(SIOUX CITY, IA) Two Morningside College professors are joining forces to research a phenomenon defining our youngest generations: video games.
Psychology professor Susan Burns and Computer Science professor dean Stevens are collaborating to study human responses to video games, inside their new lab.
The Video Game Institute for Education and Research looks like your typical college apartment, complete with big screen TVs and multiple video game consoles.
"Video games are increasingly a more important part of our life," says VGIER Co-Founder Dean Stevens.
But when college kids play, researchers behind the scenes are watching and measuring their every move.
"Playing the game is not just about kind of an emotional connection, there's a physiological response to gaming as well," says VGIER Co-Founder Susan Burns.
That means your heart rate, respiration, and skin response spike during video game play.
"It's more than just about aggression. It's about how do these games affect you as a whole person, not just leading to a specific behavior," says Burns.
The professors already completed two major studies without the lab. Now they hope their research can evolve just like the gaming industry.
"It has such a huge affect on who we are as a people and so it's important to realize what's happening with video games and how they affect us," says Stevens.
"We feel it is our role, our purpose, to not just gather the knowledge and keep it to ourselves, but to educate the public as well," says Burns.
The pair wants to follow the future of video games, from online to addictions, and hopes their research can help educate consumers about the culture of gaming.
One of the professors' students is completing her senior thesis in the video game lab, studying how environmental factors can affect someone's gaming experience.
If you are a college student interested in participating in gaming research, you can email vgier@morningside.edu to sign up.
Reported by Erika Thomas. You can contact her at ethomas@kmeg.com.
