On Friday (7.11.08) SiliconRepublic.com gave a report about the Nintendo Wii being used for psychological experiments. One of these tests concluded that we have a ‘truth bias', meaning we are more likely to believe things we read or hear, before thinking otherwise.
 
Dr Rick Dale, a psychology expert from University of Memphis, said "The Wiimote is in fact the perfect interface to perform these kinds of experiments...
...As the game itself is already designed to absorb a person's body into the video-game experience, we just have to hook the Wiimote into a lab computer, and we can enjoy the rich streaming data that video games typically use, but this time, track them in experiments."
 
Many psychologists, until recently, thought that thinking and moving were controlled by separate subsystems in the human mind. Dr Dale, after the tests said, "We often begin to act before we think, even when making relatively simple decisions. Some might say that we even think through our actions."
 
The experiments were simply ‘Yes/No' or ‘True/False' questions, and the subject used the Wiimote, by using the infa-red pointer, to answer. The data that was then collected showed how the pointer would first hover over ‘Yes' or ‘True' before stopping on ‘False'. This shows us that we have a tendency to believe things first, however wrong they are, and then work out the answer secondly. Of course this happens incredibly quickly and without us knowing about it. It also shows us that the body was in motion before the thought processes were completed, that is to say we didn't think about our actions first.
 
I'm glad to hear of more gaming stories about how consoles and games can help us to understand ourselves better. Dr Rick Dale explains why he used the Wii, "One reason the Nintendo Wii is so wildly successful is that it integrates natural bodily movements with the mental processing involved in gaming, our results offer further testament to this. Your body and your mind are really one system, naturally changing with each other in all our daily learning and other cognitive experiences." This is also a very affordable way to provide psychologists a way to track the relationship between our thoughts and our actions. Previously this technology has cost thousands of dollars, but now they can buy a much cheaper and fun alternative.