Researchers: Video Games May Not Improve Cognition

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]tlm man[/nom]Maybe this is because they are doing studies on the popular games of today, unlike the studies from years ago that would have researched the popular games at that time. If you were to tell me that playing mindless iPhone and Facebook games offers no intellectual benefits and simply rots your brain, I would be pretty quick to believe you.Maybe it isn't gaming that's the problem. Maybe it's just the industry failing to create any kind of intellectually stimulating game.[/citation]

THAAAAT! Well, I don't want my game to be "intellectually stimulating" (for that, try NetHack), because best form of rest is changing the activity type and I do more than enough intellectual work, so in my games I want something else... but not dumb BS like in Facebook and phone/tablet games. I'd MAYBE (would probably rather read a good book) play these games when I'm bored and can't fall asleep... but in that case I have my PC with much better ones, so why bother?

[citation][nom]utengineer[/nom]"Video Games May Not Improve Cognition" Duh! Video games are programs. The are written and designed so the USER is forced to only do a unique thing to get the PROGRAMMED result. Video games are WROTE learning at best.

Sorry pwn'ers, if you get high scores...it is because you played and practiced more than the next guy. You really don't have to think hard.Try getting an 'A' in Differential Equations and Thermodynamics, going to football practice and almost passing out from running, reading a 500 page classic in one week and writing a paper on it the last day, attending to your heart-broken girlfriend...whose dad died, and working 30 hours that SAME WEEK at a law firm. That my friends, makes you develop cognitive skills that outweigh sitting quietly at your desk manipulating a PROGRAM that says shoot here, you get a kill. So what if you trolled some wasteland and collected jewels to increase your magic points. It is a program and tells you what to do and YOU DO IT. That does not take much thought.[/citation]

Contradicting paragraphs. The things YOU described are only achieved with practice, too! And many gamers also have things to achieve IRL... and games help often, too (just not FPS, lol), I guarantee that.

Oh yeah, and I wouldn't go spreading your personal life around in the internets... people don't seem to care. Differential equations aren't that bad (learned the basics in two evenings), neither are thermodynamics; you should've arranged some more time for your homework, plus reading 500 page classic can be done in a DAY... I did it... just practice more (U MAD), and I work 35 hours a week. Can't say anything about your girlfriend amd her dead dad, though, luckily I haven't had to deal with anything like that yet. See, THAT's why you don't post your personal life on the internet: bored people on their weekends (like me, lol) will post BS about it. Besides, your comment was completely irrelevant. You're just hating on gaming in general...

I've seen many people who say that games don't bring any benefits, but I've just had too many examples in my life that say otherwise.

[citation][nom]alyoshka[/nom]Well, the coin has 2 sides right? so if games can't improve cognition or anything they certainly can't cause a Norway like tragedy, irrelevant of what the chap claims right?[/citation]

As I said in the article about Norway tragedy, it's YOUR choice. If you're sick in the head and ready to kill people. avoiding games not help - you belong in a madhouse or something.

[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]Research have also indicated that researcher paid by corporations always sway their views to their "masters" and in the process sell their souls to them![/citation]

Oh yes, that they do.

 

[darkgauntlett]

[citation][nom]gnookergi[/nom]I call BS on this BS claim. I can say for myself that things like my situational awareness greatly increased when I started playing FPS games.[/citation]

FPS games made me paranoid too.

 

[madjimms]

A study from FLORIDA (an ultra conservative state) I'm guessing the researchers voted for both Bush's also.

 

[hunter315]

I think people are misinterpreting this statement by them.

What they meant was that the previous studies do not prove causality, they only show a correlation, so games may or may not improve cognition, it may just be that games have better awareness to begin with, but their statement is certainly not saying that there is zero connection between gaming and cognition.

 

[Shin-san]

Depends on the game. Some games are just mindless entertainment, like some music, art pieces, and movies are. Don't get me wrong because I do enjoy some mindless entertainment from time-to-time.

Video games have to be a game. I feel that this is the hardest part is making a game an entertaining experience to where the player wants to experience it again and again.
[citation][nom]utengineer[/nom]"Video Games May Not Improve Cognition" Duh! Video games are programs. The are written and designed so the USER is forced to only do a unique thing to get the PROGRAMMED result.
...
So what if you trolled some wasteland and collected jewels to increase your magic points. It is a program and tells you what to do and YOU DO IT. That does not take much thought.[/citation]
Basically like exercises at the end of a chapter in a textbook, or a teacher's lesson plans.

 

[DSpider]

Say what you will but I can still recall maps from games I haven't played in years, with, dare I say it, complete detail.

From Quake II: BigGun, TheEdge
From Counter-Strike: cs_dust, cs_dust2, cs_assault, cs_militia, cs_italy, etc.

Most of them I can't remember by name, probably because I wasn't an admin on those servers and I couldn't change the map by name, but I still remember complete maps from Quake III, Unreal Tournament. Not necessarily FPS games, but games like GTA (2, III, Vice City) too.

