Independent research

Sergio Pulido 9ª

Abstract:
This independent research talks about the skills that chess and video game players can develop
when playing them, as well there will be a comparison among the skills required of each game.
Finally, I will conclude which game helps people develop more skills and why.
Introduction:

Research question:
- Which are the main skills that humans develop when playing chess and video games,
being both games that require practice and skill, which one develops and requires more
abilities and skills?

Interest:
- Since I fully engaged on chess two months ago, I have been looking forward on
knowing the impact of playing chess on my skill development, as well I have been
interested on video games ever since I got my Nintendo Wii but was just until I got my
PS4 when I started playing continuously, my interest for both games made me think
about which skills have I developed since I started playing, and what skills do pro
players when playing both games.

Hypothesis:
- First, if we talk about video games, not all games are the same, therefore, not all games
help us develop the same skills, but even so, games can help us develop similar skills
such as hand-eye reflexes or also they can help us in quick decision making. On the
other hand, regarding chess, I would say that one skill we develop is being able to think
fast, create strategies and know how to make the right decisions. Even though I have
been playing chess for a long time, I'd say chess can help develop even more skills than
video games because although chess is considered a sport, I think it exercises your brain
when thinking in a fast way, this may help us develop even more skills.

Research plan:
- For this investigation I will first do a survey to people who play both chess and video
games, this would be helpful to know other players opinion and as well to have a first view
of my hypothesis. Then I will start my research, for this I will look for reliable sites such as
science sites, YouTube videos and other related sites that evidence information through
experiments. I will first search about video games, which skills can we develop while
playing videogames, which skill is the most common to develop on every game and which
benefits more the players. Then I will do the same deep research for chess. After finishing
my research, I will do a comparison between both games effects on skill development when
playing, and the I will do an analysis of the gathered data and finally will compare it with
the survey results.
Research:
Humans can develop plenty of skills,
Survey questions:
1. How long have you been playing chess and video games?
2. Do you think these two games make you develop different skills?
3. Which skills do you think you have developed through time?
4. Some skills can be seen on daily activities, have you seen anyone? Which one(s)?
5. Which game do you think makes you develop more skills?
Survey results:
- Yes, Video Games have taught me how to complete minor details the best I can as the smallest
thing could mess up your entire experience, and chess has taught me to look ahead and try to
figure out what will happen if I do something myself to try to figure out the best solution for the
best outcome.
- I think games and chess can develop different skills like mentally and getting more intelligent, and
skills for getting better depending on the game you play and in chess also.
- Sure, each requires different abilities and skills to success in both, quick thinking and make
strategies.
- Yes. For example, Chess can give you thinking abilities and videogames can give you visual skills.
- Chess can make you develop critical and strategical thinking, as well as video games, however,
video games usually develop instinctive behaviors.
- Yes, response time and strategic thinking.
- Yes, quick response, leadership, strategic thinking, problem solving, and many more.
- Leadership, on many games you are forced to take command of many people. In real life during
group activities, there is usually a leader, the leader must give everyone their roles, you can see
similarities on the way I lead in real life, and video games, also strategic thinking and reasoning
because you split everything up reasonably, while taking in mind everyone's skills.
- I think the skill of memory is one that all people use not only in game but in real life occasions.
- My eye-hand reflexes and perseverance
- Thinking skills can be reflected in daily life for example in the work or in school. And visual skills
can be reflected for example when you drive a car you need to have good visual skills.
- Patience and problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Yes, when we must react quickly to a specific situation.
- How to resolve engineering issues, such as optimization, mathematical thinking, and more. Also is
relevant the way we focus on any type of situation, from solving an exam to drive on a car.
Survey Analysis:
In this survey I looked for a specific population, people who played both chess and
video games, although more people agreed that video games can make you develop
more skills, still most of the people said that both are good skill training, for example
we can see that strategic thinking, problem-solving and perseverance are skills that we
can develop in both games, as well are skills that can be experienced in daily life.

