Tetris effect

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Screenshot of a tetromino game. People who play video puzzle games like this for a long time may see moving images like this at the edges of their visual fields, when they close their eyes, or when they are drifting off to sleep. Typical Tetris Game.svg
Screenshot of a tetromino game. People who play video puzzle games like this for a long time may see moving images like this at the edges of their visual fields, when they close their eyes, or when they are drifting off to sleep.

The Tetris effect occurs when someone dedicates vast amounts of time, effort and concentration on an activity which thereby alters their thoughts, dreams, and other experiences not directly linked to said activity. [1] The term originates from the popular video game Tetris .

Contents

People who have played Tetris for a prolonged amount of time can find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf or the buildings on a street. [2] They may see colored images of pieces falling into place on an invisible layout at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes. [2] They may see such colored, moving images when they are falling asleep, a form of hypnagogic imagery. [3] For some, this creative urge to visually fit shapes together by organising and building shapes can be extremely addictive. [1]

Those experiencing the effect may feel they are unable to prevent the thoughts, images or dreams from happening. [4]

A more comprehensive understanding of the lingering effects of playing video games has been investigated empirically as game transfer phenomena (GTP). [5]

Cerebral glucose metabolic rates

There is evidence demonstrating that human brains are prepared to make sense of visual information, given it has received the proper stimulation to get hooked up properly. [6] In first time users, Tetris significantly raises cerebral glucose metabolic rates (GMRs), meaning energy consumption rates soar. However, after continuously playing for four to eight weeks, these levels return to normal, despite performance improving significantly. [1] This suggests that the initial increase in GMR levels may be a reflection of the brain adapting to the novel demands and conditions of the game, thus causing alertness and arousal. Over time, this adaptation results in a cognitive processing that is more efficient and optimised. This heightened alertness and cognitive engagement, experienced both during and after play, has the potential to boost the brain's tendency to integrate Tetris-related patterns into everyday life.

Neuroplasticity and working memory

The occurrence of this phenomenon can be elucidated by the neuroplasticity exhibited in the human brain, particularly in the context of Baddeley's model of working memory, also known as visuospatial working memory (WM). When individuals play Tetris for prolonged periods of time, their brains become highly tuned to recognising and processing the distinctive shapes and patterns of the game. This in turn can lead to these patterns appearing in the mind's eyes when not actively playing.

When playing Tetris, the human brain engages in tasks requiring constant manipulation and organisation of visual stimuli. This process consumes cognitive resources within the WM as a significant portion of resources are allocated to tasks such as imagining how an object will rotate while maintaining a mental representation of the configuration of the board. [7] With repeated exposure to Tetris, the brain begins to adapt to the increased demand for WM resources such as attention from the central executive, facilitating their ability to selectively focus on pertinent information whilst disregarding irrelevant stimuli. This adaptation is a form of neuroplasticity, where the brain recognises its structure and function in response to this experience; making your brain more efficient at allocating WM resources. Studies have shown that when individuals perform a mental rotation task, there was activation in their frontal cortex, their premotor cortex and their middle frontal gyrus. This data is consistent with the hypothesis that mental rotation engages cortical areas involved in tracking moving objects and encoding spatial relations; all of which contribute to working memory processes. [8] In turn, this activity stimulates the neurons and synaptic connections involved in visuospatial processing, strengthening them over time. This has been furthered by studies using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to show how continuous Tetris game play leads to an increase in cortical thickness. [9] A study by Haier et al. found that after three-months of playing Tetris, participants showed relatively thicker cortexes in the Brodmann area 6 which plays a role in the planning of complex, coordinated movements; demonstrating how the brain undergoes plastic changes to accommodate the demands of the task. As the brain is more attuned to detecting and encoding patterns similar to those encountered during gameplay, there may be involuntary retrieval of Tetris-related images in everyday life.

Place in cognition

Stickgold et al. (2000) have proposed that Tetris effect imagery is a separate form of memory, likely related to procedural memory. [3] This is from their research in which they showed that people with anterograde amnesia, unable to form new declarative memories, reported dreaming of falling shapes after playing Tetris during the day, despite not being able to remember playing the game at all.

