The most recent issue of the American Journal of Play includes an article by researchers Adam Eichenbaum, Daphne Bavelier, and C. Shawn Green summarizing recent research demonstrating long-lasting positive effects of video games on basic mental processes--such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making.
Most of the research involves effects of action video games—that is, games that require players to move rapidly, keep track of many items at once, hold a good deal of information in their mind at once, and make split-second decisions. Many of the abilities tapped by such games are precisely those that psychologists consider to be the basic building blocks of intelligence.
Such research employs two strategies—correlational and experimental. In a correlational study, regular gamers are compared, on some perceptual or cognitive test, with otherwise comparable people who don’t play video games. The typical finding is that the gamers outperform the non-gamers on whatever test is used.
This suggests that gaming is a cause the better performance, but doesn't prove it, because it is possible that people who choose to play video games are those who already have superior perceptual and cognitive abilities.
The best proof that video-gaming improves these abilities comes from experiments in which all of the participants are initially non-gamers, and then some, but not others, are asked to play a particular video game for a certain number of hours per day, for a certain number of days, for the sake of the experiment.
In these experiments, the typical finding is that those who play the video game improve on measures of basic perceptual and cognitive abilities while those in the control group do not.
Most of the research involves effects of action video games—that is, games that require players to move rapidly, keep track of many items at once, hold a good deal of information in their mind at once, and make split-second decisions. Many of the abilities tapped by such games are precisely those that psychologists consider to be the basic building blocks of intelligence.
 |
| Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games and the mprovements in basic visual processes. |
Such research employs two strategies—correlational and experimental. In a correlational study, regular gamers are compared, on some perceptual or cognitive test, with otherwise comparable people who don’t play video games. The typical finding is that the gamers outperform the non-gamers on whatever test is used.
This suggests that gaming is a cause the better performance, but doesn't prove it, because it is possible that people who choose to play video games are those who already have superior perceptual and cognitive abilities.
The best proof that video-gaming improves these abilities comes from experiments in which all of the participants are initially non-gamers, and then some, but not others, are asked to play a particular video game for a certain number of hours per day, for a certain number of days, for the sake of the experiment.
In these experiments, the typical finding is that those who play the video game improve on measures of basic perceptual and cognitive abilities while those in the control group do not.
Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games and the mprovements in basic visual processes.Click to Tweet
If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:
About Giampaolo Rossi.
Excellent article about the positive aspects that a moderate use of videogames can cause. Videogames do not always represent a negative aspect in the culture of today's youth. Regards.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for commenting and sharing such an important topic. Regards
Delete