Investigation:

Video Games:

Video games since the beginning of the last decade has been a trend around the world,
currently we already find e-sports teams (Group of professional video game players) in
which many young people between 16 and 30 thanks to their skills as a player have the
possibility of dedicating to the world of gaming. Although entering these teams seems
easy, it is not, and this is because not all players have the same developed skills. Before
starting with this research, I would like to make it clear that when I refer to video
games, I am not talking about phone games since these are less advanced and require
less skill, instead I am talking about console games and pc games which are more
elaborate and require more skills. Taking this into account, what skills can we develop
when playing video games. We can develop skills that help us in daily life and even
later in workshops or in other activities, but this is not easily achieved, it takes time to
develop these skills.
(History.com Editors. (2019, June 10))

First, I will talk about the skills we can develop in general by playing video games.

Risk-Taking:

Risk taking is not so much a skill that we develop but is part of the ability to make
decisions, when we talk about taking risk, we usually quickly analyze which path or
action is the most pertinent. ( Staff, I. E., & White, A. (2020, February 25)) For
example, in the famous game GTA V created in 2013 by Rockstar in some missions that
we find, they make us take different risks, for example in the mission "Cayo Perico" we
find ourselves on an island where we have to steal different objects to earn money, Let's
say in the game we already have a large amount of money and we have the exit next to
us, but suddenly we have a lot of money at a short distance, at this moment the player
makes a quick analysis of whether it is feasible to go for the money risking the mission
or simply leaving with what he has, in this case in the few seconds of critical thinking
the player analyzes, the amount of money that can be collected, the threats on the way,
the remaining time, the distance to the exit and if it's worth going for the money. By
taking risks, players create new strategies and experience trial and error. Players also
quickly learn to navigate and safely exit new territories and scenarios, giving them the
ability to face and take risks. According to Professor Gerald Wilde the level of risk that
people are willing to accept depends on both the cost and benefit of risky behavior
compared to safer options. This is interesting in the context of risk-glorifying video
game effects on behavior, as it explains one of the basic mechanisms to take risk.
(Wilde, G. J. S. (1998, June 1).)

 Skill in daily life:

Research has shown that video games that make players encounter risk led to a
greater propensity to take risks while driving.

Image 1 () “Cayo Heist” Map

Image 1 “Cayo
r/gtaonline Heist”
- Cayo MapPoints of
Perico
(r/gtaonline
Interest Map. reddit. (n.d.).Points
- Cayo Perico
of Interest Map. reddit. (n.d.).)

Decisions and critical

thinking:

Continuing from the previous aspect, now let’s talk about quick decision making and
critical thinking. It can be said that these two skills are two of the most important that
we can develop when playing video games, this because they help train the brain and
later make it act faster. Let’s start with quick decision making in critical situations.
Thanks to different studies, it was proven that playing video games helps us to
strengthen and develop our ability to make decisions. According to research by the
neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier from the University of Rochester in New York, she
stated that people who play video action games have faster reaction times than those
who do not play, this was confirmed after a study where she realized that action video
game players are better at making fast and accurate decisions. (Staff, I. E., & White, A.
(2020, February 25).)

In one of these studies, she compared players with people who did not play. For this
experimentation, they took 11 video game players and told them that they played games
like GTA, Halo and Call of Duty for about 50 hours, after which 12 people were chosen
who had no relationship with video games. These 23 people were tested through simple
decision-making experiments, 3 experiments were made, one consisted of identifying
the movement of a group of moving points, with a certain level of difficulty, another
experiment consisted of an auditory decision test where people had to say on the side of
the headphones they heard a certain sound, and finally the final test was about a visual
test where people needed to pay detailed attention to what they were visualizing to get
an informed decision. At the end of this experiment, the researchers verified that the 11
people who played video games overcame in the tests, and it was concluded that the
players were able to make judgments more quickly and easily, and at the same time
improved their ability to make decisions quickly. (Choi, C. Q. (2010, September 13).)

