Show Details
Host: Jayne Gackenbach Ph.D.
Video games. Sometimes demonized, always compelling – and wildly popular, video games have become ingrained as part of our society. Yet it is still largely unknown how these games affect the minds of those who play. Find out the truth, the questions, the research – and what we don’t know about this highly controversial part of our society and what they may mean for both the future and for our dreams.
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Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? – Racial representation and gaming
My interviewee this time is André Brock from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa. His recent article in Games and Culture called ‘‘When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong: Resident Evil 5, Racial Representation, and Gamers” was the topic of our conversation. Brock writes that, “videogames’ ability to depict cultural iconographies and characters have occasionally … Read more about this episode...
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Biography
Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? with Jayne Gackenbach Ph.D
Jayne Gackenbach received her Ph.D. in psychology in the U.S. at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1978. She is currently a professor at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
For the first 20 years of her career she focused on research into dreams, and especially lucid dreams, with several books and many articles and book chapters. Her books include:
• Conscious mind, sleeping brain: Perspectives on lucid dreaming (1988)
• Control your dreams (1989; ebook release 2012)
She is one of the past presidents of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. The highlight of her professional dream career was when she presented her research into lucid dreaming to the Tibetan Dalai Lama at a meeting on Sleep, Dreaming and Dying in India in 1992. The proceedings appeared in Sleeping, Dreaming and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama.
In 2010 she was prominently featured in a documentary on dreams which accompanies the blueray DVD release of the movie Inception.
It seemed an odd shift to begin work on new media including the internet and video games in the last third of her career. But when she bought her son a Nintendo in the mid-1990’s she became aware of its pull. Thus began over a decade of research, publication and media interviews on video game play.
She has several books on these topics including:
• Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implication (2nd edition, 2007)
• cyber.rules (2007)
• Play Reality: How Video Games are Changing Everything (2012)
• Video Game Play and Consciousness (2012)
She has focused upon the impact of gaming on various states of consciousness including dreams, flow, and absorption. She has 18 refereed journal publications and five book chapters on video game play as well as 40 papers presented at professional conferences. Jayne also co-teaches a course at Grant MacEwan University on video games covering the psychological side.
Since 2010 her work on video game play was featured in over 100 media outlets and has included magazines, newspapers, and news agencies such as The Wall Street Journal, New Scientist Magazine, Bottom Line Women’s Health, LiveScience, XBox Magazine, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun as well as both Edmonton papers. Online news agencies such as MSNBC, Yahoo news and Canwest covered this research. There was also international coverage with interviews from journalists in England, Australia, Brazil and the Netherlands. Radio and television coverage of my work in the last 6 months included, BBC London, CBC Edmonton and Calgary, and Global TV.
Previous Episodes
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- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Racial representation and gaming April 15, 2013
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Violence and Video Game Play Revisited March 11, 2013
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Family Life and Video Game Play February 11, 2013
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Problem Video Game Play and Genre January 13, 2013
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Video Games Let You Be All You Can Be December 17, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - What is a gamer identity or gamer culture? November 19, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Video game technology supporting the elderly October 15, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Women in Gaming September 16, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Culture-jamming activists in video games August 12, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - A senior artists view of computers July 16, 2012
- Video Games: Brain Gain or Drain? - Transitioning between real and virtual June 18, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Consciousness and the Avatar May 28, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Visual Arts and Gaming April 16, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Music and Video Games April 2, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Self-discovery with Mindbloom March 19, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Casual Games for Improved Thinking in the Elderly March 5, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Hello Avatar Author Interviewed February 13, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Games for Health Journal Founded January 30, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Attention, Memory and Information Processing Advantages to Gaming January 16, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Military and Gaming January 2, 2012
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Horror in Film and Video Games December 19, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Personality and Video Game Violence December 5, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Past and Future of Gaming November 21, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Narrative and Gaming: Influences of Mixed Media November 7, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Teaching Experts: From Gamers to Lifelong Learners October 17, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Constructive and Cooperative Gaming October 3, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – The Casual Game Revolution September 19, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Middle Aged Female Gamers! September 5, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Game Transfer Phenomena August 15, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Translations to Reality: Interview with a Psychologist who is a Serious Gamer August 1, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Children, Media and Video Games – A First Look July 18, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Exergaming July 4, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Gamification. Community Involvement Made Fun by Applying Video Game Play Mechanics June 20, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Simulation or Game: PTSD Training Game June 6, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Games for Health: Avatars May 23, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Video Game Play and Meditation, Spirituality and Dreams? May 9, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Addiction vs. Play May 2, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Video Game Play and Relaxation? April 11, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? – Biting the Bullet: Does Playing Violent Games Cause Aggression? It Depends March 28, 2011
- VideoGames: Brain Gain or Drain? - FYI March 14, 2011