Challenging traditional views of memory and perception

The Tetris effect has shown to challenge traditional views of memory and perception by highlighting the dynamic and active nature of the cognitive processes involved. Traditionally, memory theories such as the Information processing theory conceptualised memory and perception as passive processes involving the storage and retrieval of information in a similar manner to a computer, without much emphasis on the active manipulation or construction of mental representations. However, studies have shown that the Tetris effect involves the active construction and manipulation of mental representations based on individual experiences. Stickgold et al found that participants who played Tetris for an extended period of time reported experiencing vivid mental images of falling Tetris blocks even when not playing the game. [10] As the brain actively generates and maintains representations of Tetris-related stimuli, the constructive memory model provides a framework for understanding how the Tetris effect arises by emphasising the idea that cognitive processes are not passive receptacles for sensory information but are active processes involving interpretation, reconstruction and adaptation based on individual experiences. [11] This thereby challenges traditional views of memory and perception.

Applications in trauma therapy and cravings

The Tetris effect has been explored as a potential tool for alleviating trauma-related symptoms, particularly in the context of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A study conducted by Iyadurai et al in 2010 [12] hypothesised that playing Tetris would disrupt consolidation of sensory elements of trauma memory following a motor vehicle accident. Results vindicated the efficacy of the Tetris-based intervention as there were fewer intrusive memories overall and the frequency of these memories decreased rapidly over time, despite reminding individuals of the traumatic events faced. These reminder cues followed by the interference task of playing Tetris competes for cognitive resources with the traumatic memory, disrupting the consolidation process of the traumatic memory traces, reducing their intensiveness and emotional impact. Therefore, including a reminder cue in the Tetris Effect Intervention didn't exacerbate distress but rather strategically guided the interference process towards the most salient aspects of the memory, enhancing the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, the applications of the Tetris Effect is not just limited to trauma therapy. A study by Skorka-Brown et al [13] demonstrated how visual cognitive interference such as playing Tetris can be used to reduce cravings for substances. Participants were required to play Tetris for three minutes a day, which reduced drugs and food cravings from 70% to 50%. The Tetris effect once again reduces these cravings by occupying mental processes supporting the imagery; making it harder to imagine consuming a substance or engaging in an activity simultaneously. However, further work is needed to improve controls as it is challenging to create an 'inactive control' resembling the active treatment in such psychological interventions. [12]

Game transfer phenomena

A series of empirical studies with over 6,000 gamers has been conducted since 2010 into "game transfer phenomena" (GTP), a broadening of the Tetris effect concept coined by Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari in her thesis. [14] GTP is not limited to altered visual perceptions or mental processes but also includes auditory, tactile and kinaesthetic sensory perceptions, sensations of unreality, and automatic behaviours with video game content. GTP establishes the differences between endogenous (e.g., seeing images with closed eyes, hearing music in the head) and exogenous phenomena (e.g., seeing power bars above people's head, hearing sounds coming from objects associated with a video game) and between involuntary (e.g., saying something involuntarily with video game content) and voluntary behaviours (e.g., using slang from the video game for amusement). Awareness of GTP among healthcare professionals is currently lacking, resulting in documented cases of misdiagnosed psychosis and unnecessary use of anti-psychotics in patients who were experiencing GTP. Individuals with pre-existing hallucinatory tendencies are more likely to experience the effects of GTP, although individuals who do not display these tendencies may still experience GTP, likely at a lower degree. [15] Recent research has begun to explore other clinical applications of GTP, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Today, over 20 studies have been published. [16] [17] [18] [19]

History

The earliest known reference to the term appears in Jeffrey Goldsmith's article, "This is Your Brain on Tetris", published in Wired in May 1994:

No home was sweet without a Game Boy in 1990. That year, I stayed "for a week" with a friend in Tokyo, and Tetris enslaved my brain. At night, geometric shapes fell in the darkness as I lay on loaned tatami floor space. Days, I sat on a lavender suede sofa and played Tetris furiously. During rare jaunts from the house, I visually fit cars and trees and people together. [...]

