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Chapter 11. From Mediated Environments to the Development of Consciousness II
Abstract
This chapter presents the debate on media in the development of consciousness. Gibson's concepts of presence and perceptual flow are relevant both to media (especially virtual reality) and to consciousness. In media research and theory, the concept of presence has proven especially important because individuals report involvement, immersion, or absorption in media. Hunt distinguishes the role of immediate awareness in two fundamental forms of symbolic cognition—referential and presentational symbolism. It is understood that consciousness enters representational thought primarily as felt meanings in order to choose and direct the thought and not as its substance. In presentational symbolism, meaning emerges as a result of an experiential immersion in the expressive patterns of the symbolic medium. It appears as spontaneous, preemptory imagery and is fully developed in the expressive media of the arts. It is also noted that representational and presentational forms of symbolism are necessarily intertwined. For example, intonation, gesture, and emphasis are presentational aspects of referential language use.
... This experi mentation can lead to the shedding of inhibition and can potentially lead to damage to the self (Reid, 1998, andTurkle, 1995). In cyberspace, self-con cept involves the self of the mind rather than the body (Preston, 1998). Taking this idea to the extreme, some have even hypothesized that people will eventually download their conception of self into the computer and live in the cyberworld with out a physical body (Goertzel, 1998). ...
... Sensory immersion into the computer is central to this paradigm shift. Visual displays in cyberspace allow spatial navi gation with increasingly rich perceptual engagement (Preston 1998). Computer generated stimuli can allow immersion to the degree that the perceptions of the user are submerged into computer-generated stimuli (Biocca and Delaney, 1995). ...
... People tend to anthropomorphize com puters, developing attitudes, social orien tations, and preferences toward them (Palmer, 1995). Different social content in computer displays leads to different responses from users (Preston, 1998). Such differences provide fertile ground for psychological interpretation and potential insight into the person that can be used to exploit the user. ...
This article examines managerial roles in identifying and influencing computer-based activity that poses risks to an organization’s activities, facilities and personnel, and securing methods for addressing the behavioral sequelae associated with cyberthreat. The article argues that addressing external threats and technical aspects of internal threats is best left to information security professionals. Psychologist-managers, however, are in a unique position to address the risks posed by trusted insiders and former insiders affiliated with their organizations through assessment and intervention. Strategies to facilitate the assessment of such risk, as well as countermeasure strategies, are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
... and a broad array of positive outcomes. Supportively, lucid dreamers, compared with people who do not experience lucid dreaming, report fewer nightmares (Been & Garg, 2010), better spatial skills (Sternberg & Preiss, 2005), less motion sickness (Preston, 1998), greater resilience in the aftermath of a terrorist event (Soffer-Dudek, Wertheim, & Shahar, 2011), and greater subjective well-being (Wolpin, Marston, Randolph, & Clothier, 1992). Lucid dreamers also report a higher internal locus of control (Blagrove & Hartnell, 2000;Patrick & Durndell, 2004), which has been linked to both decreased depression (Benassi, Sweeney, & Dufour, 1988) and greater subjective well-being (Kulshrestha & Sen, 2006). ...
... Both video games and lucid and control dreaming can involve the creation, rehearsal, and/or execution of scripted actions toward challenges or threats (Gackenbach & Kuruvilla, 2008;Valli & Revonsuo, 2006). Additionally, video game play shares several key outcomes with lucid dreaming including improved spatial skills (Sternberg & Preiss, 2005) and better vestibular functioning (Preston, 1998). Video games also frequently require focused attention to play (Maynard, Subrahmanyam, & Greenfield, 2005), which has been found to connect meditation with increased lucid dreaming (Gackenbach & Bosveld, 1989). ...
