Gender, videogames and navigation in virtual space.

Spatial abilities associated with success in educational and occupational fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) have been repeatedly shown to be gendered, with males demonstrating measurably better spatial abilities than females. Less is known about why this is, or about how experience with spatial systems (videogames, for example) affects these abilities. We conducted two experiments with 82 participants with varying degrees of videogame experience on measures of mental rotation, spatial learning, and spatial memory. Spatial learning and memory were tested in a Virtual Morris Water Maze. In the first experiment, the maze lacked proximal landmarks. Males proved faster and more accurate than females in learning the location of the hidden platform. As predicted males also outperformed females in mental rotation abilities. Mental rotation correlated with performance in the virtual maze, indicating that in the absence of proximal landmarks, participants relied on strategies requiring mental rotation. Experienced 3D videogame players did not demonstrate superior spatial learning and memory, but performed better than novices in mental rotation. In the second experiment, the maze had proximal cues, in the form of landmarks on the circumference of the virtual pool, and gender-based differences in navigational performance significantly diminished. Under these changed environmental conditions, mental rotation ability did not correlate with performance in the VMWM, suggesting that given proximal cues, the need for mental rotation diminishes. Differences between videogame novices and experts also decreased when proximal cues were provided. Females in particular obtained more discernible benefits from videogame experience. Together, these experiments reveal how the spatial abilities and strategies used to solve the Morris maze task vary with environmental design. Given the structural similarities between the virtual maze and videogame environments, these results offer insight into how spatial experience gained through videogame playing can affect aspects of spatial cognition, and can help identify design elements that contribute to their improvement.

"The Entrepreneurial Gamer": Regendering the Order of Play.

The designation "gamer" is structurally bound to networked economies of digital play that are rewarded fiscally, socially, and publically, an order of play that is proving difficult to overturn. That girls and women have enjoyed at best marginal positions within video game cultures is by now well recognized, yet at the very same time is too easily dismissed in light of persuasively documented increases in the numbers of women who play. This article traces a large-scale transformation of ludic engagement from participation to spectatorship that parallels the professionalizing and commodifying of traditionally embodied sports, games, and play to demonstrate how new and emerging economies of gameplay, far from opening up the playing field, threaten a further entrenchment of gendered relations.

Reducing childhood obesity through U.S. federal policy: a microsimulation analysis.

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity prevalence remains high in the U.S., especially among racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. Federal policy is important in improving public health given its broad reach. Information is needed about federal policies that could reduce childhood obesity rates and by how much. PURPOSE: To estimate the impact of three federal policies on childhood obesity prevalence in 2032, after 20 years of implementation. METHODS: Criteria were used to select the three following policies to reduce childhood obesity from 26 recommended policies: afterschool physical activity programs, a $0.01/ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) excise tax, and a ban on child-directed fast food TV advertising. For each policy, the literature was reviewed from January 2000 through July 2012 to find evidence of effectiveness and create average effect sizes. In 2012, a Markov microsimulation model estimated each policy's impact on diet or physical activity, and then BMI, in a simulated school-aged population in 2032. RESULTS: The microsimulation predicted that afterschool physical activity programs would reduce obesity the most among children aged 6-12 years (1.8 percentage points) and the advertising ban would reduce obesity the least (0.9 percentage points). The SSB excise tax would reduce obesity the most among adolescents aged 13-18 years (2.4 percentage points). All three policies would reduce obesity more among blacks and Hispanics than whites, with the SSB excise tax reducing obesity disparities the most. CONCLUSIONS: All three policies would reduce childhood obesity prevalence by 2032. However, a national $0.01/ounce SSB excise tax is the best option.