Young Gamers Are Little Monkeys

"Mr Pink? Why do I have to be ****ing Mr Pink?"

Children who play video games have minds that are no more complex than those of chimpanzees. At least, that’s what seems to be implied by the BBC and scientists at Emory University, Atlanta.

The BBC have reported on their website how scientists at EU have described, in the Royal Society journal, how they observed chimps imitating a yawning animation. They believe they have proof that the on – screen animated yawning chimp encouraged the real chimps to yawn more than they otherwise would have. Yeah, okay, but why are we reporting this here? Because lead author of the study Doctor Campbell was quoted as saying:

“There’s a lot of concern about children and what they see on TV and the video games they play, so one possibility is to look at what factors in animations promote more or less imitation in non-humans”

The BBC chose to concentrate on the implications for video games. Funny that.

So basically, children are no less likely to copy what they see on-screen than are chimpanzees? This was never explicitly stated in the report, but it certainly seems to be implied; and would be a gross oversimplification of the facts. It is certainly undeniable, however, that imitation plays a vital role in the development of young children. What age children the scientists were thinking of however, was not specified.

Perhaps this study simply confirms what we all know; when you see somebody yawn, you often have the urge to yawn yourself? Hey, we’re just saying….

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Written by Luke K

He plays lots of videogames, now and again stopping to write about them. He's the editor in chief at Critical Gamer, which fools him into thinking his life has some kind of value. He doesn't have a short temper. If you suggest otherwise, he will punch you in the face.

2 comments

  1. KrazyFace /

    Yeah, yawning’s infectious alright, I wonder if they put a bunch of cats infront of a massive telly with other yawning cats on, would they yawn?

    Scientists do a lot of odd things in the name of science:
    1st scientist: “Hey, Dr.Reeves, let’s find a cure for cancer this week”
    2nd scientist: “Naw, I think I’ll just feed this dolphin Mentoes till it explodes, so we can sell the info to the papers”

  2. I actually yawned when reading it…

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