Lucid and control dream states have been linked to a variety of positive psychological outcomes, but are uncommon and difficult to induce. Delineating connections between lucid and control dreaming and immersion in other virtual environments could aid in understanding the nature of those dream states and developing more effective induction training. Video game play takes place in immersive virtual environments and has been linked to more frequent lucid dreaming (Gackenbach, 2006, 2009). The current research sought to identify connections between specific genres of video game play and lucid and lucid/control dream experiences, as well as replicating established relationships between overall gameplay and engagement, incorporation of game content into dreams, and lucid and lucid/control dream experiences. Play of physically interactive games was positively correlated with lucid and lucid/control dream frequency; no other genre showed the same association. Overall game play was not associated with frequency of lucid and lucid/control dreams, but was positively correlated with incorporation of game content into dreams, which in turn was positively correlated with lucid and lucid/control dream frequency. These findings expand and clarify our understanding of the overlap between lucid and control dream states and a highly popular form of virtual environment, and may aid in the induction and therapeutic use of lucid and control dreaming.
... Among these are variables are some that have also been shown to be associated with video game play. These include spatial skills, such as field independence for lucid dreamers (Gackenbach, Heilman, Boyt & LaBerge, 1985) and visuo-spatial information processing for video game players and vestibular integrity for lucid dreamers (Gackenbach, Snyder, Rokes & Sachau, 1986) and less motion sickness, and thus vestibular integrity, for gamers (Preston, 1998). Finally, meditation, as a type of focused attention, has been shown to be associated with lucid dreaming (Gackenbach & Bosveld, 1989;Mason et al., 1995) and focused attention is a centerpiece of serious game play (Maynard, Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2005). ...
... These subjects also showed significant increases in absorption associated with video game play relative to subjects who did not report such consciousness alterations during video game play. Preston (1998) reviewed the research on absorption and VR immersion, which is most commonly experienced in video game play, concluding that those that score high on psychological absorption: evaluate information in a distinct way that links it to self. This strongly implies that, regarding vision, audition, touch and balance, information to more modalities increases absorption. ...
Cognitive skill improvement associated with video game play has been well documented showing a range of improved abilities from spatial skills to problem solving and general intelligence. The implications for consciousness and its development have not been as widely examined. Recent research into the emergence of consciousness in sleep as related to video game play has suggested one consciousness development outcome, lucid dreaming. Other related consciousness experiences have been examined with less clear results. In the present study previous results are replicated and extended with an examination of flow. Specificially high-end gamers, as defined by a several variables, evidenced more lucid dreaming, consciousness during sleep, as well as other sleep and waking consciousness development outcomes than low-end gamers. Flow loaded positively with these consciousness experiences on a factor analysis for high-end gamers but negatively for low-end gamers. The implications for the impact of gaming on various consciousness growth indicates is discussed.
... Current research suggests that it is important to examine the interaction between the medium and the audience to see if that is what produces different interpretations (Jensen, 1987; Preston, 1998). This study has allowed us to assess more clearly the relationship between the medium and the audience and thus to identify what influences or what factors impact the differential interpretation of the media occurs. ...
... They also found that high Absorbers have cognitive capabilities that allow them to efficiently identify attentional objects, which may suggest that high Absorbers seek out activities that provide them with the opportunity to immerse themselves. Absorption tends to be linked to positive experiences, in that, for high Absorbers, the positive elements in any experience or event will stand out (Preston, 1998). An illustration of how high and low Absorbers might respond differently to an ambiguous stimulus is found in Grodal's (1998) paper; he uses the analogy of foggy weather scenes in films as encouraging subjective interpretation of those scenes. ...
There is a great deal of evidence to support the examination of an interactive relationship between the medium and the viewer in the interpretation of mainstream media. The exact nature of this relationship, however, is not well understood. The current study was carried out to assess the variables that may help explain why certain people interpret media, such as music videos, differently than others. Jensen's concept of reception analysis describes the relationship between the medium and the audience, and thus remains a strong focus within this study. Differences in the interpretation of music videos were investigated as a function of Absorption, gender role, screen size, age and viewing experience. Multiple regression analyses uncovered independent predictions of sexuality and violence scores by absorption and experience, as well as an interaction between absorption and screen size in the sexuality rating of the music videos.
