If there is one thing I like it’s strange, possibly unethical psychological studies. And when these studies include a game I will struggle to find something more entertaining.
It's not just any game either, it's legendry retro puzzler, Tetris. Tetris and psychology what is the link? Does it drive people insane with frustration?
Quite the contrary actually. According to Oxford University. Tetris can quell flashbacks of traumatic events.
Researchers found that playing Tetris after traumatic events could reduce flashbacks in healthy volunteers. The hope of this research is to reduce the painful memories linked with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
To see if this effect was found only in Tetris or with other games as well, the researchers compared Tetris with Pub Quiz Machine 2008.
The investigators began by showing volunteers a gruesome film with traumatic images of injury and death, such as fatal traffic accidents and graphic scenes of human surgery (beautifully unethical.)
After waiting a half-hour, in the first experiment, 20 volunteers played Tetris for 10 minutes, 20 played Pub Quiz and 20 did nothing. By examining diaries the volunteers kept for a week afterward to record any instances of flashbacks to the film.
They found that Tetris significantly reduced flashbacks while Pub Quiz significantly increased them. In a second experiment, the wait was extended to four hours, with 25 volunteers in each group and the results matched.
“Our latest findings suggest Tetris is still effective as long as it is played within a four-hour window after viewing a stressful film,” said researcher Emily Holmes, a research clinical psychologist at Oxford University.
How does this work then? "Past research suggested there is a timeframe of up to six hours after a trauma in which one can interfere with the way traumatic memories are formed in the mind. During this window of opportunity, certain tasks can compete with the same mental channels needed to form those memories."
So basically the memory of the cubes pushes the memory of the blood and guts away.
How long until hospitals and psych-wards order a box of GBA's?
House will be pleased.
Source: Fox