The Tetris effect is a biochemical, reductionistic metaphor, if you will, for curiosity, invention, the creative urge. To fit shapes together is to organize, to build, to make deals, to fix, to understand, to fold sheets. All of our mental activities are analogous, each as potentially addictive as the next. [20]

The term was rediscovered by Earling (1996), [2] citing a use of the term by Garth Kidd in February 1996. [21] Kidd described "after-images of the game for up to days afterwards" and "a tendency to identify everything in the world as being made of four squares and attempt to determine 'where it fits in'". Kidd attributed the origin of the term to computer-game players from Adelaide, Australia. The earliest description of the general phenomenon appears in Neil Gaiman's science fiction poem "Virus" [22] (1987) in Digital Dreams.

In 2018, the term was announced as the name of a new Tetris game on the PlayStation 4 by Enhance. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entorhinal cortex</span> Area of the temporal lobe of the brain

The entorhinal cortex (EC) is an area of the brain's allocortex, located in the medial temporal lobe, whose functions include being a widespread network hub for memory, navigation, and the perception of time. The EC is the main interface between the hippocampus and neocortex. The EC-hippocampus system plays an important role in declarative (autobiographical/episodic/semantic) memories and in particular spatial memories including memory formation, memory consolidation, and memory optimization in sleep. The EC is also responsible for the pre-processing (familiarity) of the input signals in the reflex nictitating membrane response of classical trace conditioning; the association of impulses from the eye and the ear occurs in the entorhinal cortex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Stickgold</span> American sleep researcher

Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A sleep researcher, his work focuses on the relationship between sleep and learning. Stickgold's articles in the popular press are intended to illustrate the dangers of sleep deprivation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallucination</span> Perception that only seems real

A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness; pseudohallucination, which does not mimic real perception, and is accurately perceived as unreal; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; and mental imagery, which does not mimic real perception, and is under voluntary control. Hallucinations also differ from "delusional perceptions", in which a correctly sensed and interpreted stimulus is given some additional significance.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual memory</span> Ability to process visual and spatial information

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brain training</span> Activities that improve cognition facilities

Brain training is a program of regular activities purported to maintain or improve one's cognitive abilities. The phrase “cognitive ability” usually refers to components of fluid intelligence such as executive function and working memory. Cognitive training reflects a hypothesis that cognitive abilities can be maintained or improved by exercising the brain, analogous to the way physical fitness is improved by exercising the body. Cognitive training activities can take place in numerous modalities such as cardiovascular fitness training, playing online games or completing cognitive tasks in alignment with a training regimen, playing video games that require visuospatial reasoning, and engaging in novel activities such as dance, art, and music.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep and memory</span> Relationship between sleep and memory

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory improvement</span> Act of improving ones memory

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily A. Holmes</span> Clinical psychologist and neuroscientist