... 6 Flow 7,8 has been linked to cybergame addiction 3 as well as to ex- ploratory behavior, which leads to higher cyber use. 9 Pre- ston 10 hypothesized that virtual reality might offer those who have low-absorption proclivities access to more high- absorption experiences. High-VG individuals experience more flow during VG than do low-VG users. ...
... Gackenbach and Hunt (2014) have proposed this may be due to significant parallels between game play and meditation and ultimately lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming and video-game play are both grounded in similar spatial skills (Gackenbach et al., 1985;Greenfield, Brannon, & Lohr, 1996), require resilience to motion sensitivity (Gackenbach, 1982;Gackenbach, Snyder, Rokes, & Sachau, 1986;Preston, 2007) and focused attention (Gackenbach & Bosveld, 1989;Maynard, Subrahmanyam, & Greenfield, 2005). Gackenbach and Hunt (2014) classify individuals as ''hard-core" gamers if they play video games an average of several times a week, typically for periods of over two hours, if they have played video games since or prior to the third grade and have played a total of 50 or more video games over their lifetime. ...
We report a quality effects meta-analysis on studies from the period 1966–2016 measuring
either (a) lucid dreaming prevalence (one or more lucid dreams in a lifetime); (b) frequent
lucid dreaming (one or more lucid dreams in a month) or both. A quality effects
meta-analysis allows for the minimisation of the influence of study methodological quality
on overall model estimates. Following sensitivity analysis, a heterogeneous lucid dreaming
prevalence data set of 34 studies yielded a mean estimate of 55%, 95% C. I. [49%, 62%] for
which moderator analysis showed no systematic bias for suspected sources of variability.
A heterogeneous lucid dreaming frequency data set of 25 studies yielded a mean estimate
of 23%, 95% C. I. [20%, 25%], moderator analysis revealed no suspected sources of variability.
These findings are consistent with earlier estimates of lucid dreaming prevalence and
frequent lucid dreaming in the population but are based on more robust evidence.
... Gackenbach and Kuruvilla (2013) suggested that gaming may be associated with a metacognitive dimension to the lucid dream, for example focused problem solving. Other variables that can be associated with video game play and LD are visuospatial information processing (Sternberg & Preiss, 2005), a lack of susceptibility to motion sickness in lucid dreamers (Gackenbach, Snyder, Rokes, & Sachau, 1986) and gamers (Preston, 1998), improved spatial skills like spatial orientation and imagination (Gackenbach, & Bosveld, 1989), and spatial-analytic skills for lucid dreamers compared to nightmare and non-lucid dreamers (Spandafora, & Hunt, 1990). Especially field independence, the ability to use body references to place oneself in a visual field, has been repeatedly associated with the ability of LD (Gackenbach, Heilman, Boyt, & LaBerge, 1985;Galvin, 1990;Patrick, & Durndell, 2004;Stepansky et al., 1998;Wolpin, Marston, Randolph, & Clothies, 1992). ...
The present review gives an overview on common theories of dreaming with a specific emphasis on how
they are able to explain lucid dreaming. The theories are grouped either to such that describe structural or biological processes of dreams or to such that describe evolutionary and adaptive functions of dreams. This overview shows that none of the theories outlined is fully capable of explaining neither non-lucid dreaming nor lucid dreaming. With respect to the first group, the concept of “protoconsciousness” is the theory that at best explains lucid dreaming. With respect to theories with an evolutionary and adaptive function of dreams, those theories, that stress the problem solving or simulation functions of dreams are more suited to explain lucid dreaming. Further, aspects that induce or amplify lucidity and the neural mechanisms that may be involved in lucid dreaming are described.
