Can Video Games Make You Smarter?

However, there is a glimmer of hope, because new studies suggest playing video games makes you smarter. A new study suggests that not only does having a history of playing video games in your childhood make you a better player in adulthood, it can provide lasting cognitive benefits. A new study suggests that playing video games in your childhood may offer lasting cognitive advantages, even years after playing. While the new study is not conclusive proof, it and other studies have suggested that playing video games may enhance memory, spatial reasoning, and attention.   

ENHANCE MEMORY AND COORDINATION 

A 2015 study found playing three-dimensional video games could enhance memory formation and enhance hand-eye coordination, according to professor Tom Vasich of UC Irvine. Scientists have also suggested playing video games may be used as a method of helping to train individuals to make sensory decisions. In the past few years, a number of experiments have been conducted, with many drawing conclusions about how playing games may boost brain functions, problem-solving skills, spatial reasoning, memory, attention, strategic planning, and even social skills, among others. One study from last year found a convincing correlation between playing video games and increased psychological wellbeing, and another study from recently found a correlation between time spent in social media apps and larger friendship groups among children.   

 SCREEN TIME

Screen time of any sort is typically considered to have negative effects on children development, but new research by a team of European researchers makes an impressively different case, providing evidence that playing video games can actually increase children intellectual abilities. Let us look at a handful of studies which point out not only that playing games may make you smarter, but that break down a couple of stereotypes as well. His research group is now looking into what features in action video games are critical for increasing players learning. In her research, Bavelier and her team of researchers first compared visual performance in 10 players playing titles such as Call of Duty, compared to that in 10 individuals playing non-action games such as Restaurante Empire and The Sims 2, a life-simulation video game.  

CALL OF DUTY

In fact, playing action games such as the Call of Duty franchise has been shown by researchers to enhance working memory performance, whereas playing non-action titles did not. A new study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows for the first time that people who play action games such as Call of Duty and Unreal Tournament 2004 Call of Duty display greater learning ability than people who play non-action games. At the start of the study, researchers found no correlation between gaming time and lower- or higher-than-average intelligence.   

This finding is consistent with earlier, smaller studies in which participants were randomized into either a gaming group or a control group. For instance, if the study was designed to examine whether the presence of an action video game affected decision-making in gamers as opposed to non-gamers, then telling participants this information will allow them to know what group they are in; gamers will know that they are the experimental group, while non-gamers will know that they are in the control group.