Children who repeatedly play violent video games are learning thought patterns that will stick with them and influence behaviors as they grow older, according to a new study by Iowa State University researchers. The effect is the same regardless of age, gender1 or culture. Douglas Gentile, an associate professor of psychology2 and lead author of the study published in JAMA Pediatrics, says it is really no different than learning math or to play the piano. If you practice over and over, you have that knowledge in your head. The fact that you havent played the piano in years doesnt mean you cant still sit down and play something, Gentile said. Its the same with violent games -- you practice being vigilant3（警惕的） for enemies, practice thinking that its acceptable to respond aggressively to provocation4, and practice becoming desensitized to the consequences of violence.Researchers found that over time children start to think more aggressively. And when provoked at home, school or in other situations, children will react much like they do when playing a violent video game. Repeated practice of aggressive ways of thinking appears to drive the long-term effect of violent games on aggression5.Violent video games model physical aggression, said Craig Anderson, Distinguished6 Professor of psychology and director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State and co-author of the report. They also reward players for being alert to hostile intentions and for using aggressive behavior to solve conflicts. Practicing such aggressive thinking in these games improves the ability of the players to think aggressively. In turn, this habitual7 aggressive thinking increases their aggressiveness in real life.The study followed more than 3,000 children in third, fourth, seventh and eighth grades for three years. Researchers collected data each year to track the amount of time spent playing video games, the violent content of the game and changes in a childs behavior. The length and size of the study made it possible for researchers to detect and test even small effects.Boys reported doing more physically8 aggressive behaviors and spending more time playing violent games than girls. However, even when researchers controlled for gender, the violent video game effects on behavior were the same for girls and boys.To test whether violent games had a greater effect on children who were more aggressive, researchers compared children with high and low levels of aggression. Much like gender, they did not find a significant difference in terms of the effect from violent games.The results make a pretty strong argument that gender and age really dont affect this relationship between video game play, aggressive thinking and aggressive behavior, said Sara Prot, a graduate student in psychology at Iowa State. There are lasting9 effects on thinking and behavior. You cant say one group, because of their gender, age or culture, is protected from the effects in some special way.
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1 gender n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性 参考例句： French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有些名词都有性。 Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅由于性别而没办法获得种种机会。
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