When we talk about critical thinking, we basically refer to the skills of taking risks and
making good and quick decisions. All decisions in a video game have risks and
consequences, so expert players understand how to analyze their possible choices and
use their best judgment for successful missions and campaigns. In many cases, these
decisions need to be made in a fraction of a second, so that players quickly develop
analytical skills in high-pressure situations and remain calm in stressful situations. (15
Surprising Benefits of Playing Video Games. (2019, July 8).)

 So, in which games can we experiment critical thinking and fast decision
making?

We can find a large variety of games which can help us develop these skills,
some of the ones I have played are: For example, when we talk about critical
thinking within a game we usually think of agility and action games, games where
we have to think fast and act as accurately and quickly as possible, these games are
called shooters and several known are Call of duty, Counter Strike, Halo,
Overwatch, Rainbow six or Fortnite. For example, let's imagine that we are in a
Warzone or Fortnite game, we have full life and a regular weapon, while the enemy
we know that has a little less life since we inflict damage on him, but we also know
that he has a weapon much better than us and that one shot kills us, at that precise
moment we as a player must do an analysis as quickly as possible and decide
accurately. Within the analysis that we do in a few seconds we take into account the
factors already mentioned, and we create game alternatives, then at that moment we
think, "if I go after the enemy it is very likely that I will have to shoot him in the
head to kill him, but if I fail I am dead, on the other hand if I choose to look for a
better weapon and get a shield it is very likely that the enemy will do the same, heal
and decide to go and kill me "This is a very common case within the games, the
decision to this situation depends on the player as he analyzes the scene, it is a 50
50, what is the best decision ?

Image 2: Fortnite in-game decision making:

YouTube. (2020). Never Make A Bad Decision
Again in Fortnite! - A Complete Guide to
Decision Making
Image 3: Fortnite in-game decision making:
YouTube. (2020). Never Make A Bad Decision
Again in Fortnite! - A Complete Guide to
Decision Making

 Skills on daily life:

When it comes to business, panicky decision making in business-critical

situations can be devastating, which is why it is important to have quick and
sensible decision makers on your team to analyze current information and gain
insight for next steps. to solve a problem.

Concentration:

Another skill that we develop when playing video games is concentration, this skill is
usually developed when we play action games or games where players need to be
focused to increase their score more and more, games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band
they make the player concentrate to the maximum, leaving aside any type of distractions
such as calls, social networks and text messages.( Staff, I. E., & White, A. (2020,
February 25)) According to a study conducted by neurology professor Weiyi Maen and
scientists Dezhong Yao and Diankun Gong at the University of Arkansas School of
Environmental Human Sciences. This study showed that after one hour of play the
players had effects on their brains. The team found that after playing "League of
legends" for an hour the players had better results in the visual concentration test. This
study was carried out with 11 students from the University of Science and Technology,
the caules 50% had been playing for 2 years and the other 50% had only been 6 months.
After one hour of play, the students who had been playing longer had better results in
visual concentration. (Shumaker, C. (2018, February 14) So, what games help us
develop concentration? Most action games are the ones that help us the most to develop
this ability, games like Call of Duty, Resident Evil, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption and
Last of Us. These games require a lot of concentration since the players must be
attentive to everything that happens in their surroundings within the game since any
mistake or carelessness could damage the mission. From my experience I know that
GTA V missions require too much concentration as they are not that easy. For example,
in the mission "Hit the Casino" we find ourselves in situations where we must hack
doors to be able to pass. These hacks require too much concentration since they are
based on following patterns or guiding ourselves by images.

Image 4:
(Shumaker, C. (2018, February
14))
“Students who spent one hour
playing video games
demonstrated improved visual
selective attention and changes
in brain activity.”

 How does the development of this skill benefit us? Well, when we talk about the
business environment, any distraction can affect our productivity as well as the
quality of our work.

