1.) Wei, L. T., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014, January 9). The impact of positive reinforcement on employees’ performance in organizations. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management.

Summary: Employees put their best foot forward when the rewards are more beneficial. A business can introduce incentives (intrinsic incentives, which includes things like praise and acknowledgement and extrinsic incentives, which includes things like a pay raise and empowerment) which encourages the workers to do their absolute best. One of the incentives allows the employees to get a pay raise, and they get it based on their attentiveness and their pay-per-performance. “When a portion of the wages is based on performance, employees tend to work harder. The study has also proved that employees also respond well to acknowledgement and praise.” The employees also responded to punishment as well. When the employees were forced to were forced to pay other employees for being late, it proved to be quite effective, and encouraged the ones who were late to arrive earlier if not on time. The experiment proved that those who were rewarded, did better for the company than those who didn’t.

How I used it: I used this to gain a better understanding of people when it comes to incentives. This source doesn’t relate to video games, but it is a study about how people are when positive and negative incentives are introduced.

2.) Sidman, M. (2006). The distinction between positive and negative reinforcement: Some additional considerations. The Behavior analyst.

Summary: There can be a substitute for negative reinforcement. Most people see it as punishment, which is why its called negative reinforcement, but Murray Sidman, author of this article believes that we should either remove the positive and negative from the reinforcements, and focus more on what they’re about, like food and clothing, or we could find a term that is much more fitting for it. Another point the author makes is he believe that the terms are loosely fitting. The term punishment shouldn’t be used because it is used to correct the action that someone is doing and it was used uncritically and uncorrected. A very opinionated piece about why the terminology should be changed.

How I used it: I used this source for a better understanding of how people respond to positive and negative reinforcements

3.) Larriba-Quest, K. (n.d.). Reinforcement in the classroom. Indiana Resource Center for Autism.

Summary: Reinforcement isn’t being used as well as it should be and it causes students, in some cases, for them to lose motivation. Positive and negative reinforcements have always been used in the classroom. They are used as a way to get the student to either encourage the child to stay on the right path, or it is used as a way to get rid of the negative behavior. If they find that the reinforcements are losing effect, then they will deprive the child of the reinforcement until they exhibit the desired behavior. They have also introduced satiation, meaning if the incentive isn’t motivational anymore, then there are other incentives to take that one’s place. The point of the incentives is to keep the person motivated to do their very best. But when those incentives start losing value and start becoming boring, introducing other incentives may not be the best thing to do, especially if the person in question doesn’t like anything that is being presented to them.

4.) Laffont, J.-J., & Martimort, D. (2009, December 27). The theory of Incentives. De Gruyter.

Summary: Most decisions in economics are mostly made by the incentives present. The authors present a theory of incentives that they believe is the most reliable theory and its up to date. According to the authors, using incentives is the best way to get people in a firm to do what you want with a high chance of it being done efficiently and sufficiently. The purpose of their book is to prove the mainly answer the question: What makes people act in a particular way in an economic or business situation? This

How I used it: I used this source to help me understand how incentives can help influence economics.

5.) 1.2 incentives and Flow. 1.2 Incentives and Flow – Project: Video Game. (n.d.).

Summary: There are multiple incentives in video games, but they all work the same. This article focuses on four main aspects. Internal and external, and positive and negative. They author organized the different incentives into four categories and then used them to pinpoint what kinds of games people play. If there is a positive internal motivation to play the game (mainly because you like the outcome of it) a flow is created and those player tend to be more motivated and are more focused than when there is an internal negative motivation to play that game. The incentives that are created for its player create a flow and that flow keep the player motivated to keep going.

How I used it: I used this source to enhance my understanding of the incentives in video games. I also used this source in my definition argument because it goes into depth about the rewards that are used in video games and how influence people to play the game again.

6.) Rachlin, H. (n.d.). Why do people gamble and keep gambling despite heavy losses? – JSTOR. JSTOR.

Summary: This journal entry treats gambling more of a disease than an instinct to win. It says that gamblers tend to remember their losses more than their wins, which makes sense. The sense of losing but having the taste for victory draws the people back in. The study believes that gambling is more of a positive reinforcement because of the winnings, but the gamblers used in the study don’t really see that. They applied their study to someone that gambles on sports teams and resets their teams after each win. The only difference between them and the gamblers that were used in the study was the sports gamblers can have greater losses over the course of days, months, or even years.

How did I use it: This source was used to understand why people gamble and what makes them come back for more. I helped to broaden my understanding of my topic. This source was no used in the paper.

