28 Dec, 2009
It’s official – gaming makes you smarter!
Okay, so it’s a tiny sample and the scientific basis of this is shaky at best but come on . . . how often do we hear that gaming is good for you? NEVER – that’s how often. So let’s roll with it.
A psychology professor in the US took 40 students and, in the interest of science, told half of them to “just go around [and] shoot as many people as you can” playing Medal of Honour for an hour, whilst the other half were given the puzzle game Portal, where players need to take an easy, considered approach and think things through carefully.
In order to examine the short-term affects of video games, all students performed speed and accuracy tests to ascertain their responsiveness before and after their hour of gaming. The result was that there was a marked difference in the group playing the fast-paced game.
“Kids seemed to be a lot faster at tasks so they can do things faster, but they’re a lot less accurate, and the reverse was true of the puzzle game,” Professor Nelson said in the journal Perception. “So after the puzzle game, they are slower but much more accurate at what they’re doing.”
“If you’re choosing games for your kids to play, don’t have them play an action game just before doing their homework or just before taking a test, [choose] something where they have to sit down and actually think,” Nelson added.
All joking aside, as a parent myself, this is really interesting stuff. I’ve always fervently believed that gaming improves hand/eye co-ordination, logic-thinking and problem-solving skills, but I’d never before considered the advantages to improving concentration. What do you guys think?
Via Wfie.com
I, too, have always felt that gaming improved knowledge and hand eye coordination. In fact, I make a point of playing a strategy based or puzzle based game before studying for tests. Every time I do, my score is higher than one when I didn’t, even if it is just by five points. I also use shooters with a lot of precision before I draw, and my drawing improves as well. The fact of the matter is, video games train us in a fun and addicting way. So it’s no wonder so many people have tried to take advantage of video games for learning and teaching. Also, my brother who is disabled has video games for the Wii as part of his rehab. This is because games for the Wii require accuracy and precision, as well as hand-eye coordination. So hurray for the science to actually be for us for once!
Exactly! As I said, I’m so tired of gaming getting knocked when there are many benefits that are often overlooked.
I’m impressed that you’re already capitalising on this, though, to hone your concentration or skills.
I’ve always thought that video games were a great way to learn without even realising you are doing so…. ‘Stealth learning’ as they call it.
I for one probably owe most of my english language skills to all of the reading that I did on Baldur’s Gate at such a young age.
Again, exactly. It’s really encouraged my (6 yo) son to improve his reading. Only this week we were reading one of his school books and we came across the word ‘continue’. I was just about to help him with it when it came right out. Amazed, I asked him how he knew it and he told me it was because of FIFA 09!