Tetris: A Next Generation Stress buster?

This study was intended to test the effect of Tetris as an intervention for severe but sub-clinical life stress in young adults. Tetris has been indicated to be useful in many clinical populations, particularly having potential in reducing the occurrence of intrusive recollections in PTSD; and the mechanism it has been hypothesised to work on has cognitive and neurological connections to the experience of stress. Method: Tetris was administered as an intervention on a young adult population (30 males, 30 females between 18-20 years) in India, who had a minimum score of 16 as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale. The design used was a single group pre-test post-test method, where PSS scores were compared. Results: There was a significant reduction in the mean perceived stress levels of the group post intervention, and a significantly greater reduction in perceived stress among women as compared to men, respectively. The effect size score computed (0.759) for reduction in stress levels indicated that the use of Tetris has a high practical significance. Conclusion: Tetris was found useful in controlling perceived stress; and can be a highly relevant intervention for the tech-savvy generation of young adults who spend a considerable amount of their time on their smart-gadgets. Its implications are that any comparable visuo-spatially oriented task could potentially be useful in controlling stress, and that technology can potentially be the next step in administering clinical interventions. Introduction Stress is defined as “the pattern of specific and nonspecific responses an organism makes to stimulus events that disturb its equilibrium and tax or exceed its ability to cope” (Gerrig, &Zimbardo, 2002). A moderate level of normal everyday stress lasting over a prolonged period of time can also lead to an exhaustion of bodily and mental coping resources. The experience of stress negatively influences the working memory, because it reduces the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the prefrontal cortex (van Donkelaar et al, 2009), which is a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in the functioning of the working memory (Galloway, Woo and Lu, 2008). Oei, Everaerd, Elzinga, Van Well and Bermond (2006) also showed that high levels of psychosocial stress, that caused the release of cortisol, greatly impaired the efficiency of the working memory. Therefore, to fight the effect of stress at a neurological level, a cognition-based intervention that affects the working memory could be considered. Video games in general have already been found useful in stress management. It was proven that playing casual video games (CVG‟s) could help to better mood and reduce stress, with participants also reported that they preferred playing CVG‟s since they are easy to play and bring out spontaneous action from the participants (Russonielo, O‟Brien & Parks, 2009). Another research conducted in 2007 by Dandeneau, Baldwin, Baccus, Sakellaropoulo, and Pruessner at McGill University reports how playing a testing simulation similar to a video game, that the researchers designed to implicitly train people to help develop their social skills and respond effectively to social threats, can bring down cortisol (the stress hormone) levels upto 17%. Tetris is one such video game that has a lot of implications for research and intervention. Developed by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov, it is a casual video game, and its objective is to