Emily A. Holmes is a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist known for her research on mental imagery in relation to psychological treatments for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, and depression. Holmes is Professor at the department of Women's and Children's Health at Uppsala University. She also holds an appointment as Honorary Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Goldsmith, Jeffrey. "This Is Your Brain on Tetris". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  2. 1 2 3 Earling, Annette (March 21, 1996). "Do Computer Games Fry Your Brain?". Philadelphia City Paper . Archived from the original on January 22, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Stickgold, Robert; Malia, April; Maguire, Denise; Roddenberry, David; O'Connor, Margaret (13 October 2000). "Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normals and Amnesics". Science. 290 (5490): 350–353. Bibcode:2000Sci...290..350S. doi:10.1126/science.290.5490.350. PMID   11030656.
  4. ↑ Stickgold, R., interviewed 30 October 2000 by Norman Swan for The Health Report on Australia's Radio National (transcript). Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  5. ↑ Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B.; Gackenbach, Jayne (22 April 2021). "Game Transfer Phenomena and Problematic Interactive Media Use: Dispositional and Media Habit Factors". Frontiers in Psychology. 12: 585547. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.585547 . PMC   8100040 . PMID   33967879.
  6. ↑ "Kortext". read.kortext.com. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  7. ↑ Pilegard, Celeste; Mayer, Richard E. (2018-07-01). "Game over for Tetris as a platform for cognitive skill training". Contemporary Educational Psychology. 54: 29–41. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.04.003. ISSN   0361-476X.
  8. ↑ Cohen, M. S.; Kosslyn, S. M.; Breiter, H. C.; DiGirolamo, G. J.; Thompson, W. L.; Anderson, A. K.; Brookheimer, S. Y.; Rosen, B. R.; Belliveau, J. W. (February 1996). "Changes in cortical activity during mental rotation. A mapping study using functional MRI". Brain: A Journal of Neurology . 119 (Pt 1): 89–100. doi:10.1093/brain/119.1.89. ISSN   0006-8950. PMID   8624697 – via PubMed.
  9. ↑ "fMRI Identifies Effects of Tetris Practice on the Brain". Imaging Technology News. 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  10. ↑ Stickgold, Robert; Malia, April; Maguire, Denise; Roddenberry, David; O'Connor, Margaret (2000-10-13). "Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normals and Amnesics". Science. 290 (5490): 350–353. Bibcode:2000Sci...290..350S. doi:10.1126/science.290.5490.350. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   11030656.
  11. ↑ Schacter, Daniel L. (March 2012). "Constructive memory: past and future". Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. 14 (1): 7–18. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.1/dschacter. ISSN   1294-8322. PMC   3341652 . PMID   22577300.
  12. 1 2 Iyadurai, L; Blackwell, S E; Meiser-Stedman, R; Watson, P C; Bonsall, M B; Geddes, J R; Nobre, A C; Holmes, E A (2018). "Preventing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris computer game play in the emergency department: a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial". Molecular Psychiatry. 23 (3): 674–682. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.23. ISSN   1359-4184. PMC   5822451 . PMID   28348380.
  13. ↑ Skorka-Brown, Jessica; Andrade, Jackie; Whalley, Ben; May, Jon (December 2015). "Playing Tetris decreases drug and other cravings in real world settings". Addictive Behaviors . 51: 165–170. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.07.020. hdl: 10026.1/3458 . ISSN   0306-4603. PMID   26275843 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
  14. ↑ "Game Transfer Phenomena research website". Game Transfer Phenomena. 13 November 2010. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  15. ↑ Palmer-Cooper, Emma (March–May 2022). "Unusualexperiences and their association with metacognition: investigating ASMR and Tulpamanc". Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 27 (2–3). InformaUK Limited: 86–104. doi:10.1080/13546805.2021.1999798. PMID   34743647 . Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  16. ↑ Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica (March 12, 2018). "Embracing pseudo-hallucinatory phenomena induced by playing video games". Gamasutra. Retrieved January 15, 2019.[ self-published source? ]
  17. ↑ Ortiz De Gortari, Angelica B. (2019). "Game Transfer Phenomena: Origin, Development, and Contributions to the Video Game Research Field". In Attrill-Smith, Alison; Fullwood, Chris; Keep, Melanie; Kuss, Daria J. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology. pp. 531–556. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198812746.013.29. ISBN   978-0-19-881274-6.
  18. ↑ Ortiz de Gortari, Angelica B.; Griffiths, Mark D. (2 June 2016). "Prevalence and Characteristics of Game Transfer Phenomena: A Descriptive Survey Study" (PDF). International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 32 (6): 470–480. doi:10.1080/10447318.2016.1164430. S2CID   30873640.
  19. ↑ De Gortari, A. Ortiz; Basche, A. (April 2021). "Pain and gain of auditory intrusions with video game content: Game transfer phenomena in clinical cases". European Psychiatry. 64 (S1): S642. doi:10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.1705. PMC   9479913 . ProQuest   2560869230.
  20. ↑ Goldsmith, Jeffrey (May 1994). "This is Your Brain on Tetris". Wired Issue 2.05. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  21. ↑ Kidd, Garth (1996-02-20). "Possible future risk of virtual reality". The RISKS Digest: Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems. 17 (78). Retrieved 2015-07-23.
  22. ↑ Gaiman, Neil (1987). Virus. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012.[ self-published source? ][ non-primary source needed ]
  23. ↑ Fagan, Kaylee (2018-06-07). "This gorgeous new Tetris game is inspired by science to entrance you for hours". Business Insider. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
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