Video Gaming and Its Association with Classroom Attention,

Problem Solving and pro-Social Behaviour in Adolescents During

Pandemic

Mahendra Vishwakarma, Tanuja Khan, Ghousiya Parveen and Anitta Jomy

The Bhopal School of Social Sciences, India

Keywords: Video Gaming, Classroom Attention, Problem Solving and pro-Social Behaviour.

Abstract: Examining whether any association exists between video games and cognitive abilities in children could

inform ongoing prevention and management of any possible harm. The objective of this study was to

investigate the associations between video games, and classroom attention, Problem Solving and Pro-social

Behaviour of adolescents. Present study, conducted on ninety enrolled middle school children aged between

12 and 15 years. Four schools were chosen randomly for this study. The results showed that video gaming

was significantly positively associated with classroom attention, problem solving and pro-social behaviour of

adolescent during Pandemic. The results suggest a correlation between video games and classroom attention,

problem solving and pro-social behaviour in of adolescent during Pandemic is positive especially during

pandemic. Those findings indicate the need for more extensive research, and serve to highlight vital next steps

needed in future papers, such as identifying predicting factors that could aid in early detection of video gaming

in children.

1 INTRODUCTION

The popularization of the internet and the invention

of smart phones have a important impact on the use

of various types of electronic devices for video games

(Farchakh et al., 2020). The frequency of video

gamers among the adolescents seems to be even

higher, as reported by several studies, indicating that

around 80% of adolescents use smart phones for

video games, with the average time spent on video

gaming estimated to be between 11.3 and 13.2 h a

week (Bajovic et al., 2013).

These data could have further increased because

of lockdown imposed by the coronavirus (COVID-

19) pandemic, officially declared as such on 11

March 2020 by the World Health Organization

(WHO). In fact, as COVID-19 is transmitted between

humans in closeness, preventive measures, such as

mask wearing, social distancing and quarantines,

have been employed to prevent the spread of the

disease. These “stay-at-home” measures provoked a

spread of indoor activities, especially electronic video

game playing, which is typically a solitary home

pastime.

2 CHANGING PERCEPTION OF

VIDEO GAMES

Over the years video gaming has a lot of bad

press. Earlier it was considered as only a tool that

develops aggression among children. As many other

researchers inclined to learn more about the effects of

video gaming, the perception of it only having

negative effects has changed as they could found the

positive effects also (Przybylski et al., 2010). Now

perceiving video gaming only as negative is less

common. With the advent of more usage of

Smartphones and Tablets, the number of users

playing video games also increased on a regular basis.

It has been proven that more than 50% of the gamers

are now females. As many studies proven that video

gaming improved the cognitive functioning (problem

solving, reasoning and decision making), visuo-

spatial skills, eye hand coordination, pro-social

behaviour etc., the society now appreciates video

games. Off late the trend has been changed and the

society perceive video gaming as an effective teacher

that affect players in multiple domains (Čábelková et

al., 2020).

The rising popularity of video games has

instigated a debate among parents, researchers, video

Vishwakarma, M., Khan, T., Parveen, G. and Jomy, A.

Video Gaming and its Association with Classroom Attention, Problem Solving and Pro-Social Behaviour in Adolescents During Pandemic.

DOI: 10.5220/0012488900003792

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 391-396

ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3

391

game designers, and policymakers concerning about

the potential harmful or helpful effects of video

games on children. Views expressed in best debate

have often been extreme, either idealizing or vilifying

video games delighting (Zayeni et al., 2020).

2.1 Dimensions of the Effects of Video

Games

The first dimension is the amount of game play that

could have an impact on the low academic

performance and can develop obesity (Kracht et al.,

2020). The second dimension is based on the content

of the video game that is played which is related to

pro-socially behaviour in order to increase helping

and empathy among the players (Przybylski et al.,

2010). The third dimension is the context of the video

game being played can create a collaborative

learning. The fourth dimension is on the effects of

games structure that can increase visual spatial skills

and improve attention. The fifth dimension speaks

about the mechanics of video gaming; it plays a dual

role having positive and negative effects

simultaneously taking place. The above explanation

will give a conceptual framework about the evolution

of videogame and the effects of it among the video

game players (Zayeni et al., 2020). Focussing on

these frameworks the researcher has explored various

correlates of videogame playing. There are many

long-lasting positive effects of videogames on the

basic mental processes. These mental processes or the

cognitive correlates include perception, attention,

memory, problem solving, pro-social behaviour and

decision making and many more.

