Video Games as a way to improve brain functions?

Paradox74

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593673,00.html

I can see that games can be educational (Crossword, Word Muncher etc.) but violent video games?

Now, I'm a big fan of shooters like Call of Duty and role-play games such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls but I don't see how they can, in a practical manner, improve brain functions. Can anyone here provide some input?
 
Paradox74 said:
Now, I'm a big fan of shooters like Call of Duty and role-play games such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls but I don't see how they can, in a practical manner, improve brain functions. Can anyone here provide some input?
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I feel my detective skill have much improved after playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.
 
I recall my cognitive psych professor talking about a study in which hand eye coordination was being tested. The researchers had difficulty coming up with a computerized test on which video game players and non-video game players were able to be measured. It was either far too difficult for non-players or far too easy for players. I can't remember the authors of the study or honestly any real details, it's just something that stuck in my memory.

I find it difficult to believe that playing video games would fail to improve a person's hand eye coordination in activities that are closely related to video games (whatever those might be) but I don't know how well that would translate to something like catching a ball.
 
Let's look at the peer-reviewed journal articles. I found this one below:
PDF: http://www.sheu.org.uk/pubs/eh203mg.pdf (from 2002, in Education and Health)
Research dating right back to the early 1980s has consistently shown that playing computer games (irrespective of genre) produces reductions in reaction times, improved hand-eye co-ordination and raises players’ self-esteem. What’s more, curiosity, fun and the nature of the challenge also appear to add to a game’s educational potential.
[...]
Some evidence suggests that important skills may be built or reinforced by videogames. For example, spatial visualization ability (i.e., mentally, rotating and manipulating two-and three-dimensional objects) improve with videogame playing. Videogames were also more effective for children who started out with relatively poor skills. It has also been suggested that videogames may be useful in equalizing individual differences in spatial skill performance.
[...]
Videogames can assist children in setting goals, ensuring goal rehearsal, providing feedback, reinforcement, and maintaining records of behavioural change.
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And much more but I don't want to quote too much of it.

Computer games teach computer skills, which provide significant advantages with education and employment. Memory stimulation, planning, problem solving, spatial manipulation, hand-eye-coordination, attention to detail, maths skills...

The other journal articles I found were either too old to represent videogames today (like from around 1985) or were about the educational benefits of overtly educational games.
 
Video games-- or really any cognitive training -- produce "near transfer" at best. Your cognitive skills increase just for those tasks that are very similar to what was trained.

Far transfer is much harder to get, if indeed it's ever been gotten.

Usually, any training gains are gone not too long after training ends.
 
I hope my nephews never see this article. If they do, they'll use to explain why they should be allowed to play more video games - if that is possible!
 
I think my reflexes were greatly improved by playing Super Mario on NES. My problem solving skills were aided by playing Zelda. My brother and I used to make maps so we could navigate better in that game. My self esteem was improved by beating Glass Joe in Mike Tysons Punch Out. Yes, Glass Joe.

I was like 7 years old, so it was a big thing at the time.
 
The US Military has been using First-person shooter games for years to test and increase reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and multitasking.

Games have shown increases in users in all three of those areas, which isn't always a good thing! Being a better multitasker has the unfortunately side effect of making people function ineptly when their brains aren't being used to their fullest - case in point, ADD and ADHD.
 
Nursedan said:
I think my reflexes were greatly improved by playing Super Mario on NES. My problem solving skills were aided by playing Zelda. My brother and I used to make maps so we could navigate better in that game. My self esteem was improved by beating Glass Joe in Mike Tysons Punch Out. Yes, Glass Joe.

I was like 7 years old, so it was a big thing at the time.
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My wife laughs at me :) I play a lot of strategy and RPG type games, and I'm constantly making spreadsheets to track/plan character development, or to visualize strategies. I also do the map thing...at one point, I had a huge map made up of about 12 printed sheets for one game, on which I had marked the locations with various colors for various types of areas.

Yes, I am a geek :p
 
Hellbound said:
My wife laughs at me :) I play a lot of strategy and RPG type games, and I'm constantly making spreadsheets to track/plan character development, or to visualize strategies. I also do the map thing...at one point, I had a huge map made up of about 12 printed sheets for one game, on which I had marked the locations with various colors for various types of areas.

Yes, I am a geek :p
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I learned how to use Excel when I organized my province in Utopia, before it went all graphical.
 
In an operating room setting, I know residents who've used video games as a way of adjusting to the disconnected hand-eye coordination required in scoped procedures. Basically, when you're performing laproscopic/arthroscopic/endoscopic/bronchoscopy/cystoscopy procedures, you are manipulating the instruments and camera while watching a monitor...much like a video game.
 
Well, the entire game Brain Age is based on the idea that yes, you can improve brain functions through training.
 
Since playing Bard's Tale II, I don't have to rotate a map so it's aligned with my facing any more. That's a big boon.
 
Almo said:
Since playing Bard's Tale II, I don't have to rotate a map so it's aligned with my facing any more. That's a big boon.
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Good point. I never thought about it, but I've always been good at map reading (associating terrain with the maop, finding my location, determining direction and distance, etc). In fact, I generally ace all the land nav courses we do in the military (always one of the first in, if not the first, with all points found).

Makes me wonder how much my video gaming had to do with that :)
 
My doctor approved my use of computer games (specificaly World of Warcraft) as a distraction from obsessive thought processes, citing a study which showed that playing Tetris reduced the distress of PTSD.

Apparently, playing a deep and involving game that demands constant concentration uses the same part of the brain that runs over and over unpleasant experiences when left to free-wheel. I if I can find a link to the study I'll post it, but I'm not setting out looking for it now...I need my bed :P
 
Hellbound said:
Good point. I never thought about it, but I've always been good at map reading (associating terrain with the maop, finding my location, determining direction and distance, etc). In fact, I generally ace all the land nav courses we do in the military (always one of the first in, if not the first, with all points found).

Makes me wonder how much my video gaming had to do with that :)
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Now that you've mentioned it, I am associating my friends who can't read maps as the ones I couldn't teach to use mini-maps in videogames. Probably confirmation bias, though.
 
quixotecoyote said:
Now that you've mentioned it, I am associating my friends who can't read maps as the ones I couldn't teach to use mini-maps in videogames. Probably confirmation bias, though.
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Well, correllation does not equal causation, so maybe I'm just good at map reading and this reflects in both video games and read-world land nav.

Might be worth a study to a psychologist in training somewhere, though.
 
Since when did people start taking Fox News seriously? :( The article is somewhat misleading. Playing FPS games probably does have some form of effect on the brain but how do they measure it? Yes you learn something but how is this better or worse than what you can learn by doing something else? It is highly relative since both games and alternative actions would vary alot. I don't think playing one hour of counter strike is, obviously, as productive as watching one episode of Carl Sagans "Cosmos". Gaming is nothing more than recieving information and reacting accordingly, like most things in life and so the only "speciality" it has is repeatations and the "amusement factor". Basically what they have discovered then is that if you do something a lot of times while having fun you have a greater chance of learning, and is thus equally effective as, lets say, you masturbate while watching porn.
 
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