... Gackenbach and Kuruvilla (2013) suggested that gaming may be associated with a metacognitive dimension to the lucid dream, for example focused problem solving. Other variables that can be associated with video game play and LD are visuospatial information processing (Sternberg & Preiss, 2005), a lack of susceptibility to motion sickness in lucid dreamers (Gackenbach, Snyder, Rokes, & Sachau, 1986) and gamers (Preston, 1998), improved spatial skills like spatial orientation and imagination (Gackenbach, & Bosveld, 1989), and spatial-analytic skills for lucid dreamers compared to nightmare and non-lucid dreamers (Spandafora, & Hunt, 1990). Especially field independence, the ability to use body references to place oneself in a visual field, has been repeatedly associated with the ability of LD (Gackenbach, Heilman, Boyt, & LaBerge, 1985;Galvin, 1990;Patrick, & Durndell, 2004;Stepansky et al., 1998;Wolpin, Marston, Randolph, & Clothies, 1992). ...
The present review gives an overview on common theories of dreaming with a specific emphasis on how they are able to explain lucid dreaming. The theories are grouped either to such that describe structural or biological processes of dreams or to such that describe evolutionary and adaptive functions of dreams. This overview shows that
none of the theories outlined is fully capable of explaining neither non-lucid dreaming nor lucid dreaming. With respect to
the first group, the concept of “protoconsciousness” is the theory that at best explains lucid dreaming. With respect to theories with an evolutionary and adaptive function of dreams, those theories, that stress the problem solving or simulation functions of dreams are more suited to explain lucid dreaming. Further, aspects that induce or amplify lucidity and the neural mechanisms that may be involved in lucid dreaming are described.
... The video game playing history of all potential research participants in any study where video gaming is manipulated as a pre-sleep stimulus should be taken into account. As Preston (1998Preston ( , 2007 presaged, wide exposure to virtual reality (VR) environments will allow individuals who are not able to become deeply absorbed constitutionally to have experiences of altered states of consciousness. ...
p>In response to the discussion between Hobson and Shredl the history of our program of research for coding dreams of video game players both after playing a game and without such consideration was reviewed. While many of our studies are about response style in dreams resulting from game play, we also have considered incorporation issues. Some of our previous results seemed to favour the continuity hypothesis others favoured the discontinuity perspective. Two approaches to coding gamers’ dreams were considered and critiqued. Some of these problems were then taken up in a compilation of data from three previous research studies where games were played the day before a dream and dream information was gathered. The 182 dreams were categorized into three groups, no game incorporation, partial game incorporation, and full game incorporation (i.e., the dream is the game). Individual difference and game content variables were unrelated to incorporation into subsequent dreams. However, this classification of dreams did result in various content differences.</p
... However, no mention of physical balance was part of these dreams but there were palpable sensations mentioned. Indeed the general lack of motion sickness reported by the present group of gamers while gaming would indicate more presence in gaming and thus a sense of spatial orientation requiring the vestibular sense might translate later into the altered, but constructed, reality of dreams [18] and thus their recognition (i.e. lucidity). ...
Two sets of content analyses were computed on 56 dreams of 27 hard core video game players gathered during semi-structured interviews in the winter term of 2006 at a Canadian college. The standard dream content analysis system from Hall and VandeCastle [19] was used to analyze these dreams as was another content analysis focused upon lucid/control dreaming. As expected gamers dreamt about gaming and indeed well over half of the dreams reported included easily recognized references to games. Since emotional regulation is thought to be a central feature of dreams, emotions of gaming which range from joy to anger and sadness were investigated in their social contexts in dreams with mixed results. Although gamers evidenced more self negativity in these dreams other indicates of positive emotional environments were present. If hard core gaming created distorted world views at a deep level of consciousness (i.e., in dreams) then this would be expected to appear in their dreams. However, despite the differences from norms, the overall picture is one of dreams reflecting game play while not dramatically distorting their emotional lives as depicted in dreams.