In real life, for me, there's one particular example which comes to mind when I was in 8th grade, I felt like I could understand trigonometry better than my classmates. I could see the angles within a complex figure. And my grades reflected this.

Another would be that I could travel, in my mind, everywhere in my neighbourhood and outside of it. I could imagine myself in the middle of the road and "zoom in" on details, kinda like the street view from Google Maps. This is when I was 13-14 or so...

A more recent event is from when I visited Italy in 2007 or so for a month. I can still visualise the streets, all the way to the seaside, either by foot or by car (different routes). I can even remember which routes were the smelliest! Naples was on garbage strike for year at that time, the whole city stank.

Did games help me? I don't know. It could mean I had a lot of imagination for my age and that I had to channel it somehow. I bet some 18th century biographies mention streets, shops, smells, etc with fine detail too, way way before video games were invented.

 

[Guest]

I play some Gran Turismo or Forza and I have a lot better awareness when driving.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]DSpider[/nom]From Counter-Strike: cs_dust, cs_dust2, cs_assault, cs_militia, cs_italy, etc.[/citation]

cs_italy is my favorite map, though I don't like CS that much

And if your cognitive ability isn't improved by Quake 3... you're beyond help

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]Okay, so you're disputing the results of a scientific study by using potentially unrelated self-perceived increases in awareness as evidence to the contrary? Alright.[/citation]

Lol, scientific studies also tell me that my older brother should have been more successful than me in education. Well, I can counter that "study" with my own experience easily.

 

[a sandwhich]

Well, I know it has improved my ability to move my right index finger down 2 mm within a few deci-seconds.

 

[bv90andy]

In other news, listening to Mozart doesn't make your IQ explode.

 

[bv90andy]

[citation][nom]gnookergi[/nom]Lol, scientific studies also tell me that my older brother should have been more successful than me in education. Well, I can counter that "study" with my own experience easily.[/citation]
Funny you should say that, because in my experience it is truth, and I didn't even know they were running studies on it. From about 10 families with children which I know (colleges in school, both parents, cousins,me and my sister) in only one case it isn't true

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]bv90andy[/nom]Funny you should say that, because in my experience it is truth, and I didn't even know they were running studies on it. From about 10 families with children which I know (colleges in school, both parents, cousins,me and my sister) in only one case it isn't true[/citation]

Both my parents are more educated and financially successful than their siblings, and they are the youngest out of 3 and 6, respectively. My cousin is also the oldest in her family, and dropped out of both HS and college.

The fact that both our experiences completely differ is the exact point I was making. The study is BS, just like this one.

 

[bin1127]

What about playing sudoku on a DS?

 

[BulkZerker]

Ill probably be the firsy to outright agree that the study is right in that people with high cognative skills are drawn to games. Friends gf has horrid cognative skills. We got her TF2 and she does the least deamnding thing possible. Sit on a despenser as a heavy. However if she was somehow forced to play a more demanding role. Like attacking, she might be overwhelmed. Hmm maybe ill force her to pocket med me and we will see how long it takes her to say she's done playing.

 

[ooo]

Well im going to talk about my friend´s experience ...Juan ...he was a bad driver who crashed his car several times in 5 years or so, and then i remember introducing him to play gran turismo 2 or 3 cant remember which 1...the point is that he prevent an accident for him and me when we where driving to his house... before any gameplay Juan always brake a lot to prevent a car crash in real life and never let go the brake pedal until he actually crash...but after the videogame (the videogame has to be the most realistic possible to real life in order the process learned in virtual enviroments could be applied in similar way to real life) he avoided a crash accident, he noticed that braking hard not always safe him from an accident so instead (he learned this approach in racing videogame first) he brake according to the distance available until he could turn the wheel to change direction and prevent the crash, of course there were no cars at any side either ...so yeah he learned that move first by practicing a videogame a lot because more practice makes you learn faster about a situation...experience counts a lot my friends...

 

[cookoy]

but can playing Angry Birds help release my pent up anger for all the cholesterol those pigs are putting on my system?

 

[Guest]

I think these researchers need to better define "cognative"...us military has done several studies suggesting that individuals who played FPS games when compared to those who played flight sim games or no games at all had on average a 30% gain in hand/eye coordination and reaction time while flying high performance aircraft. Good or bad these games also helped soldiers overcome natural aversions of combat, desensitizing troops to killing the enemy. They may not give you improved memory or help with critical thinking but like any repetitive task they do improve certain motor skills and reaction time. For me they're also very addictive but thats a different topic altogether.

 

[TheWhiteRose000]

Don't listen to them there from FL, land of the giant rat, besides the heat here frys everyone's brain.

That's why I stay inside on a computer where it's nice a cool.
(Is from Florida.)

 

[upgrade_1977]

Wait till cyborgs or hordes of zombies take over, then well see what these researchers think when they are trying to fend them off without our help.