The Relationship between Prior Gaming Experience and Consciousness of Computer Programming or Social Views on Information: An Empirical Study of High School Students in Japan

This study examines whether prior gaming experience relates to high school students' consciousness of computer programming and their social views on information. Drawing on a 2016 survey of 169 first-year high school students in Japan, the authors argue that programming education should be framed as problem-solving with computers rather than as coding alone, and they propose that game-based topics may serve as an effective entry point. The work is exploratory in nature, given the limited prior research linking game play to computing interest, and it relies on self-reported daily playing hours and four-point agreement scales as its primary measures.

The central finding is that students who reported playing games, particularly for more than two hours daily, expressed significantly greater consciousness of programming and a stronger sense that understanding computer mechanisms is important than non-players. No significant difference emerged between heavier and lighter players. Programming-consciousness and social-views items were positively and significantly intercorrelated (p < .01), with seventeen relationships exceeding 0.40. Gaming experience was not, however, associated with the view that computers are important for creative activities, a notable exception to the broader pattern.

The study's evidence supports the conclusion that gaming experience is positively related to interest in and perceived usefulness of programming, while attitudes toward creative computer use remain unaffected. The authors therefore recommend puzzle-style and other game-based content as a hook for introductory programming instruction. Their conclusions are tempered by the cross-sectional design, reliance on self-reported playing time, and a four-point Likert scale of questioned validity. Gender differences were not examined, specific game genres were not distinguished, and links to other abilities such as creativity remain to be investigated.