Researchers have been discovering some surprising benefits in playing video games
Video games have often been given a bad rap. Whenever a school shooting or other act of extreme violence takes place, people – including respected, informed celebrities – leap onto the anti-video game band wagon, laying the blame for aberrant behaviour squarely at the feet of this ever-growing pastime. Even lesser evils are blamed on the activity, with the stereotypical image of a parent telling their kids to stop wasting their time with video games and rather go and play outside springing to mind.
But playing games – the more traditional ones – has long been seen as an important part of the development process of youngsters. After all, playing make-believe can have massive benefits, from socialisation skills through to creativity. If the structure of play, and the chemical and neurological effects it has on the body, can facilitate learning, is it not be possible that video games could have similar results? Researchers Adam Eichenbaum, Daphne Bavelier and C. Shaw Green asked the same question, and the findings that they published in a paper entitled Video Games: Play that can do Serious Good certainly indicate that the age-old perception as video games being any negative thing between “time wasters” and “murder simulators” is simply not a balanced view of the activity.
In fact, the findings of the paper are quite enlightening. Some of them have been mentioned before, but the collation of all this information by three respected researchers certainly is food for thought… as, apparently, are video games.
Games prove to be extremely beneficial as learning tools. “Research shows that our brains release in abundance neurochemicals related to reward processing—for example, dopamine—when individuals play video games,” the paper states. “These are the same chemicals the brain releases when a hungry or thirsty person receives food or water, as well as when someone takes one of the many commonly abused drugs. In fact, the magnitude of the dopamine release related to playing electronic games resembles that related to some recreational drug use. Critically, these same brain chemicals prove essential in permitting brain plasticity and thus learning.” In other words, the activity places us into a state in which our brains are ready to learn.
By using systems like reward structures on multiple levels – in which the player never knows exactly when the next reward will come, but they are aware that there is a reward coming – games motivate players to keep playing. This means that gaming has a high degree of time-on-task, making it an ideal area for education. It is also why people can learn new controls, and improve at games. By providing a steady learning curve combined with rewards, gaming keeps the player interested while their brain function is stimulated. This has been linked to higher mental retention levels and improved memory.
In addition, video games more often than not allow a player freedom within that learning process; the ability to complete tasks in a variety of ways. This is related to concepts like “thinking out of the box”, or being able to apply learned information in a variety of different ways.
Beyond brain stimulation and a heightened ability to learn, games also give benefits to cognitive and perceptual processing. This is particularly true of the most vilified of video games – action games. Action games improves a vast number of cognitive abilities. These include improved contrast sensitivity (being able to discern between shades of grey, essentially) as well as heightened levels of visual attention, This refers to the ability to remain focussed on something while there are distractions in the background, and to discern small details while doing so. The time that this can be done for is also improved by action video game playing.
Other tests have shown that playing action video games has a positive effect on neural processing and sustained attention spans, as well as improving cognitive flexibility and executive functioning (basically a fancy way of saying multitasking).
The paper goes on to show some real world uses of video gaming, such as the treatment of amblyopia (lazy eye syndrome) as well as improved eyesight in general. Video games have also been used to combat cognitive decline in older people by stimulating mental activity, and children with dyslexia have shown improvement after video gaming. Superior performances in numerous jobs, including surgery and military jet piloting, have been displayed by video
gamers too.
The paper is quick to point out that this is not an excuse for binge-gaming. Most tests performed were done at intervals, with gaming periods between twenty and seventy-five minutes per day being employed. In fact, playing too much can result in certain benefits – particularly in terms of learning – to be lessened. But as part of a balanced life-style, video games certainly bring numerous advantages – and actual benefits – to the table.
“Over the past half-century, video games have evolved into effective learning tools,” the paper concludes. “Not only do they promote an astounding amount of time on task, the games also use a number of techniques known to promote efficient and transferable learning. Although some researchers express concern about the potential negative outcomes of gaming, others see quite clearly that video game training creates a great number of positive outcomes. A growing body of research demonstrates that some types of games, in particular action video games, promote improvements in a wide variety of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive abilities. These enhancements are of a scope and scale that such games are being used, off the shelf, for a variety of practical purposes. Today’s video games are much more than entertainment. They are also weapons in the fight against declining mental capacities in old age. They promote job-related skills. And they are a model of how to teach children complex and difficult tasks and abilities. As with any technology, video games are neither intrinsically good nor intrinsically bad. Instead, the nature of their impact depends upon what users make of them. The research reviewed in this article makes clear that video games represent a form of play that can be harnessed for serious good. The challenge we now face is to determine those gamedesign ingredients that most efficiently help, for example, an Alzheimer’s patient fight cognitive decay or more efficiently teach a twelve-year-old mathematics. Systematic research— including direct collaboration between the video game industry and research scientists—will go a long way to speeding the pace of discovery.”
And so it seems that the argument that fans of playing video games have been making – albeit not based on any concrete evidence – may just have some merit. Nothing is black and white in this world, and the effect of video games certainly falls into the grey areas that lie between those extremes. But it is gratifying to know that not everyone is blaming video games for the ills of the world, be they big or small. And as the industry grows and generates more and more income every year, it is likely that more research like this will take place, and more benefits will be discovered to balance out the bad reputation that playing video games has. They may never start bringing them into school rooms to help the development of youngsters, but as the benefits of video games become more and more apparent, perhaps parents and caregivers will realise that video games can form a valuable developmental part of a balanced lifestyle.