How did “could be” become “will not” ??

Badscienciness

Just yesterday a column appeared on the website of Australia’s only national newspaper rehashing her baseless claims. I’ve blogged about it here: http://www.goodbadandbogus.com/2009/09/news-ltd-causes-brain-damage/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/mayo/
the link should be live for probably the next few days for that podcast.

it was shocking to hear how simplistic, ignorant, and patronizing her reasoning was. this woman is a “director” of something? goes to show the cream doesn’t always rise to the top. her concern comes from the basis that other people are complete idiots i guess. the idea that a kid playing violent video games won’t realize that violence in real life will have consequences is laughable. never mind her claim that video games do not punish users for their actions. the WHOLE POINT of video games is that users are rewarded for understanding the game mechanic,and punished for failing, that is the idea behind any GAME. i just listened and was stunned as this woman spewed out sentence after sentence..each more ridiculous than the last. it was simply amazing. the label of “royal” and “baroness” really have zero meaning when standards are this low.

However, I’m struck my the dearth of voices which concede that there may be some truth behind what appears to have been expressed in a counterproductive manner and context.

I am a “non resident” parent of three children. The eldest is hoping to do maths at Cambridge starting a year and a half from now (and is aware he might not get in).

His younger sister will not do as well, not being as intensely enthused by any particular subject, but is more of an all rounder in terms of driving herself.

They have a younger brother in primary school. His school performance is at best mediocre. More that once, he’s been provided with extra tuition in maths (arthimetic, to use the distinction we have in Scotland) and English. When visiting me I’ve observed him to be perfectly capable of undertaking these lessons.

In day to day interactions, he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t remember, and doesn’t concentrate. A child’s capacity for absorbing new information is, in my own experience, and my vicarious experience of my children, unparalleled. His behaviour is in jarring contrast with that.

Anecdotally, then, I consider that, until proved incorrect, the fact that his “resident parent” (or “mother”) permitted him (in contrast with the experince of the elder two) unlimited television viewing at all times of day, and unlimited computer game playing, from an early age, is an adequate explanation for his characteristics.

I appears to me, from the nature of his interest in nothing other than exposure to TV, film of “sci-fi” variety, and computer games, that his deficiencies are mere bad “mental habits” induced or encouraged by that excessive exposure.

So I’d welcome some authoritative and un-ignorable “health warning” which someone who is burying their head in the sand and tinkering at the edges with tutors etc. could not ignore.

This, of course, purely personal self interest – otherwise I’d have the freedom to adopt the scientific purist approach advocated by the bulk of the contributors here, and wait a few decades for research to be conducted, published, accepted, and instantiated on policy (or for the consequences already to have manifested themselves).

This quote made me chuckle…no I’m not worried about these people, I’d be more worried if they were doing whatever it is they like doing out in the real domain?

She is very keen to abrogate responsibility for her appearance in the popular press, which might be a bit more plausible if she didn’t appear in it so frequently and say such gloriously evidence-free things as she does in this delightful interview with the Telegraph. The quote about the Twin Towers is especially terrifying.

“Earn yourself a Ph.D and/or M.D. and then I might start listening to you again. ”

Er…… Not being funny, but…… Hasn’t Ben had his medical degree for years now?

Are you referring to the fact that an M.D. (as conferred in (e.g.) North America) is a graduate program, and therefore superior to a medical degree from the UK, which is an undergraduate program?
(actually, MD and MBChB are considered equal due to the fact that 3 or 4 good UK A-levels are on academic parity with a US science Bachelors)

I don’t see why peer observation should only be valid if it is directed towards a lower member of the academic qualifications hierarchy.

“My Dad’s bigger than your Dad” is alive and well, it would appear.

No Ben, that’s her job. She has not charged herself with anything. Whilst you may disagree with her (as I myself do) she’s not “charged herself” with doing anything.

…what? you think she took the job having no clue what it entailed and had those responsibilities dropped in her lap to her shock and delight? or is it perhaps more likely that she saw the job description, thought ‘i can do that’ and applied?

Three words

World of Warcraft

well said. The learning curve for something like the Zelda games is perfectly pitched – problem solving, spatial awareness, exploration and then awareness of your environment, and not least, a growing sense of emotional awareness and empathy with the world around you.

Is GTA4 suitable for kids? Of course not, no more than Reservoir Dogs is suitable for kids. But just because a medium can carry an adult-only message does not mean that the medium is inherently unsuitable for children. It depends on the message.

Blame the parents stupid or irresponsiable enough to let their kids play age inappropriate games rather than the industry.

“I await her insights into how the modern media environment contributes to narcissistic personality disorder.”

This is one of those classic canards from someone who neither plays nor understands video games. Firstly, she contradicts herself. How is making a mistake and then keeping playing a sign of shorter attention spans? If anything its a sign that the yoof of today do have very deep attention spans for complex systems.

Secondly, when you get something wrong in a video game you have to think about why you got it wrong. This can involve (depending on the game) quite a high level of imaginative thought. The art of game design is making the player be creative in a logical fashion by giving them a system that is understandable through experimentation. Having something too oddball or cryptic is a recipe for frustration and will turn players off; the goal is to have a system that will give players a “eureka” moment. Too much information makes it too easy, too little is too frustrating. It’s like constructing a good logic puzzle but orders of magnitude harder.

This latches onto the last part, empathy. Video games are designed by human beings and I’m sure all gamers can think of times where we’ve spent hours trying to figure out what, exactly, the designer was thinking when it came to a particular part of a game. Depending on the genre, figuring out the game systems can involve all sorts of complicated cultural cues (this is why some of the best Japanese games never leave those shores, too much would be lost) and as a player you sometimes really have to get inside the head of the designer in order to succeed in the game.

I think the reality is that video games can focus attention, encourage imagination and widen the world-view and thought processes of the gamer. I do think, however, that it depends on the game in question.

That’s not a subtle dig at GTA btw, I think the GTA games are some of the best in that regard. It’s just unfortunate that they’re centred around gangs and violence but hey, that’s what sells. That’s why Hollywood uses those tricks too.

Of course choosing just two such members of the House of Lords is not exactly statistically significant, but I guess it is two out of a very small number. How many scientists are currently peers and do any of the others show such symptoms?

I wonder whether Lord Kelvin went off on flights of scientific fancy (I know he got a bad reputation for stating that the Earth couldn’t be old enough to support evolution, based on some simple thermodynamics, but I seem to recall hearing that he did introduce a caveat that this was unless some new form of energy was discovered – something that is almost never mentioned).

Nb. whatever the merit of these particular speculation, then I think there are some perfectly valid studies that ought to be performed. It certainly can’t be dismissed that the type of exposure we get to modern communications, media and other systems doesn’t have some tangible effects. For instance, is the modern perception that attention spans have dwindled true? If true, it is a physiological change to the brain, or simply a psychological difference (if you can even distinguish the two).