Horia Maior – Paper

Work Hard, Play Harder: Intense Games Enable Recovery from
High Mental Workload Tasks

“Abstract
Playing games has been shown to be an effective method of postwork recovery. Previous research has shown that gameplay with
high cognitive involvement is effective for recovery. This finding
conflicts with models of mental workload (MWL), which suggest
that people feel best when cycling between high and low MWL. To
unpack the relationship between recovery and mental workload,
we designed a lab experiment where 40 participants experienced
different combinations of high and low MWL while undertaking
both work tasks and recovery gameplay, and we collected both selfreport and physiological (fNIRS) data. Results showed that high and
low MWL games created different impacts on recovery, depending
on the MWL of the prior work task. While fNIRS measurements of
MWL varied as expected during work tasks, experience of MWL
when playing games was not evident in the prefrontal cortex. We
conclude by discussing the relationship between mental workload
and theories of recovery.”