Article Psychology

Examining the effects of digital gameplay of the racing genre on mood and heart rate

This study aimed to determine racing esport games’ effects on the physiological and psychological indices using psychological scales and heart rate monitors. The participants were 10 male university students who did not play games diurnally (mean age ± 20.10, SD = 1.10). Participants wore a wristwatch heart rate monitor, and their resting heart rate was measured for 2 min. The duration of the game play was set to 30 min, and their heart rates were continuously measured during play. The changes in the psychological state before and after the game play were then examined using a two-dimensional mood scale-short term. The results showed that the average heart rate significantly increased during gameplay compared to the resting state. As for participants’ psychological state before and after the gameplay, the vitality, pleasure, and arousal levels increased while the stability level decreased. These results indicate that gameplay in the racing genre can induce a lively mood and increase the heart rate.

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Article Business & Management Economics Education Others Psychology

Impact on evaluation of Viewpoints to assess the positioning on half-court defense in the basketball

While there are some desirable and some not-so-desirable half-court positions in basketball, the "desirable positioning" may not always be clearly determined due to the values of the coach or manager. The most important factor in this is the "point of view". Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the perspectives that influence the evaluation of positioning in half-court defense for university teams be-longing to the first and second divisions of the Basketball Federation. A total of 192 players (110 male players and 82 female players) from university teams in the first and second divisions of the K-Student Basketball Federation were included in the study. As a result, the perspectives of the reasons for the decisions obtained in the descriptive form have been classified into the following categories: "Weak-side defensive position," "Strong-side defensive position," "Ball man defensive position," "General defensive position," "Defensive position related to play selection," "Defensive position related to coordination," and "Defensive position related to situational judgment. "The defensive positions were classified into seven categories: defensive positions related to situational viewpoints.

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Secondary Publication Education Psychology

Effect of Multiple Object Tracking Training on Visual Search Strategies

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

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

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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