2.1.1 Attention

Video gaming enhances the spatial distribution,

spatial selectivity, capacity, temporal resolution,

efficiency, top-down guidance of attention. In

addition to the greater spatial distribution of attention

they can even identify the central target shape

example diamond or square, this shape congruency is

an indicator of increase in one's attention capacity.

2.1.2 Problem Solving

Videogames are series of puzzles and tools to

facilitate decision making capacity. It creates an

environment in which the players should take

decisions quickly and to adapt to the changing

circumstances and rules. These circumstances

encourage cognitive flexibility, tolerance of

ambiguity, and comfort with decision making without

full information, excellent skills for dealing with real

world situation on a daily basis at work, school and at

home.Video games provide an excellent training to

develop leadership strategies and henceforth it teach

the types of environment that facilitates adaptive

decision making. Video game acts as a training

module to boost up the creative ways of children by

solving puzzles and related problems in short burst.

Each puzzle acts as a module which gives the brain

the real workout almost every second of the game.

Such training will help the players to decide very

quickly and to come up with a solution to the

problem. Video games are fundamental aspects of

learning that provides a real goal driven experiences

to the players.

2.1.3 Pro-Social Behaviour

The violent video game literature on pro-social

behaviour is limited and somewhat contradictory.

Seminal work by Chambers was among the first to

demonstrate that violent video games can reduce pro-

social behaviour by showing that children who played

a violent video game donated less to charity than

those who played a pro-social game. Subsequent

experiments found that participants who played a

violent game, compared to a non-violent game, were

less likely to reward a confederate (Shliakhovchuk &

García, 2020), and less likely to cooperate. However,

an experiment conducted by Rudolf and Kevin failed

to reveal an expected detrimental effect of violent

video games on pro-social behaviour (Rudolf et al.,

2020). In G Dale and A Joessel experiment, the

researcher asked participants to play either a violent,

non-violent, or pro-social video game, and then

surreptitiously spilled a handful of pens on the

ground, before observing whether the participants

helped gather the spilt pens. Participants who had

played the pro-social video game picked up more

pens than those who played a violent or non-violent

video game. Importantly, there was no difference in

frequency of helping between the violent and non-

violent games (Dale et al., 2020).

The present research was focussing on the study

of choices of video gaming on the dimensions or

correlates like classroom attention, problem solving

and prosocial behaviour while the children play video

games. Hardly, the study was being researched on the

same topic. Many will be curious to know the

difference while playing videogame pre and during

covid scenario. So this study was conducted to

compare the choices of children pre and during

COVID situation.

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2.1.4 Classroom Attention

A growing body of evidence suggests that

videogames may exacerbate attention problems and

can interfere in the classroom also (Alamri, 2016).

Several studies have found correlation between

attention problems in childhood and video game play

(Praveen Kumar & Vasimalairaja, 2020). High

excitement, sudden and rapid changes of focus during

video game play may weaken children's abilities to

concentrate and focus on less exciting tasksthat can

reduce their attention spans (Fogel et al., 2010). In a

longitudinal study by on video game use and attention

problems, video game play predicted children's

attention problems 13 months later, even while

controlling for other relevant variables(earlier

attention problems, television viewing, and gender).

The three-year longitudinal study of more than 3000

children found evidence of a bidirectional relation

between attention problems and video game playing

hence found a strong relation between the amount of

gaming and later attention problems than for the

content of gaming.

3 PROBLEM SOLVING

Video game playing is also an effective tool, with its

interactive and decision affecting nature it encourages

problem solving skills among the players (Praveen

Kumar & Vasimalairaja, 2020). When children sit to

play a video game the cognitive capacity is increased

and the brain remains intact and alert (Hamlen, 2018).

