Most of those who have been involved (Gamers) more extensively with the "sport" of gaming have experienced the phenomenon of being "stuck" to the game's music even after they have finished playing it (something that is also observed in film and television).
According to a study by the International Gaming Research Unit of Nottingham Trent University, sometimes the sounds of a game (explosions, gunshots, screams, etc.) that have "absorbed" the player remain "with them" even after the player's engagement with it has ended.
This is the university's latest study into what is known as "game transfer phenomena" (GTP): a range of small perceptual glitches that follow long gaming marathons. As reported in the Guardian, previous research has focused on visual distortions and effects, such as Tetris players seeing shapes moving downwards when they closed their eyes, for example. The paper is the first to analyse such experiences involving hearing.
For the study, the university team visited gaming forums and collected data from 1,244 gamers about such experiences. 12% of them reported experiencing game audio outside of the game environment, from sword sounds to electronic "beeps" or even very "classic" sounds, such as those of coins in Super Mario.
“There are many examples of players who ‘hear’ the game’s music, like you keep ‘hearing’ music in your head even after you’ve stopped listening,” said Angelica Ortiz de Gortari, a psychologist and lead author of the study. “Some players heard voices, others heard sounds from the game. It often happens when you’re trying to sleep—some people would look at their computer or console because they thought they had left the game playing.”.
The most interesting examples, however, have to do with real-world incidents that seem to refer to situations in the game: one player reported hearing sounds from the puzzle game Portal when passing by buildings that reminded him of the game's world, while a more extreme case involved a player who, when falling into darkness, heard a sound from the horror game Silent Hill, which informed him that monsters were approaching.
As the article notes, there is particularly strong skepticism about GTPs, as the research is currently based on a small percentage of players talking to other players in forums, where the possibility of exaggeration is always present. However, similar experiences have been studied since the 1990s. According to de Gortari, GTPs have to do with how the brain “makes sense” of sensory data. “These sounds have meaning, a purpose in video games – and that meaning influences how players react in real life.”.
In any case, one of the goals of the study is to demystify GTPs, which can sometimes be terrifying for people who experience them, as they can last for hours or days. "We want to identify, record and explain these experiences. But this research also tells us how the mind works, and how it makes connections, how we learn to make connections - this could be useful in learning new languages, for example.".
Source: naftemporiki.gr
