Researchers: Video Games May Not Improve Cognition

[mortsmi7]

Reading TH article comments severely reduces my cognitive ability.

 

[Swolern]

[citation][nom]bv90andy[/nom]In other news, listening to Mozart doesn't make your IQ explode.[/citation]

How about listening to Mozart while shooting someone in the face online on BFBC 2.

 

[ikaruga]

Wrong! The kid here started playing minecraft when he was 6 and it made a huge impact on his IQ and on his decision making ability in other games. Children are learning by playing, and video-games are no exceptions.

 

[ProDigit10]

Playing games will not boost your social skills, neither motor skills like better walking or a better reaction to a real life car crash!
It merely makes you better respond in a gaming environment to gaming environment defined parameters; and since real life has an infinite amount of parameters (or infinite amount of possible events or outcomes), it would be impossible to predict such outcome and optimize the brain for better cognitive responses.

Much like social workers tend to have it easier being social, because they (should) train daily; so a gamer can respond better in gaming environments.

 

[rohitbaran]

There researches will keep giving results about the existence of benefits (or not) of playing videogames. Well, I don't care because I play them to enjoy, simple!

 

[beachbod]

I remember reading a while back that computer gaming improves your hand-eye coordination and can make you a better surgeon etc.

It also depends on what your playing. I think anyone would have a hard time saying that good puzzle games like portal, Halflife 2 deathmatch puzzle mod, world of goo or braid will rot your brain.

 

[ooo]

[citation][nom]ProDigit10[/nom]Playing games will not boost your social skills, neither motor skills like better walking or a better reaction to a real life car crash!It merely makes you better respond in a gaming environment to gaming environment defined parameters; and since real life has an infinite amount of parameters (or infinite amount of possible events or outcomes), it would be impossible to predict such outcome and optimize the brain for better cognitive responses.Much like social workers tend to have it easier being social, because they (should) train daily; so a gamer can respond better in gaming environments.[/citation]

Wrong my friend recon that the car racing game save him from crashing cuz he applied the same reaction that he did in the game so its true whatever you want to accept it or not ...live and learn junior... i dont encourage speed racing he was under speed limit but the other driver hit the brake too hard in red light and my friend has to use that tactic to avoid the accident period it worked ...

 

[eddieroolz]

I'd say playing FPS games competitively has improved my response times, at least for events on the computer. Not so sure about real life.

 

[Guest]

simulators are considered games, no?

 

[cats_Paw]

... Seriously, what kind of bullshit are they selling? Lets make this crystal clear:
Playing many diffrent games, that have diffrent gamestyle, reactions to human input (diffrent speed of rotation with mice for example), and compleatly diffrent storyline improve brain activity.

1 Reason: everytime you are learning something new.

Its quite obvious to most people that if you play always the same raceing game, you are not gonna use your brain much. In fact many peoople tend to say that when they do, they feel like they do it automaticly, and feel sleepy (the brain uses that time to partially rest, as it can do that job and rest same time).

Now, anyone can probably guess that this is not only logical, but also a fact known to humanity.

My 2 cents .

 

[JonnyDough]

[citation][nom]sirus3020[/nom]simulators are considered games, no?[/citation]

Irrelevant to the discussion. Simulators are for training purposes. It is designed to teach steps, to make us think critically about what we must do. Simulators are NOT designed to improve cognitive skills, they are designed to train us how to operate machines.

 

[Guest]

But my grandma told me crossword puzzles would maintain a sharp wit, and my teachers said training and practice would result in mastery. If all this is false and the original study is true, then it stands to reason that Alzheimer's patients are just as well off staring at the wall 24/7 as they are by engaging in stimulating and demanding mental activities. A real shocker to people who think the brain can be built like a muscle.

Interesting point in the article that individual faculties (short/long memory, pattern recognition, problem solving, etc) can be improved temporarily by lots of training, but that it's very difficult to boost all faculties. I guess the brain just has limits imposed upon it.