Due to the challenging nature of video games, the

chance of improvement of abilities to adapt to the

circumstances and quick-thinking skills is higher

(Suziedelyte, 2015). Most of the video games are

logically based that need thought-out moves and the

ability to decide to conquer the challenges (Buelow et

al., 2015).

The skill-challenge balance will help to regulate

the emotions in a productive way which will avoid

boredom and with less anxiety (Choi et al., 2020).

This can be termed as arousal. The flow path is with

the integration of clear goals and the player will be

focused and concentrate more on the task completion,

thinking rapidly reaches the arousal state and results

in problem solving (Pallavicini et al., 2021).

4 RATIONALE AND

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE

STUDY

Video games are a ubiquitous part of almost all

Children's and adolescence life. The vast majority of

research by educationists on the effects of gaming has

been on its negative impact on the potential harm

related to violence, addiction and depression

(Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010). Majority of the

people recognise the value of the research has a

negative consequence however the current research

focuses on the more balanced perspective and it is the

need of the hour that considers, not only the possible

negative effects but also the benefits of playing the

video game. In the present era, the need of studying

the potential benefits of the videogames is more

important as from all the age groups especially when

in the pandemic time children do not interaction with

their friends; from children to adults playing

videogames is an important part of their life because

the nature of the video game has changed

dramatically in the last decade which is becoming

increasingly complex, diverse, realistic, and social in

nature. In the present research the focus is mostly on

the positive benefits of video game while playing

during pandemic. Few researches has been taken

place to study the effects of video games both while

playing and watching, the researcher focussed to

know the choice of video games pre and during covid

scenario playing also and to how much the this study

can contribute to the society. By integrating insights

from developmental, positive, educational and social

psychology, as well as from media psychology

researches propose some candidate mechanism by

which playing video games may foster real world

psycho-social benefits during pandemic. The current

research is to provide strong enough evidence and a

theoretical rationale to inspire new programs of

research on the largely unexplored educational and

mental health benefits of the video gaming.

5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Objective1: To study the significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the classroom

Attention

Objective2: To study the significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the Problem

Solving

Video Gaming and its Association with Classroom Attention, Problem Solving and Pro-Social Behaviour in Adolescents During Pandemic

393

Objective3: To study the significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the Pro-social

Behavior-

6 HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

Hypothesis 1: There is a significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the classroom

Attention

Hypothesis 2: There is a significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the Problem

Solving

Hypothesis 3: There is a significant difference

between the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of

playing video games with regards to the Pro-social

Behavior

7 METHODS & MEASURES

The goal of the study was to compare the choices of

playing video games pre covid and during covid with

regards to the classroom attention, problem solving

and prosocial behaviour. The researcher has adopted

a survey design method to know the choices of the

children. The researcher used three questionnaires to

study the choices of videogames on the variables used

like classroom attention, problem solving and

prosocial behaviour both in the pre covid and during

covid scenario. The demographic detail of the

children who was the sample for the study also is

assessed. In the present study the population is

consisted of all the middle school children belonging

to the age group of 12-15 years. This was the

population, to which the researcher wanted to

generalize the results of the present study.

Participants are a subset of people selected from a

larger population for the purpose of analysis and

making inferences. The participants selected for the

present study were middle school children between

the age group of 12 to 15 years. The participants were

randomly selected by using lottery method and finally

the total numbers of participants selected were forty

five boys and forty five girls from different sections

of grade 5, 6 and 7. From the selected participants 50

percent of them were from grade five, 36 percent were

from grade six and 14 percent were from grade seven.

Most children were 12 years old (n =45), several 13

year olds (n =28), 14 year olds (n =15) and 15 year

olds (n =2). The researcher used both the apparatus

and materials for the experimental method.The

respondent used twenty-five personal smart mobiles

to show videogames of different content and different

levels of difficulty. Different videogames were used

to know the choice of playing on the classroom

attention, problem solving and prosocial behaviour.

