More Halo, less Brain Training
Usually when science and video games meet, it’s to do the billionth study on whether or not they cause violence. Every time, a lot of money is spent to find out that no, video games probablydon’tcause violence, and then six months later a different team comes along and does the same thing.
For once, it’s nice to see a study challenge the age old “video games rot your brain!” argument instead. A study has found that not only do gamesnotrot your brain, but some games do the exact opposite and improve cognitive functioning. The study was published inPolicy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciencesjournal (and thefull text of it can be seen here).
It’s not quite as clear-cut as a blanket statement like “games improve brain functioning”. Only specific types of games have any observed benefits. Fortunately those games are often the most popular ones, with action games being singled out as having plenty of positive effects on: perceptual skills, attention skills and effects on higher cognitive functions.
It’s probably worth pointing out when the study discusses “attention,” they mean the ability to filter out non-important information, rather than the ability to focus on one task for a long period.Thatskill is one of the few skills that was listed as maybe being more negatively impacted by games.
Other types of games have shown different types of improvements, to varying degrees.StarCraft II, for example, may not improve attention of short-term memory, but may improve cognitive flexibility, whilePortal 2improves problem solving and spatial reasoning skills.
Interestingly, the study calls out games likeDr. Kawashima’s Brain Trainingand other “brain games” as not having any benefit. In fact, the study argues that the addition of more gamified elements to otherwise normal cognitive tasks in games likeBrain Trainingactually reduces the effect they have.
The study then goes in-depth as to how these findings should impact things like government legislation and the advertising of games likeBrain Trainingthat claim to improve brain functioning. It’s one of the more readable studies I’ve come across, so it’s worth reading through it if you’re at all interested.
So, in essence:Dr. Kawashima: How Old is your Brain Because The Zombies That Are Coming Only Eat Old Onesshould come out sometime in 2017 if we’re lucky.
The Impacts of Video Games on Cognition (and How the Government Can Guide the Industry)[SageJournals]
Usually when science and videogames meet, it’s to do the billionth study on whether they cause violence. Every time, a lot of money is spent to find out that no: videogames probablydon’tcause violence, and then six months later a different team comes along and does the same thing.
So for once, it’s nice to see a study challenge the age old “videogames rot your brain!” argument instead. A study has found that not only do gamesnotrot your brain, but some games do the exact opposite and improve cognitive functioning. The study was published inPolicy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciencesjournal (and the full text of it can be seen here).
It’s not quite as clear-cut as “games improve brain functioning”, with only specific types of games having any benefit. Fortunately those games are often the most popular ones, with action games being singled out as having plenty of positive effects on: perceptual skills, attention skills and effects on higher cognitive functions. It’s probably worth pointing out when the study discusses “attention”, they mean the ability to filtre out non-important information, rather than the ability to focus on one task for a long period.Thatskill is one of the few skills that was listed as maybe being more negatively impacted by games.
Other types of games have shown different types of improvements, to varying degrees.Starcraft 2, for example,may not improve attention of short-term memory, but may improve cognitive flexibility, whilePortal 2improves problem solving and spatial reasoning skills.