Patience and perseverance

Patience and perseverance are two skills that we can also consider as attitudes or
qualities, not all people have them, but they can be developed through video games.
Within the gamer community we find the expression "daily grind" that is applied to
games that require repetitive actions or activities to progress in its development. Games
such as Final fantasy or Dragon warrior require the player to have patient by having to
repeat missions and battles constantly to develop more skills that help them progress in
the game. (Just a moment. . . (2017, June 22).) A clear example of patience and
perseverance is Fortnite, to improve in this game, mechanics need to be generated
through practice, for example when we want to learn to build, edit and shoot we need to
practice on maps where we can develop these mechanics, in order to have A good
development we need to dedicate time and patience, not everything will go the first time
since we are not used to it, in the course of this practice we are going to make many
mistakes, and if we want to reach a high level we cannot give up so easily if we do not
achieve what we want in a short time. (Juana, R. (2018, July 31))
  Which are the benefits? These skills help people to be successful both
professionally and personally. We can use these skills to handle challenging
situations and wait for success.

Chess:

Planning skills:

The chess players at the time of making a move always remain silent for a period,
considering each of the available movements that they have, at the same time the player
tries to predict the opponent's movements trying to anticipate them. According to a
group of scientists in London carried out a test where they tested a group of people
through a cognitive functioning test, this test measured their planning skills and the
results showed that the people in the group who played chess obtained significantly
better results, since they dedicated more time to think, analyze and plan.( Putnam, K.
(2020)) According to scientists in the development of the brain of young people, the
prefrontal cortex is one of the ones that takes the longest to develop, this cortex is
responsible for planning, generating judgments and self-control, thanks to chess a study
showed that young people who played Chess developed this part of the brain more
easily which helps them develop these skills and others such as improving decision-
making. Over time, as players practice more and more, players learn to develop their
strategic thinking skills, within them we include easily recognizing patterns and
processing information quickly, as well as quickly solving problems. (R. (2021, March
9).)

Problem solving:
Now let's talk about problem solving ability, this is one of the most outstanding in chess
since players keep trying to solve the problems caused by the opponent's movement.
According to a study conducted among children, students who participated in the test
playing chess had better results in problem solving at school on future tests. (Putnam, K.
(2020). 8) Chess requires the player to solve problems, analyze the situation, maintain
the logic of the game, think, process, plan and execute. A study carried out in 1992 in
New Brunswick in Canada, implemented a method that included chess games in
mathematical problems, for this study 3 groups were created, A, B and C, A did the test
with traditional mathematical instructions and groups B and C used chess games and
methods in the instructions. In the end, in the results, groups B and C had better result
than those of A, those of B and C exceeded A by 60%. Chess is very important in
everyday life because thanks to these skills that we can develop, we can plan and make
better decisions in life, which will help us to have success and positive results. (R.
(2021, March 9))

Strategic thinking:

Along with the other skills that we already talked about, we can include strategic
thinking, which is a complement to the previous two, this is because they are closely
related in terms of how they are developed and how they are applied within the game.
The most important thing about this is knowing how to apply these skills in chess along
with knowing how to develop and execute strategies. Strategy is a crucial component in
chess as it requires careful and structured punishment. (Putnam, K. (2020)) So, what is
the strategy and how do we generate it? Well according to Bobby Fisher, a professional
chess player, the purpose of the game is to have the superior position to the opponent,
this is achieved by establishing tactics through strategies. The first step in our strategy
should be to evaluate both mine and the opponent's position and find a plan. Then what
follows is simply to follow the tactics established from the beginning, but if it is the
case that we make a mistake or the opponent makes a move that we did not expect, it is
best to plan, look at our position and create an alternate strategy following the same
tactics to have an organized game. (Team, G. (2021, March 6)

Calmness under pressure and patience

One of the most important chess skills is patience and tranquility, these can also be
considered virtues that chess teaches us. During a chess game we are always going to
have a pressure, one of these is the 10-to-30-minute timer that we have on one side, and
it indicates our remaining playing time. This timer generates a lot of pressure and forces
us to make decisions quickly to make the right move. Although it sounds a bit stressful,
as time passes and more and more players confront each other with a timer next to them,
they learn to control themselves and stay calm, this also helps to develop decision-
making and thinking skills faster. critical as they make these processes faster and faster.
(Putnam, K. (2020).) The average game of chess lasts approximately 40 moves before
one player is victorious over the other. Each of these movements must be calculated,
planned, and executed. The slightest lapse of concentration could lose a pawn, or too
aggressive a move could lead to a checkmate for the opposing player. Players must not
only stay focused while waiting for an opponent to take their turn, but they must also be
patient by not rushing through the number of moves required to complete the game.
(Team, G. (2021, March 6)

