Sample Annotated Bibliography
Note to reader: This draft is re-printed here with the author's permission. These student drafts are provided for a couple of reasons: first, to give you a taste of the variety of topics and approaches students have taken, and second, to provide instructors with readings that might be used in class discussions and activities. These samples are not perfect and represent final grades from across the grade scale (A through F), so please be forgiving, understanding, and respectful if you find errors or problems.
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Tyler Thygerson
Prof. Mike Peterson
Eng 2010-02
30 June 2016
Annotated Bibliography
Topic: Video games positively affect behaviors, characteristics, and morals within society throughout the world, due to the virtual worlds characteristics, morals and behaviors that they portray.
Liu, Shuyan, et al. "Music And Video Gaming During Breaks: Influence On Habitual Versus Goal-Directed Decision Making." Plos ONE 11.3 (2016): 1-12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 June 2016.
Shuyan, along with many other authors belonging to Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, and Social and Preventive Medicine, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, wrote this article to recent studies that they did together on the effects of music and gaming during breaks. They came to find out that video games actually can distract people from being able to better recollection of memory, if they already have a hard time doing so, while those who have no difficulty learning and remembering new things are not affected in any apparent way. It comes down to the individual themselves, and results can not represent a full society.
Quotes:
● “Playing video games can result in a wide range of behavioral benefits, including enhancement of task performance, spatial cognition, processing speed, task switching and level of reasoning in decision making.” (p. 2)
● “At the same time, video games have been associated with a variety of negative outcomes. For example, the sound of a video game could disturb the players’ concentration on learning and induce physiological stress while gaming” (p. 2)
● “Video gaming experience showed that subjects spent on average... 3.4 hours on gaming.” (p. 7)
● “There was no significant difference in the VAS ratings of the difficulty of two task versions, subjects’ ability to concentrate on the task after gaming and listening to music, and the extent to which they thought about the task during the breaks. Subjects reported that on average they enjoyed gaming 21% more than listening to music” (p. 7)
● “We investigated the hypothesis that a small working memory capacity would be associated with reduced model-based control after gaming… Consistent with this expectation, we found that an increase of the model-based weight (βGD) with Digit Span score was not significant overall, but was marginally reliable after gaming.” (p. 8)
● “We have found that gaming reduces reliance on the goal-directed decision system in low working memory individuals, suggesting that gaming may interfere with working memory resources needed for goal-directed planning.” (p. 9)
● “Gaming may thus have rather subtle interfering effects on executive functioning: during decision-making, individuals with high levels of executive resources appear to be able to compensate for these effects and maintain high levels of goal-directed control.” (p. 9)
Relevance: This information was very detailed, especially throughout all of their statistics and studies that they gathered. It was a year’s worth of work and study that can be very relevant. Yet it was done to a very small group of participants with only 33 Germans between ages of 19 to 32. So may not be relevant to everyone in the world. But the results are still recognized and will be discussed in the paper. The information is very timely, as it was published this year. Credible from two different Universities behind these studies.
Alshaiji, Ohoud Abdullatif. "Video Games Promote Saudi Children's English Vocabulary Retention." Education 136.2 (2015): 123-132. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 June 2016.
Alshaiji, professor who works at King Saud University-Riyadh Saudi Arabia, performed a study with students in Saudi Arabia, primarily in kindergarten-grade level, who undertake learning English. He explored the difference between classes as the study would involve one class teaching in standard method, with a teacher using text books and teaching orally. The study involved another class using videogames as a daily routine to help teach vocabulary to students, where they would interact with the graphics, sounds, and actions on the video games. The results surprisingly showed that applying video games to learning a new language gave a greater advantage and better retention to those students learning English.
Quotes:
● “The necessity to learn a foreign language has been on the rise due to globalizing world… Using Video Games in foreign language education is one of the most utilized methods and have been developed by foreign language teachers.” (p. 124)
● “Stud[ies] found that Video Games use enhances children’s fine motor skills, alphabet recognition, concept learning, numerical recognition, counting skills and pre-language knowledge, cognitive development, and self-esteem or self- concept.” (p. 124)
● “While game-playing is regarded somewhat negative in educational settings, particularly for young children, its influence in a teaching and learning context is crucial.” (p. 124)
● “...when games and education are combined, it can be educative and education environments can be entertaining. The learners who learned with the use of games, gain positive attitudes and can be more motivated while learning.” (p. 125)
● “Good Video Games can teach kids how to learn things on their own quickly and then use these skills to achieve, make constant and rapid decisions that affect things they do.” (p. 126)
● “Video Games improve handeye coordination, develop creative problem solving skills, exercise control in challenging circumstances, be persistent, pay attention to detail and think strategically and laterally as well as linearly and logically.” (p. 126)
● “It can be concluded from the results of this study that Video Games have positive effects on vocabulary learning process…” (p. 130)
Relevance: King Saud University-Riyadh Saudi Arabia is recognized throughout the world. This information is credible that the study was successful in proving that video games enhanced learning among children, at least with learning new languages. This information was published in 2015, last quarter of the year. It is very relevant to my paper, how video games affects behaviors and decisions in educational fields.