... ns. The lack of motion sickness during play is thought to indicate the felt sense of being there in a virtual world or presence (Preston, 1998). Both groups reported experiencing motion sickness from never to rarely while gaming. ...
Revonsuo proposes an evolutionary theory of dreaming in which dreams allow an individual to prepare for real world threats in the safety of the virtual setting of the dream world. Based upon previous work examining the dreams of video game players, it was hypothesized that high-end gamers would experience fewer threat simulation dreams because of frequent threat resolution rehearsal during game play. Subjects were asked to report a night before dream and fill out surveys regarding their gaming history, media use, and dream experiences. Using a factor analysis, support for the main hypothesis was found. Individuals with a history of game play experienced fewer threat severity variables in their dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... ns. The lack of motion sickness during play is thought to indicate the felt sense of being there in a virtual world or presence (Preston, 1998). Both groups reported experiencing motion sickness from never to rarely while gaming. ...
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 between 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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Online-learning is a feasible alternative to in-person attendance during COVID-19 pandemic. In this period, information technologies have allowed sharing experiences, but have also highlighted some limitations compared to traditional learning. Learning is strongly supported by some qualities of consciousness such as flow (intended as the optimal state of absorption and engagement activity) and sense of presence (feeling of exerting control, interacting with and getting immersed into real/virtual environments), behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, together with the need for social interaction. During online learning, feelings of disconnection, social isolation, distractions, boredom, and lack of control exert a detrimental effect on the ability to reach the state of flow, the feeling of presence, the feeling of social involvement. Since online environments could prevent the rising of these learning–supporting variables, this article aims at describing the role of flow, presence, engagement, and social interactions during online sessions and at characterizing multisensory stimulations as a driver to cope with these issues. We argue that the use of augmented, mixed, or virtual reality can support the above-mentioned domains, and thus counteract the detrimental effects of physical distance. Such support could be further increased by enhancing multisensory stimulation modalities within augmented and virtual environments.
Tracing the history of film music from The Birth of a Nation (1915) to The Dark Knight (2012), Wehrs shows how film music acts on both affects, defined by Carl Plantinga as “felt bodily states,” and emotions. Wehrs analyzes the way Max Steiner’sleitmotifs in Adventures of Don Juan (1948) cue audience response to the character, while Jerry Goldsmith’s more sophisticated score for First Knight (1995) links motifs to character and narrative development. Although current film music like Hans Zimmer’s for The Dark Knight has intense affective power, it cannot enhance character or plot development, Wehrs argues, because it is minimalist and tied to the sound design. Wehrs shows that Zimmer’s music contributes to emotionally flattened, dehumanized qualities of The Dark Knight.
Three pretest–posttest experiments were conducted to compare the effects of viewing versus interacting with
either fantastical or real events on 4- and 6-year-old children’s inhibitory control. Experiment 1 (N = 72) sug-
gested that although viewing fantastical events had a negative effect on inhibitory control, interacting with
them produced no such disruption. Experiment 2 (N = 17) also found that children’s inhibitory control
decreased after viewing fantastical events but not after interacting with them. In addition, functional near-
infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data showed that viewing fantastical events resulted in greater activation in the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Experiment 3 (N = 72) showed that children’s inhibitory control increased after
viewing and interacting with real events. The implications for studying the effects of mobile devices are
discussed.
This chapter contains a summary of the research in support of a hypothesis that video-gameplay grants some gamers protection from nightmares. Secondarily, the effects that video games have on our dreams are described and how that alters our emotional processing and regulation in waking life. Evidence is presented in support of these effects for male high-end gamers alone—not their female counterparts. The nightmare protection effect may be related to threat simulation theories, which suggest that humans have a basic need to virtually rehearse threatening situations as a survival adaptation. Violent video-gameplay may subvert this process and offload the need to rehearse threat in dreams by providing a suitable virtual environment within the media. Results from research on students and active-duty soldiers who are also gamers are explored, and they support the nightmare protection hypothesis.
