Tetris effect: what it is and how it creates new ways of perceiving the world

The Tetris effect shows us how a repetitive habit can shape our thinking.

Undoubtedly, Tetris is one of the most popular video games ever designed in the history of digital entertainment. By evoking its title, we can all visualize how its characteristic figures move to the sound of "Music A" (a MIDI arrangement of a theme of Russian origin known as Korobeiniki).

Millions of children and adults all over the world have dedicated countless hours to it, because together with other icons (such as the well-known Mario and Sonic), it is part of the Olympus of a business area whose progression seems unstoppable.

It is such a well-known work that it has even given a name to a phenomenon of perception that is still the subject of much research today, but which we still seem to be far from understanding in its entirety. It is none other, of course, than the Tetris effect. Let's see what it is.

What is the Tetris effect?

The human brain, like space or the ocean floor, is still a mystery to science. Despite the fact that we are in a time of fascinating developments, we are still unaware of the organ that lives inside our head, exactly the same organ that we must use to discover it.

When it was first described, it was given a secondary role, the weight of consciousness being placed on the heart. Today, however, we know that the encephalon is the organic support of everything we are, and that it is even capable of varying its form and function to adapt to what we do (if there is any difference between "being" and "doing").

Neural plasticity is a property of this organ that allows it to self-mold itself in order to efficiently allocate its own resources and adapt to the demands to efficiently distribute its own resources and adapt to the demands that different situations impose on it on a daily basis. Thus, both the structure and the activity of the nervous tissues depend on what consumes our time. In this sense, habits are the architects of our thoughts and actions, through their enormous potential to define long-term information processing.

Science has tried to discover how certain activities change the structure of the brain.and the resonances of this on cognitive functions such as memory and/or attention. Tetris has undoubtedly been the game most frequently used in the literature for this purpose. In purely organic terms, some works have shown that playing it increases the density of the gray matter in the temporal and prefrontal lobes, basic for higher order cognitive processes and memory or spatial vision.

From these findings, much further research was conducted to understand the effect of this "change" on cognitive dimensions. The literature indicates that incorporating Tetris into our habits may translate into improved nonverbal learning processes, mental rotation of figures in two dimensions, and the ability to reason spatially. It is also likely that the practice has a positive impact on visual memory, and there are even studies that have found it useful in reducing the intensity and frequency of post-traumatic flashbacks.

However, most of these effects have not yet been definitively certified, nor is it known how long they will be maintained if they exist.

All of the above could be the consequence of plastic changes in the brain parenchyma, and would be potentiallyand would be potentially useful for the design of psychological intervention and neurological or neuropsychological rehabilitation programs.

Beyond the positive effects, however, there are also studies that have shown that playing this title for too long during a day can lead to alterations in perception and in the various mechanisms that we use when processing information from the sense organs. So much so that Tetris has become a research paradigm within cognitive psychology.

For the present article, the focus will be only on the last of these phenomena, which has been coined in the scientific literature (and in popular culture) as the Tetris effect. At the end we will also detail how it extends to different contexts, since we know that it can occur in other everyday activities as well.

How is it expressed?

Tetris is a game that has the ability to "hook" its users, since it has simple and addictive mechanics. It consists of a succession of geometrically simple pieces that scroll vertically (from top to bottom). The user's function is to stack them in such a way that they fit together perfectlyThe user's task is to stack them in such a way that they fit perfectly, taking into account their composition and without leaving empty spaces between any of them. When the task is carried out correctly, the system "rewards" us by eliminating the accumulation of pieces, since our final purpose is to prevent them from occupying the entire screen. At that moment the session would end and the total score obtained would be counted.

As time passes without the game being finished, the speed of the game speeds up (and so does the accompanying music) and progression becomes more difficult. As can be sensed, the user remains with a fixed gaze during the game time, attentive to a repetitive and constant procession of stimuli. This is how the fundamental criteria are reproduced for the effect that concerns us, which we now describe by areas, and which could flood the thought or intrude into the unfathomable world of our dreams. Even so, it should be emphasized that its effects occur for very short periods of time, and are therefore generally reversible.

1. Perception of reality

One effect described by some users after playing Tetris for a long time is that their perception of reality changes. their perception of reality changes in some way. Descriptions of this issue are consistent in pointing out that there is a "transfer" from the task required during game play to real life, where the objects that make up the game become more polygonal and simple in nature.

Although they are still captured exactly the same through the sense organs, their characteristics change throughout the processing of their properties, emphasizing the outline of their global silhouette and obviating the details (cubes, rectangles, circles, etc.).

The person is still capable of perceiving the details of the object, but with a kind of exacerbated awareness of its elementary polygonality.. As a direct result of all this, he usually tries to imagine how his surroundings could "fit or adjust", transferring the habits acquired in the game to his own real life. Most commonly, the horizon comes to be perceived as the tower of Tetris pieces, and the contours of the surrounding elements are scrutinized to determine how they might fit together. The same thing can also happen in the organization of the elements of a house, or in the parking spaces reserved for vehicles.

In some cases, the person might even surprise himself by trying to stack the objects around him in a way similar to the way they are stacked. in a manner similar to that of a game of Tetris. In this case, the perceptual changes would have their resonance on behavior. Fortunately, this is not the most common.

2. Intrusion

In addition to the above, some Tetris users report that, after playing for several hours, they continue to perceive the movement of the pieces even though the game has ended.

It is common for this sensation, which is labeled as a stray image, to increase when the eyes are closed or when we are in dark places (e.g., in the dark). or we are in dark places (where any visual reference of the environment is lost). The characteristic music of the game may also remain, playing in a "loop" even though it is no longer in the perceptual field. It is for this reason that in the scientific literature on this subject it has been considered as a form of hallucination, although the clear awareness of its mental origin is maintained.

Finally, some people also end up dreaming of Tetris pieces falling over and over again, without end or objective, dragging the inertia of the habit to the same oneiric scenario.

Causes

The Tetris effect occurs as a direct result of prolonged and repetitive exposure to a specific activity, to which significant effort has been directed in the hours prior to its onset.to which a significant effort has been directed in the hours prior to its onset. It is common after very long working days in which the visual field was reduced to a pattern of simple stimuli and repetitive presentation or, under the assumption that concerns us, after a marathon or excessive game play.

In any case, it seems to be information processing alteration due to habits that have become established in the that have become established in everyday life, to the point of becoming intrusive and/or parasitic.

Appearance of this psychological phenomenon in other contexts

Any activity in our daily lives that tends to be carried out over a long period of time, and whose characteristics are extremely simple and repetitive, is likely to cause effects similar to those described for Tetris. Although the phenomenon was popularized from the game, it alludes to a reality of human processing that extends beyond the game itself and that is reproduced in the face of stimuli that harbor the aforementioned qualities.

Thus, those who write may be invaded by lines of text on the white background of the computer, and those who work as cooks may maintain the vision of their work table even when they get into bed.

The stimuli that trigger it are, therefore, enormously varied. And in any case, they will describe how the human brain adheres to habits and the possible neuroplastic effects underlying them (which remain largely unknown).