Hou, Huei-Tse. "Analyzing The Behavioral Differences Between Students Of Different Genders, Prior Knowledge And Learning Performance With An Educational MMORPG: A Longitudinal Case Study In An Elementary School." British Journal Of Educational Technology 44.3 (2013): E85-E89. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 June 2016.
Hou, Associate Professor of Science and Technology, publishes this article which presents a longitudinal case study examining behavior differences between male and female students, prior knowledge, and learning performance with an educational multiplayer online role playing (MMORPG) computer game. It mentions the study examined the behavioral patterns and interactive behaviors of learners and examined behavior differences. It comments the MMORPG combined problem solving, scenarios, and practice tasks and reports the MMORPG was able to facilitate student learning.
Quote:
● “...an MMORPG that combines scenarios, problem-solving tasks and practice tasks can indeed facilitate students’ learning to a certain degree (approximately 70%) instead of just providing entertainment. The behavioral pattern also indicates that students focus on learning-related behaviors. We also discovered that males and high-prior-knowledge students are more likely to engage in battles, and high-prior-knowledge students also demonstrate more social interactions.” (p. E89)
Relevance: I feel the information is good and solid, yet I’m not entirely understanding all of the figures and numbers that were presented throughout the paper, especially as some graphs and tables are in Mandarin Chinese. It is timely, having been conducted in 2013. Mostly, the article helps point out that even MMORPG games help people to new learning-related behaviors which reflect in real life situations.
Krcmar, Marina, and Drew P. Cingel. "Moral Foundations Theory And Moral Reasoning In Video Game Play: Using Real-Life Morality In A Game Context." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 60.1 (2016): 87-103. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 June 2016.
Marina Krcmar, Communications professor of Wake Forest University, and Drew Cingel, also from Wake Forest, published a recent study of moral processes and decision making throughout playing video games. Using a think-aloud protocol, participants’ decisions and reasoning were recorded during game play and coded as either strategic or moral. Players’ reasoning was also coded using Moral Foundations Theory. Results indicated an almost equal percentage of strategic and moral reasoning; the salience of several individual moral foundations predicted moral reasoning during play. Video game experience was positively related to the use of moral reasoning, which can be explained by relating reasoning to rational and experiential processing during game play.
Quotes:
● “...studies demonstrate that players do use morality in games, despite the fictional nature of video games” (p. 89)
● “It appears that video game play itself may influence moral reasoning, especially moral reasoning regarding violence.” (p. 93)
● “Of the decisions made, nearly half used reasoning from the foundation of harm/ care, and over one quarter came from the authority/respect foundation, similar to the findings of Weaver and Lewis (2012). The present study, however, indicated that both the fairness/reciprocity and in-group/loyalty foundations were referenced rather frequently as well. Thus, the virtual world of game play encouraged many of the same reasoning processes that individuals are likely to go through in the real world.” (p. 99)
Relevance: This article was made from an actual study, and there are evidence and figures of the study within the report itself. Very credible, especially since this information came from Scholar Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. It is timely with the information being published within the last 6 months. Very relevant to show that video games do in fact encourage same reasoning processes as those in the real world.
Paeth, Scott R. "Virtual Good And Evil." Christian Century 129.6 (2012): 22-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 June 2016.
Scott Paeth, Associate Professor of Religious Studies works at DePaul University, also a self-identified Christian ethicist, writes this article (in 2012) which presents an examination into the intersection between video games and Christian ethics. He points out that video games of the 21st century feature complex interactive storytelling experiences which have significant ethical components engaging the consequences of good and evil actions. Further discussion is offered reflecting on the influence of the ethical decision making process used in video games on real life behaviors and attitudes.
Quotes:
● “The games require players to draw not only on their hand-eye coordination skills and puzzle-solving prowess but also on their moral imagination as they navigate complex relationships and their consequences.” (p. 22)
● “Character's choices do not boil down to an easy distinction between good and evil. In any cases, the character is forced to make hard decisions about who will live and who will die.” (p. 23)
● “The player's decisions affect not only the plot of the game but also the character's relationships with his companions… thus the player has to make choices based not only on what outcomes are best for the plot or for one's personal power, but also on what kinds of relationships one wants with team members. ” (p. 23)
● “the more deeply a player is encouraged by the game to make the character one's own rather than just being a spectator to the character's story, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish one's decisions as the player from the decisions of the virtual character.” (p. 24)
● “While concerns have been raised about first-person shooter games such as Doom and Medal of Honor, for most players these games seldom rise above the level of a harmless romp, because so little of the player's self is involved in the game. But open world games such as Mass Effect rely heavily on the deep investment made by the player in his or her character and the character's actions and relationships, so it may be possible to draw moral lessons from the game playing experience. If players are given the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and consider the implications of the narrative in which they are involved, they may come to distinguish between morally better and worse outcomes.” (p. 24)
● “If virtue is indeed a reflection of that which we repeatedly do, then the cultivation of "virtual virtue" may have a positive effect on my real-world behavior.” (p. 24)
Relevance: This article brings great first-person experience into context of what this professor has observed as he himself has played video games, along with having a knowledge of video games prior to this article. It is timely, written within the past five years. I only feel that it might be a little biased, due to the author’s Christian background, and his constant statement of being Christian throughout the entire paper. For the most part I find it credible for the personal experience.