Data processing:

Graph 1:
(Images created by me on Canva platform)

Diagram 1 analysis:
Since there’s not that much numerical data, I decided to create some diagrams,
on the left side I include the skills and abilities we can develop when playing
chess. On the other side we can a diagram that show the skills that we can
develop when playing video games. The purpose of these two diagrams was to
make a comparison on the variety of skills we can develop from each game. For
example, I can say games can help players develop a bunch of more skills
since there are more variety of game themes, we can find action games where
we can fully develop risk taking, critical thinking and fast decision making and
many others depending on the game we play, this because not all games have
equal missions and goals. From the other side we find chess, as we all know
chess is always the same game mode, black vs white, what can vary is only the
time. So there no extra skills that we can develop, we will always experience
problem solving situations, strategic thinking situations and calmness situations,
there won’t be any skill extra as game will always be the same

Graph 2:
Graph 2 analysis, minding that the survey was part of the Investigation I
decided to include these graphs, on these graphs we can see some people
opinions regarding their experience playing chess and videogames. On the first
graph we can see that form the nine people surveyed, a 66 % voted
videogames, this similar to the investigation results and the previous diagrams
analysis where I found that video games due to their theme and genre variety,
they can help players develop even more skills than chess. Finally, on the last
graph we can see that most people voted for strategic thinking as a skill the
have developed, this can be proved since according to my investigation both
games require strategic thinking, as well as you can see many people voted as
well on skills the mainly video games make you develop, this shows that video
games are even more influent on people skill development.

Conclusions:

Finally, comparing my hypothesis and my data analysis, I can say my

hypothesis was wrong, I thought that chess would require more skills due to its
complexity, but after the investigation I conclude videogames due to their
variety of genre, we as players can actually develop even more skills by playing
for long periods of time. Definitely my investigation supported my conclusion
towards my hypothesis since when I was completing my investigation and then
analyzing it, I realize that video games had that factor that differs form chess.
This investigation can be improved if in the future more studies get to be done,
this is because this investigation was based on studies results since these skills
can only be tested by either experience or tests that can prove those developed
skills. As a new question for my independent research, I would like to know, if
there can be a combination between chess and video games and create a
game which can developed all the skills that humans can acquire. My
investigation has a great significance on me since I am person who plays a lot
of video games and thinks it could be a lot of waste of time, but now that I know
the skills, I can developed I am looking forward on telling people that video
games aren’t that bad.
Bibliography: (APA)

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https://www.manhattandigest.com/2017/06/22/video-games-improve-skills/

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de los videojuegos. MuyComputer.

https://www.muycomputer.com/2014/08/07/cinco-habilidades-que-puedes-

desarrollar-con-ayuda-de-los-videojuegos/

(Chess)

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- https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-playing-chess#boosts-
planning-skills
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thinking-skills-kids-learn-at-chess-camp

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playing chess. Brainscape Academy.

https://www.brainscape.com/academy/does-chess-make-you-smarter/
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- - Putnam, K. (2020). 8 Critical Thinking Skills Kids Learn at Chess Camp.

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thinking-skills-kids-learn-at-chess-camp

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for-kids-as-well-as-adults/

- The 7 Fundamental Chess Skills. (2019). ChessFox. https://chessfox.com/the-7-

fundamental-chess-skills/

Calmness under pressure:

- Putnam, K. (2020). 8 Critical Thinking Skills Kids Learn at Chess Camp.

Whitbyschool. https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/8-critical-

thinking-skills-kids-learn-at-chess-camp

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Adults). Gamesver. https://www.gamesver.com/21-benefits-of-playing-chess-

for-kids-as-well-as-adults/