In this chapter, we contrast a mode of engagement in video gaming and other related areas, wherein the player retains full critical capacity-being able to judge to what degree the portrayed world is authentic, and being able to reflect on the unfolding events-with a mode of engagement wherein the player becomes absorbed or immersed in the portrayed alternative reality. In the first mode of engagement, the player retains psychological or aesthetic distance from the displayed virtual reality; in the second mode of engagement, the player is 'transported' to this virtual reality, losing herself inside this world, hence becoming immersed in this alternative reality. The predominant type of game that is found encourages an instrumental set, as players employ both tactical and strategic skills in solving problems along the way. Conceivably, the fact that trait absorption has not been found to be related to degree of engagement in video gaming or presence in immersive virtual reality is more of an indication of the type of video games in use, and the need to adopt an instrumental set in playing these, than in the expected relationship outlined in this chapter between absorption and engagement. The distinction between aesthetic experience (immersion) and aesthetic distance is similar to one we have recently drawn between trance and transcendence: Both trance and immersion implicate a severe restriction in reflective awareness-one's experience is dreamlike or hallucinatory in the sense that one is participating in an ongoing narrative (or, videogame) without reflective awareness (or, aesthetic distance). We address the need to consider three measures for assessing degree of immersion or engagement in the video game/virtual reality. These are the direct assessment of degree of immersion using a verbal report, the indirect assessment of this using a measure of time perception (time production), and an electrophysiological correlate of this change in state-with a focus on power in the alpha, theta and gamma bands.
The Internet is a worldwide decentralized network of computers. It started as part of the US army network and progressed to become an academic information network, and then, as it is today, a global, open communication network that affects almost every aspect of people's lives (Bargh and McKenna, 2004; Ellerman, 2007; Haythornthwaite and Hagar, 2004). Initially, the number of Internet users was small; however, the number of users is continually expanding and is estimated at more than one billion people today. Another major change has come about through the ease with which the Internet may be accessed and the number of different ways this could be done. Early on, the Internet could only be accessed through a traditional, desktop computer. Today, however, people may enter cyberspace using a portable computer, cell phone, or a pocket PC, with the result that the Internet can accompany them wherever they are. In fact, the Internet has integrated so well into people's lives that, for many, it is very difficult to imagine life without it; they receive information, communicate with others, do their shopping, plan their next trip, take part in a virtual work team, and play games in a virtual community, to mention just a few common activities. The advent of the Internet was initially regarded by many scholars as a dubious development; for example, a longitudinal study conducted by Kraut and his colleagues linked Internet use with loss of social contact, depression, and loneliness (Kraut et al., 1998).
Much of the research on computer-mediated-communication (CMC) identifies various forms of disinhibition associated with the engagement with another through the medium of computerized communications technology. Yet disinhibition should not be taken to exclude the possibility of conceiving of a framework for an ethical engagement with the Other in CMC practice. Using the idea of the 'face' as it is developed in the work of Levinas, I believe it is possible to augment the idea of the seemingly boundless freedom opened out by new technologies with the notion of the responsible or ethical user. To do this, I will suggest that a phenomenology of the user interface is necessary as a first stage in enabling CMC studies to work through the conceptual distinction on which these studies apparently hinge, that is, a distinction between CMC and face-to-face (FTF) communication. At the core of this phenomenology, I will examine a conceptual apparatus constructed around the notion of a 'face-interface', understood as a dual facet of the engagement with an Other both of and through the figure of the computer, experienced as an extension of the body and the voice of both user and interlocutor .
