title: Hot under the collar: The impact of heat on game play.
abstract: High temperatures have been documented to affect behavior in a variety of ways depending on the nature of the task. We extended this prior research by examining the effects of dynamically changing temperature on various aspects of performance in a video game task. In the span of approximately an hour, temperature was gradually increased, stayed constant for a period of time, and gradually decreased to baseline. The gaming task was a variation on one used to assess impulsivity in participants thus allowing the possibility of assessing the effects of temperature on impulsive choice. Rather than heat increasing impulsivity and thus decreasing wait times, participants showed increases in wait times as temperature increased which either suggests that participants were becoming more self-controlled under heat or that the documented negative impact of heat on motor functioning was dominating their performance. Importantly, the participant's sensitivity to the changing task requirements was not affected by changes in temperature.
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University, Department of Psychological Sciences, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-5302, United States. Electronic address: michaelyoung@ksu.edu.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University, Department of Psychological Sciences, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-5302, United States.
authors.forename: Anthony W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: McCoy
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University, Department of Psychological Sciences, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-5302, United States.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hutson
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University, Institute for Environmental Research, 64 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, United States.
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schlabach
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University, Institute for Environmental Research, 64 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, United States.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eckels
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D018910:Video Games; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Choice; Decision making; Game; Impulsivity; Learning; Temperature