The Tetris effect occurs when someone dedicates substantial time, effort, and concentration to an activity and thereby alters their thoughts, dreams, and other experiences not directly linked to said activity. The term originates from the popular video game Tetris. People who have played Tetris for a prolonged amount of time can find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf or the buildings on a street. They may see colored images of pieces falling into place on an invisible layout at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes. They may see such colored, moving images while falling asleep, a form of hypnagogic imagery. For some, this creative urge to visually fit shapes together by organising and building shapes can be extremely addictive. Those experiencing the effect may feel they cannot prevent the thoughts, images, or dreams from happening. A more comprehensive understanding of the lingering effects of playing video games has been investigated empirically as game transfer phenomena (GTP).
Cerebral glucose metabolic rates There is evidence that human brains are prepared to make sense of visual information, given the proper stimulation. In new players, Tetris significantly raises cerebral glucose metabolic rates (GMRs), meaning energy consumption rates soar. But after four to eight weeks of continuous play, these levels return to normal, despite performance improving significantly. This suggests that the initial increase may reflect the brain's adaptation to the game's demands and conditions, causing alertness and arousal. Over time, this adaptation results in more efficient and optimised cognitive processing. This heightened alertness and cognitive engagement can boost the brain's tendency to integrate the game's patterns into everyday life.
Neuroplasticity and working memory The Tetris effect demonstrates the brain's neuroplasticity, particularly in the context of Baddeley's model of working memory, also known as visuospatial working memory (WM). When people play Tetris for prolonged periods, their brains become highly attuned to its distinctive shapes and patterns. This in turn can lead to these patterns appearing in the mind's eye when not actively playing. When playing Tetris, the human brain engages in tasks requiring constant manipulation and organisation of visual stimuli. This process consumes cognitive resources within the WM as a significant portion of resources are allocated to tasks such as imagining how an object will rotate while maintaining a mental representation of the configuration of the board. With repeated exposure to Tetris, the brain begins to adapt to the increased demand for WM resources such as attention from the central executive, facilitating their ability to selectively focus on pertinent information whilst disregarding irrelevant stimuli. This adaptation is a form of neuroplasticity, where the brain reorganizes its structure and function in response to this experience, making it more efficient at allocating WM resources. Studies have shown that when individuals perform a mental rotation task, there was activation in their frontal cortex, their premotor cortex and their middle frontal gyrus. This data is consistent with the hypothesis that mental rotation engages cortical areas involved in tracking moving objects and encoding spatial relations; all of which contribute to working memory processes. In turn, this activity stimulates the neurons and synaptic connections involved in visuospatial processing, strengthening them over time. This has been furthered by studies using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to show how continuous Tetris game play leads to an increase in cortical thickness. A study by Haier et al. found that after three months of playing Tetris, participants showed relatively thicker cortexes in the Brodmann area 6 which plays a role in the planning of complex, coordinated movements; demonstrating how the brain undergoes plastic changes to accommodate the demands of the task. As the brain is more attuned to detecting and encoding patterns similar to those encountered during gameplay, there may be involuntary retrieval of Tetris-related images in everyday life.
Place in cognition Stickgold et al. (2000) have proposed that Tetris effect imagery is a separate form of memory, likely related to procedural memory. This is from their research in which they showed that people with anterograde amnesia, unable to form new declarative memories, reported dreaming of falling shapes after playing Tetris during the day, despite not being able to remember playing the game at all.
Challenging traditional views of memory and perception The Tetris effect has shown to challenge traditional views of memory and perception by highlighting the dynamic and active nature of the cognitive processes involved. Traditionally, memory theories such as the information processing theory conceptualised memory and perception as passive processes involving the storage and retrieval of information in a similar manner to a computer, without much emphasis on the active manipulation or construction of mental representations. However, studies have shown that the Tetris effect involves the active construction and manipulation of mental representations based on individual experiences. Stickgold et al found that participants who played Tetris for an extended period of time reported experiencing vivid mental images of falling Tetris blocks even when not playing the game. As the brain actively generates and maintains representations of Tetris-related stimuli, the constructive memory model provides a framework for understanding how the Tetris effect arises by emphasising the idea that cognitive processes are not passive receptacles for sensory information but are active processes involving interpretation, reconstruction and adaptation based on individual experiences.
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