Violent video games affect kids?

Video game violence is believed to make children become aggressive and sensitive to acts that depict violence. But such an assumption is not true in studies conducted in Canada. In previous research reports, video game violence can lead to more aggressive behavior and irritability, in addition to more sensitive to violence. But Canadian researchers compared the players and not players. The results they found for the long term, a player may only remember the negative image after undergoing memory tests. These results have similar levels of emotional reactions to the images for non-players.

"People who play video games, did not differ in memory. And physical arousal did not differ between the players and not players. And there was no difference in how each group after seeing a negative image or violence," said study author, Holly Bowen , who is also a doctoral candidate in the department of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, told USAToday.
According to background information on this research, different violent video games with violence in television or film. The reason is, people play games actively involved in the aggression, and in some games to receive rewards and incentives to perform acts of virtual violence.

"Most research on violent video games, these players were tested as soon as possible after they play the game and may not reflect long-term effects," said Bowen. To assess whether violent video games affect the brain long term, Bowen and colleagues, Julia Spaniol, recruited 122 undergraduate psychology students to participate in their studies on emotional memory.

"Memory emotions are very important part of your cognitive functions. If you do not remember a negative or dangerous situation, you can not learn from them and avoid them in the future," said Bowen. A total of 96 study volunteers were women, and the average age was 19 years old. 45 People in group play video games for six months. The remaining 77 had no exposure to video games. Both male and female players reported playing Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy and the NHL (National Hockey League). "Men are also included in the game in five big fights. She would rather play Guitar Hero and Rock Band or go-kart game Mario Kart video than violence," according to this study.

The researchers showed 150 images of positive, neutral, and negative for study volunteers. Bowen said some of the picture is violent and bullies, like pictures of people holding a gun to her head. An hour later, the researchers showed the volunteers pictures again penelitiani, but were randomly mixed in the additional images. The result, they found no difference in memory between the two groups. And, the players and non-players reported similar levels of physical stimulation of the drawings, and described the same feeling when viewing photos.

Bowen said that this study can not definitely say that violent video games do not make people sensitive to violence. "It does not give a piece of the puzzle, and maybe, video games do not have long-term effects on cognition and memory."

Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Hollander, a psychiatrist from Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, saying that some teenagers may be more vulnerable to violent video games. "Teenagers who do not receive adequate compensation may be vulnerable to the benefits gained from risk behaviors, such as video games or gambling addiction."

"With the aggressive video games, teenagers get the excitement level high and the benefits that they might not get with other games, and they may begin to develop a more limited interest to one type of game," he explained, adding that the warning to parents if they see their child become less involved in other activities to enjoy, and they only play certain types of video games