7.) Weinstein, A. M. (2008, October 20). (PDF) computer and video game addiction—a comparison between game users …

Summary: This source defines computer game addiction. there are is no exact diagnostic for someone that is considered addicted to the video gaming. This source is a study that consists of 9 people that gamed heavily and 8 control people. It is clear that people that play video games accessively play the games to relieve stress, emotional support and for the rewards. “Computer game addicts or gamblers may show reduced dopamine response to stimuli associated with their addiction presumably due to sensitization.”

How I used it: I used this piece in my definition argument of my research paper. I used this piece of evidence to explain the negative attributes of video games and acknowledge the gateway to video game addiction

8.)Bean , A. M., Nielsen, R. K., van Rooij, A. J., & Ferguson, C. J. (2017, October). Video Game Addiction: The Push To Pathologize Video Games

Summary: Video game addiction has gained some attention from the different effects that come from playing it, even though that is controversial. There are no exact guidelines when addressing video game addiction, so there is no way to actually say that someone is addicted to video games. When people address video game addiction, they use the information from substance abuse.

How I used it: I used this source in the definition argument of my research paper. I used this piece for addressing to gateway to possible video game addiction and the effects of it.

9.) Erickson, C. K., & Wilcox, R. E. (2008, October 20). Neurobiological causes of addiction. Taylor & Francis.

Summary: Chemical abuse is the cause of so many different problems. Those problems can range from family suffering, to accidents, to even death. “There is strong evidence in animals and humans that chemical dependence involves a dysregulation of the pleasure pathway (the “medial forebrain bundle”), located in the mesolimbic portion of the brain.” The research provides different research and reasoning for the causes of chemical dependence in the brains of humans.

How I used it: I used this source in the definition argument of my research paper. I used it when talking about the chemical reactions that happen in the brain, and it is used to make the connections from that to gambling and video game addictions.

10.) Competitive games

Summary: Most competitive games have two teams that fight to win or lose. This is the formula that most games use when determining the victor. When scores are involved, the winner is determined more because of a variable. Games that are predictable where someone clearly has more skill than the other is boring. The excitement comes in when there is no telling who the winner of the game will be because everyone playing is evenly skilled. Sometimes the games will offer a handicap to the losing team, like in golf.

How I used it: I used this source in the causal argument of my paper. This source was used to explain why players would want to put themselves uphold their status in a game and put themselves through a lot of gameplay.

11.) Griffiths, M. D. (2015, December 9). Psychology And Competitive Gaming. Psychology Today.

Summary: Competitive video gamers consists of players that regularly compete in games for bragging rights, or to boost themselves on the tier ladder. They can recognized by aspiring players, professional or amateur and other things of that nature. Video games have evolved rapidly from when they were first introduced and many of those games take a lot of time to master. Certain academic studies have shown that competitive gaming can promote different social aspects, and they have the potential to change different players’ motivations for playing, if done correctly. Gaming for long amounts of time does not prove that someone is suffering from video game addiction. This is especially true when someone is making a financial living off of their skill in a game.

How I used it: I used this source while writing my causal argument. It was used to address the skill set that professional players need when trying to make a financial living off of a game.

12.) Webb, A. (2020, December 30). The Revealing Reasons Why Kids Love Video Games. The Thoughtful Parent.

Summary: There is different research that can answer the questions that parents have about their kids and the appeal to video games. They play because of the dopamine that they get when they play. The video games make them happy in a way that other things can’t. Another thing is the reward systems that they get. or the reinforcement that they get when they play. Parents can see this as a psychological reward, which encourages them to do well. Kids will also want to master their new skills. One more thing is the social aspect where kids can talk and play with other kids their age and still have fun. They can connect with kids that have similar interests to them.

How I used it: This source was used in the causal argument of my research paper. I used this while talking about the positive and negative reinforcement that is used to encourage young players to do better. I also used this source to explain what dopamine is and why player can get so much of it when they play.

13.) Ferguson, C. J., & Markey, P. (2017, April 1). Video Games Aren’t Addictive. The New York Times.

Summary: Parents complain about their kids being addicted to video games. According to the American Psychiatric Association, it can be seen as a possible illness, or it can be a gateway to other kids of illnesses, but it wouldn’t be made as serious as people, mainly concerned parents, are making it out to be. A study published by the American Journal of Psychiatry concludes from their results that “1 percent of video game players might exhibit characteristics of an addiction.” The study also said that none of the subjects were even seen as potential addicts in the future. They also can conclude that “addicts” are no different than those that don’t actually have an addiction and video game addiction never made any sense from the beginning. This doesn’t at all mean that the people aren’t at fault for not maintaining their health, but that doesn’t mean that they have an addiction.

How I used it: I used this source in my rebuttal argument. I took this source and found the different arguments that the authors seemed closed-minded with and I made argued with them.