quality of evidence was low according to GRADE. In conclusion, tactical approaches are recommended to teach games and sports in order to develop technique, understanding, tactical knowledge, and decision making, which are demanded in game play. These findings could be useful for teachers and coaches to improve these aspects of their players and students.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Fundamental motor skills (FMS) is the foundational movement for children's physical development. Physical Education (PE) lessons provide a unique opportunity for children to acquire these skills. The purposes of this study were to: 1) to describe the FMS performance of primary school children in China; and 2) to examine the effect of a PE-based intervention on children's FMS. METHODS:The 12-week PE-based intervention was conducted using a low organized games (LOG) approach. Children's FMS was measured by the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2). Participants were 560 children aged between 6-9 years old (grade one to three) from two primary schools in Chongqing, China. They were grouped into intervention group (with LOG program PE; n = 282) or control group (with regular PE; n = 278). RESULTS:The results revealed significant interaction effect between group and grade on the locomotor skill score changes (F(1, 554) = 22.31, p < 0.000), and object control score change (F(1,554) = 627.1, p < 0.000). There was no significant interaction effect between the intervention group and gender on locomotor skill (F(1,554) = 1.49, p = 0.223) and object control skill significant (F(1,554) = 743, p = 0.389). CONCLUSIONS:The present study supported the application of LOG approach in PE lesson as an effective intervention to enhance children's FMS in China.
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