In a follow-up from Gackenbach and Kuruvilla (2008a), data analysis was undertaken examining the metacognitive qualities of video game players dreams associated with lucidity. Kahan and LaBerge’s (1994) Metacognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience Questionnaire (MACE) responses were examined in a principle component factor analysis. Several factors loaded dream type and gaming variables along with items from the MACE. It was concluded that gaming may be associated with dream lucidity because of the enhanced problem-solving quality of gamer’s dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
Video and computer ("electronic") games have attained lasting status as a preferred leisure activity, and games with violence often achieve great popularity. There has been wide speculation that playing violent electronic games is harmful for children, but only minimal empirical work. A body of research is needed to provide a base for media education for consumers and for policy makers. This article presents findings from a program of research. The goal of the program is to systematically accumulate data to establish relationships between playing violent electronic games and aspects of children's personality and behavior. Significant negative relationships have been identified between a preference for violent games and various outcome measures including self-perceptions of academic performance and behavior. However, such relationships are not found in every study. We have proposed that some children may be more susceptible to being affected by game-playing. In future studies, these possible "high risk" players deserve special attention. Understanding how children experience playing a violent electronic game is another question that may be critical to understanding game impact.
Eight years have passed since publication of the first edition of this work. During that time, the Internet has become ever more prominent the world over, with 200% growth in usage outside the US, 100% growth in usage in the US, and with the highest penetration in America, at 68% of all households.
Psychology of the Internet, 2e explores the psychological considerations to using the Internet and the Internet's effects upon the user. New coverage explores how children use the Internet and how this exposure may be shaping their social development. Coverage also includes the effect of child exposure to pornography, predators online, and bullying online. Research on adult disinhibition over the Internet is discussed, particularly the tendency for people to more readily self-disclose in an online environment. Extensive coverage of socialization online includes coverage of online dating practices, blogs, and sex online. Internet addiction is covered with respect to definition, precursors, and co-morbidity. Sociological research is also explored as to how people meet and work together online, computer mediated communication, and virtual work teams. Additional chapters explore the burgeoning availability and effectiveness of telehealth/online therapy, the implications of an increasingly virtual society of Internet communities, the Internet as a global brain, and the possibility that virtual experience may be expanding real consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Lucid dreams, as well as control dreams, have recently been reported as associated with video game play (Gackenbach, 2006). In this study, dreams were collected from the morning after a night of rested sleep as well as electronic media use from the day before the dream. In a factor analysis, lucid and control dreams were associated with all electronic media use but most strongly with video game play. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study investigated the relationship among different kinds of immersive or involving activities: videogaming (VG), psychological absorption, and daydreaming styles. Involvement with VG was ascertained through a new measure, the Videogame Experience Questionnaire (VEQ). Participants (N = 74) also completed the Tellegen Absorption Scale and the Short Imaginal Processes Inventory. Factor analysis of the VEQ yielded four factors. Psychological absorption is not related to level of self-reported engagement in VG, but specific daydreaming styles are related to specific factors of the VEQ. Positive/constructive daydreaming is related to VG Engagement. Guilt/fear/failure daydreaming is related to Social/Emotional Interference from VG. Interference with performance of responsibilities attributed to VG is related to poor attentional control daydreaming. Implications of the findings are discussed.
This paper proposes a research strategy based on a social ecological analysis of the Internet and its psychological impact as an option to generate original research to answer the follow ing question: What is the psycho-environmental meaning of the Internet? This paper has two objectives: first, to analyze Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) linked to the use of the Internet from a social ecological approach, and second, to propose some relationships among variables from a social ecological perspective, which can help to clarify the variability and magnitude of the psychosocial effect associated with the Internet. This article is divided into three sections. The first briefly describes the origins and development of the Internet. It identifies some technological features and specifies some of the cutting-edge breakthroughs that have facilitated its expansion. The second section proposes a conceptual scheme from the social ecological perspective, which analyzes the subject-environmental binomial associated with the Internet. It identifies the basic assumption, the conceptual richness, and possibilities for research on the Internet, using a social ecological approach. Finally, the last section describes the scope and limitations of this perspective, and discusses its heuristic utility for the development and consolidation of a new area in psychological research: "digital psychology or cyber psychology."
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