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Video Game Play and Dream Bizarreness
Jayne Gackenbach, Beena Kuruvilla, and Raelyne Dopko
Grant MacEwan University
In a series of studies, J. Gackenbach has been mapping the effects of heavy
video game play on consciousness, including dreaming. The reason that
gamers are being investigated is that they represent a group of people who are
engaging in the most immersive media experience widely available today.
With its audio and visual interactive nature as well as the long hours often
required to master a game, they are an opportune group to study media effects
upon consciousness. In this study, the focus was on dream bizarreness.
Dream bizarreness has been variously thought to be the differentiator be-
tween waking and dreaming thought, an indication of creativity, and most
recently, as a model for solving the binding problem in consciousness. Using
A. Revonsuo’s and C. Salmivalli’s scale for dream content analysis, it was
found that high-end gamers evidenced more bizarre dreams than did low-end
gamers in two of three types of bizarreness categories.
Keywords: dream bizarreness, video game, consciousness, media effects
The world that we live in today relies heavily on technology. According to
Sternberg and Preiss (2005), this technology has changed the nature of our activities
that were previously accomplished by pen and paper. In this age of electronic media
immersion, it is of increasing interest to investigate media affects, including those
on consciousness. The most immersive media experience is video game play with its
audio and visual interactive nature and the long hours often required to master a
game. Recent surveys indicate that 69% of American households play computer or
video games, on average, about seven hours a week (Entertainment Software
Association, 2007). In a series of studies, Gackenbach and colleagues (e.g., sum-
marized by Gackenbach, 2008, and Gackenbach, Kuruvilla, Dopko, & Le, in press)
have been mapping the effects of heavy video game play on dreaming. In this study,
dream bizarreness was the focus.
Despite the popularity of video games, there has been little research examining
the effects of video game play on different states of consciousness. Dreams, an
altered reality that our brains construct anew every night, are one state of con-
sciousness. While previously there has been scattered attempts to examine the
Jayne Gackenbach, Beena Kuruvilla, and Raelyne Dopko, Department of Psychology, Grant
MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
We thank Danielle Klassen for her help in editing this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jayne Gackenbach, Department of
Psychology, Grant MacEwan University, 6-323H, 10700-104 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2, Alberta,
Canada. E-mail: gackenbachj@macewan.ca
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Dreaming © 2009 American Psychological Association
2009, Vol. 19, No. 4, 218–231 1053-0797/09/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0018145
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