The researcher employed three questionnaires for the

study which will be used. The questionnaires used

were adopted a Likert scale method. The

questionnaires used for the study were Classroom

Attention Scale, Problem solving Scale and Prosocial

Behaviour Scale.

SN Tool No. of Ite

1 Classroom Attention Scale 30

2 Problem solvin

Scale 31

3 Prosocial Behaviou

Scale 26

In addition to the above questionnaire a

demographic profile and response sheet was also

developed by the researcher to collect the personal

data of the samples chosen. For the purpose of

establishing reliability and validity of the prepared

tools a pilot study was conducted on a sample of 30

middle school students in Bhopal District and had

administered in English. Reliability scores for

Classroom Attention Scale, Problem solving Scale

and Prosocial Behaviour Scale are 0.792, 0.795 and

0.635 respectively. Validity is generally defined as

its capacity to measure what it purports to measure.

The questionnaires studied by five experts and the

contents were found to be relevant with regard to the

items. Moreover, the items after being studied by

experts were modified. Hence the questionnaires

were considered to be valid to assess the variable used

for the study.

8 RESULT & ANALYSIS

The purpose of this study is to find out the

comparisonbetween the Pre Covid and during Covid

Choice of videogames while playing on the classroom

attention, problem solving and prosocial behavior of

middle school students.

1. Analysis: Data shows a significant difference

in the mean scores between the Pre Covid-Scores and

during Covid Choice Scores of playing games with

regards to the classroom Attention. Results indicated

that the mean scores for the pre covid choices score is

36.70 and after covid it is 80.53 and SD are 3.436 and

6.962 respectively with the t-value 31.598 for the df

29 at .000 level of significance. Therefore, the null

hypothesis there is a significant difference between

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394

the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of playing

games with regards to the classroom Attention is

rejected.

2. Analysis: Data shows a significant difference

in the mean scores between the Pre Covid-Scores and

during Covid Choice Scores of playing games with

regards to the Problem Solving. Results indicated that

the mean scores for the pre covid choices score is

39.27and after covid it is 105.77and SD are 3.413 and

6.867 respectively with the t-value 53.003 for the df

29 at .000 level of significance. Therefore, the null

hypothesis There is a significant difference between

the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of playing

games with regards to the Problem Solving is

rejected.

3.Analysis: Data shows a significant difference in

the mean scores between the Pre Covid-Scores and

during Covid Choice Scores of playing games with

regards to the Prosocial Behavior. Results indicated

that the mean scores for the pre covid choices score is

36.87 and after covid it is 102.07 and SD are 4.681

and 6.125 respectively with the t-value 51.092 for the

df 29 at .000 level of significance. Therefore, the null

hypothesis There is a significant difference between

the Pre Covid and during Covid Choice of playing

games with regards to the

9 DISCUSSION

By using knowledge of how children learn in video

games, we have more information to help us

determine with which games children may be more

likely to engage in learning strategies that encourage

the development of classroom attention, problem

solving and prosocial behavior. Further, this

knowledge of how children learn in the video game

world may lead to developments in designing

educational video game products and serious games,

and possibly even to modifications of learning

environments in the classroom. This was also noted

the disparity between the learning environments of

video gamers, who are engaged in learning games,

with students in traditional school environments, who

are given little control over their own learning.

Finally, this study supports the view that children will

be attracted to learning environments with content

that interests and challenges them especially in

Pandemic. It reveals that fewer children are using

video games to avoid thinking and during covid

children increased their choices for playing video

games.

10 CONCLUSION AND

SUGGESTION

The research study found out that there is a significant

difference in the classroom attention, problem solving

and prosocial behaviour in the choice of playing

video games pre and during covid scenario among

school children.

• The future researchers may examine the

cause and effect of this in the grades also.

• The future studies may geographically

distribute the sample equally.

• The future researchers can consider another

demographic variable also

• The future researchers can use the

standardised questionnaire

• The future researchers can be conducted on

higher education students.

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