And you thought that women are shopaholics. A recent study by mobile social network site MocoSpace revealed that, in terms of virtual goods, male social gamers outspend female social gamers nine to one. In fact, not only do male social gamers spend more on virtual goods, but that most of the virtual goods bought in-game were from men.

A study conducted by mobile social network MocoSpace revealed that social gamers are more social than non-gamers.

Another study has been released claiming children who are classified as being “addicted” to videogames are at higher risk of development some sort of mental illness in their lifetime. This study was conducted on 3,000 school children in Singapore over the past two years.

Video games have recently proven to be useful aids in areas like rehabilitation and education. By engaging users and promoting interaction they have turned out to be better than traditional methods in some areas. Now, a new study is showing that video games can also be a useful tool for improving cognitive abilities.

The Department of Psychophysiology of the East Carolina University (US) is currently conducting a study involving people age 50 and up who get to play casual games like Bejeweled or Peggle for 30 minute periods. Their responses are measured using electroencephalography (EEG) and standardized tests to measure how fast and how accurately they can complete a number of tasks.

A new study in the Cerebral Cortex journal suggests that people not be doing well in games just because they’ve built up their skills, they’re doing well because their brains are bigger. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois, University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a study at the University of Illinois that monitored 39 adult participants as they played a game specially created for the study.

There were two versions of the game created for the study, and the people involved would be asked to play one of the two. In one version, they would be given a single goal or task to achieve. In the other, they’d have to keep attending to multiple tasks and not focus on a single endeavor. The researchers then used an MRI to look at the brains of the people taking part in the study.

It turned out that the people who’s brains were larger did better than the people with smaller brains…

The video games industry has come under fire many times for offering content not appropriate for children. Even though all games come with a clear rating, an age range and warnings about their content courtesy of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), critics are quick to point out any kind of mature content.

Now, according to a recent study, the video games industry might not be the worst offender.

A study was conducted by the US Federal Trade Commission that employed underage Americans who tried to buy either a music CD, a movie or a video game from various stores. All the items had content clearly marked as unsuitable for children: “Explicit Lyrics” on the CDs, an “R” rating for the movies and a “Mature” rating on the video games.

Researchers from the University of Iowa conducted a study to analyze the relation between gaming for prolonged periods of time and attention levels when performing certain tasks.

The results indicated that the group that played games more than 40 hours a week had significantly less proactive attention – the kind used in anticipation of events – while reactive attention – the kind triggered by an event – was similar in both groups.

Confirming something most of us already know, a new study coming out of Villanova University indicates that motion controls do not increase aggression in people who play violent video games.

Certainly inspired by the controversy controversy surrounding the Wii release of Manhunt 2, a study titled “An examination of psychoticism and motion capture controls as moderators of the effects of violent video games” (Patrick M. Markey and Kelly Scherera, 2008, Department of Psychology, Villanova University) examined the “hostility and aggressive thoughts” in individuals while they played Manhunt 2 as well as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

The two biggest stereotypes when it comes to gamers are a) that they are kids and b) they are males. A recent study put out by, IBISWorld, Inc. (one of the nation’s most respected independent publishers of business intelligence research), indicates that the complete opposite it true.

Results of the study suggest that most of the current gamers are older adults and may of those are – you guessed it – women.

According to the study, the average purchaser of games in the U.S. is 39, which means these adults started playing video games when they were teenagers and haven’t stopped. As if that’s not enough, 24% of current gamers today are…

Two papers presented on August 5, 2008, at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Boston, MA (USA), demonstrated that some videogames can help improve the ability to solve problems and dexterity.

In the first paper. titled Children’s Problem Solving During Video Game Play, Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg, PhD, and Sabrina S. Ismailer, MSED, presented the results of a study that examined the problem-solving skills of grade-school aged children while they played videogames.

Another paper titled Four Dimensions of Video Game Effects by psychologist Douglas Gentile, PhD, and William Stone, BS, described effects of game usage within high school and college-aged students along with a few professionals in the field of laparoscopic surgery…