Scientists say video games can increase concentration, help with learning and even improve decision-making skills. Now, in an effort to improve the work of spies, the intelligence community may also resort to using educational games.
The motivation for this gaming pursuit, according to a recent announcement about the program, called Sirius, is that everyone is subject to bias, including spies.
"When an intelligence problem invokes these biases, analysts may draw inferences or adopt beliefs that are logically unsound or not supported by evidence," says the program announcement.
The goal is to help overcome human biases through training with what are called "serious games."
"Some research has shown that Serious Games (video games developed for educational, therapeutic or other serious purposes) can have positive experiential-learning transfer to real world skills or behavior changes," the announcement says. "A Serious Game could provide an effective mechanism for exposing and mitigating cognitive bias."
The work is being sponsored by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, a research arm of the intelligence community.
Spy Games: Intelligence Agency to Fund Video Games for Spooks
Jan 26, 2011 – 7:41 PM
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