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Well I wouldn't call myself an expert, although I _have_ looked at this issue several times before with students. The usual elements are here: very small sample size, heavily controlled experiment, undefined categories ("low," "mild"), and murky description of the results (although that could definitely be the fault of the journalist reporting the findings, too). However, these are all possible issues with any social science experiment. There are some other things that often come with media effects specifically. If you haven't seen David Gauntlett's "Ten Things Wrong with Media Effects Research," it's worth a look: concise but packed with criticism (and easy to use in class). http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm Otherwise, to me this sounds like the same research that occasionally comes out about games and violence, and has been so for at least a decade. The new wrinkle here could be the MRI readings, and I'll admit I'm no expert there either. But given the limited degree to which science really understands the relationships between thought, behavior, and brain activity, I'm not sure the correlations they're showing in the evidence are all that helpful either.

I've been playing it for a while. Very interesting on several levels. First, it's very media-intensive. Lots of art, sound, big-screen design, many media assets. Second, the interface is... odd. It's anchored on cards, which might work better offline. Third, it's not easy! Things fall apart quickly.

Have you played any of these yet?

I did play Vi Hart's "playable blog post, "Parable of the Polygons," and found it a fascinating and innovative experiment in procedural learning. Reminded me of a series of mini-lectures on game design or game theory that were a combination of animated lecture and playable exercises...started with a version of Pong? I can't find it in my bookmarks at the moment, but they had a similar combination of commentary and interactivity as her Parable does.