{"id":29022,"date":"2011-12-06T14:29:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T12:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=29022"},"modified":"2014-04-01T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T14:08:05","slug":"scientists-recognize-amazing-cognitive-process-behind-playing-starcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/29022-scientists-recognize-amazing-cognitive-process-behind-playing-starcraft","title":{"rendered":"Scientists recognize amazing cognitive process behind playing StarCraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s about time StarCraft II got some credit from scientists for being totally awesome and pushing the limits of human brain functions.<\/p>\n

Anyone who plays the game online will know just how mentally demanding it is, requiring intense levels of focus, planning and multitasking. And now scientists have recognized the importance of the game in terms of understanding the human mind, and even training people to more effectively multitask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a cognitive process that\u2019s not involved in StarCraft,\u201d said Mark Blair, a cognitive scientist at Simon Fraser University. \u201cIt\u2019s working memory. It\u2019s decision making. It involves very precise motor skills. Everything is important and everything needs to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists who have observed professional StarCraft II players have been blown away with the levels of multitasking on display. The manner in which players are able to perform as many as 6 actions per second, and divide their attention between economy management, combat management and other key gameplay elements is not mimicked in many real world activities, so naturally scientists are eager to learn more about how the game manages to bring these almost super-human qualities out of players.<\/p>\n

The idea is to understand the learning process which goes into training StarCraft II players to exercise such incredible multitasking, and use the core principles to teach broader multi-tasking skills to people.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent experiments on computer games are beginning to suggest that players develop skills that could be useful in other contexts – skills that might allow those individuals to cope better with certain types of information overload,\u201d reads an article published in The Scientific American.<\/p>\n

\"StarCraft<\/a>

StarCraft II<\/p><\/div>\n

As a result, Blair has created SkillCraft, which is a project dedicated to understanding the cognitive processes which underlie competitive StarCraft II gameplay. The project is being called the world\u2019s biggest experiment on how expertise develops and, ultimately, on how we learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cTranslating those goals into cognitive load, the brain\u2019s executive functions manage most of the game\u2019s demands. Several types of memory may be engaged to keep track of the weapons at one\u2019s disposal and the locations of multiple objects on a map; attentional systems allow a player to plan future moves, switch focus to different activities around the map, and evaluate the enemy\u2019s strategy. Motor skills are needed to rapidly click around the map to move and implement actions. In short, the game is a relentless exercise in multitasking and constant decision-making,\u201d reads an\u00a0 excerpt from the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the perspective of the cognitive motor system, StarCraft is the most interesting thing you could do online,\u201d Blair says. Of course, we\u2019ve been saying that for years.<\/p>\n

Find out more about Skillcraft here. <\/a><\/p>\n

Sources: The Scientific American<\/a>, SkillCraft<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unprecedented cognitive motor functioning and multitasking skills demonstrated in competitive StarCraft II play<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":29023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[1359,21,103,1447,1289],"class_list":["post-29022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-pc","tag-activision-blizzard","tag-headline","tag-research","tag-science","tag-starcraft-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}