Social and Behavioral Sciences

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https://hdl.handle.net/11416/978
This collection includes scholarly output from both faculty and students in Social and Behavioral Sciences.

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Browsing Social and Behavioral Sciences by Author "Bacharz, Kelsey C."

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    Game on! the influence of video games on understanding of cancer-based therapies
    (North American Journal of Pyschology, 2020) Bacharz, Kelsey C.; Howard, Jordan R.; Smith, Patrick L
    The awareness of how cancer treatments work to stop the spread of cancers is poorly understood and could potentially be explained through methods of active learning. Re-Mission 1, developed by HopeLab Industries, is a computer game that can be used by pediatric cancer patients to educate and prepare them for what they will experience in terms of cancer progression and treatment (Tate, Haritatos, & Cole, 2009). Pediatric patients who played this game were found to have improved motivation and self-understanding of their illness (Kato, Cole, Bradlyn, & Pollack, 2008). Seeing the success of Re-Mission 1, Re- Mission 2, a series of six different games that includes Re-Mission 2: Nanobot’s Revenge, was developed. The purpose of the present study was to see if Re-Mission 2: Nanobot’s Revenge would lead to an understanding of cancer physiology in the same way as Re-Mission 1, as well as to compare the relative effectiveness of text- and game-based materials in terms of their educational value (at short- and long-term intervals). The results indicated that playing Re-Mission 2: Nanobot’s Revenge yielded significant educational benefits similar to Re-Mission 1. Furthermore, while both the text- and game-based methods were effective educational tools for teaching participants about cancer physiology and treatment, the text-based method led to significantly higher memory recall than the game-based method. The use of video games further aided in memory persistence, which is important for the long-term nature of cancer diagnoses and accompanying treatments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)