Secondary Publication Education Psychology

Effect of Multiple Object Tracking Training on Visual Search Strategies

by Ryousuke Furukado - September 10, 2021

This study aimed to understand changes in visual search strategies before and after intervention, in addition to examining the training effect of multiple object tracking (MOT) skills. Twenty-nine male university baseball players were divided into two groups: a experiment group (EXP, n = 19) and a control group (CON, n = 10). The three-week intervention comprised MOT tasks. Because of the intervention, a significant interaction was observed between the groups, and before and after intervention. EXP Group showed a significant increase in scores on the MOT tasks after intervention compared to those before the intervention. Subsequently, we examined the changes in visual search strategies among six participants with a large training effect (LTE group) and six participants with a small training effect (STE group). Consequently, the gaze travel distance of the post-intervention in the LTE group was short, and the eye’s angular speed between gaze points was large – moderate effect size without a significant difference. These results suggest that MOT skills can be acquired through training for baseball players. Furthermore, we did not observe any clear change in visual search strategies brought about by MOT skill training.

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Article Education Environmental Sciences Psychology

Effect of positive and negative ions in esports performance and arousal levels

by Goichi Hagiwara - August 20, 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of arousal levels in esports players during a racing-game under positive and negative ion environments. Participants (10 male) who belonged to the collegiate esports team were recruited. The influences of positive and negative ions were evaluated in a randomized, crossover, and placebo-controlled double-blind design. Each participant completed two experiments within a 4-week interval. Two experimental environments were used: positive and negative ions filled up the atmosphere (PNI), and a control (CON) condition. For the performance task, a car-racing game was adopted. Arousal state was measured by the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale (TDMS) and an electroencephalogram (EEG). Results indicated that the EEG level was significantly higher in PNI than CON condition. Also, the PNI had a significantly higher performance on the gaming task than the CON condition. The present study demonstrated the beneficial effects of positive and negative ion environments on esports players.

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Secondary Publication Education Psychology

An attempt to verify the positive effects of esports

by Goichi Hagiwara - August 13, 2021

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between cognitive skill and concentration, based on brain waves measured before and after esports activity. Participants were twenty male collegiate students belonging to an esports club (Mean Age ± 21.40, SD = 1.65). At first, participants were put on a simple electroencephalograph (EEG) and their psychological state at baseline was measured for two minutes. After that, Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT) was conducted to measure their cognitive skill (execution function) before the esports task. In addition, after the esports task, SCWT was conducted again. To examine the degree of concentration during esports task, this study adopted a simple band-type EEG that only measures the Fp1 point as defined by the international 10-20 systems. As a result, this study indicated that cognitive skill (executive function) might be improved before and after esports task, and concentration might appear during esports play.

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