The beneficial effects of video games: Do action video games sharpen visual-spatial skills?

© 2009 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Some video games can be engrossing, so much so that kids neglect other activities, like school work, chores, exercise, and sleep .

And there is evidence that playing violent video games can make kids more aggressive.

But are the effects of video games all bad?



Studies suggest that prosocial video games--i.e., games that encourage players to be helpful--make kids more inclined to help others in the real world (Gentile et al 2009).

And research indicates that kids who play action video games may be sharpening their visual attention skills and improving their capacity for visualizing three-dimensional objects.

Video games that hone visual-spatial skills

But beginning gamers improve over time. So, whatever else you might think about action video games, one thing seems clear. To play them well you need to develop your visual attention skills. And there are other improvements, too.

Researchers have tested experienced gamers--kids and young adults--on variety of cognitive tasks (e.g., Boot et al 2008; Green and Bavelier 2007; Dye et al 2009). Compared to non-gamers of the same age, the experienced gamers could:

• track objects moving at faster speeds

• track more objects at once

• filter out irrelevant visual information

• switch more quickly from one task to the next

• better detect changes in briefly-flashing visual arrays

• more accurately predict how three dimensional objects would appear when rotated

These differences might reflect self-selection: Maybe people who are more skilled at these tasks are more motivated to play video games.

But experimental studies suggest that playing action video games might help people become more skillful in at least one visual-spatial task. Inexperienced people trained with video games have improved their mental rotation abilities (e.g., Green and Bavelier 2007; Feng et al 2007; Boot et al 2008).

Implications

But it seems to me that people who perform better on visual attention tasks might make better drivers and pilots. Spatial rotation skills ought to come in handy whenever we need to make objects “fit,” whether the context is mechanical engineering…or attempting to parallel park your car. Moreover, it’s probably short-sighted to dismiss these any of these skills as “non-academic.”

Once upon a time, the skills that make kids good readers would have had little relevance. Before the invention of books, the ability to memorize information was probably more important than the ability to decode writing.

Someday, researchers may develop more efficient technologies for transmitting information--technologies that will depend on the user’s visual-spatial skills. When that happens, the best action video gamers may have an advantage.

Meanwhile, researchers are exploring the use of video games as a tool to train visual skills in patients with disabilities (Achtman et al 2008). And it appears that action video games could help girls--who tend to be less adept at spatial rotation--improve their spatial rotation abilities. (Feng et al 2007).

So perhaps we owe action video games a bit of respect. After all, we encourage kids to play games that improve their hand-eye coordination and aim. Maybe we should think of action video games in the same way--as activities that have the potential to sharpen our children’s perceptions and responses to the world.

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References: The beneficial effects of video games

Anderson CA, 2008 Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States Pediatrics122(5): 1067-1072.

Boot WR, Kramer AF, Simons DJ, Fabiani M, and Gratton G. 2008. The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychol (Amst). 129(3):387-98.

Dye MW, Green CS, Bavelier D. 2009. The development of attention skills in action video game players. Neuropsychologia. 47(8-9):1780-9.

Feng J, Spence I, and Pratt J. 2007. Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in spatial cognition. Psychol Sci. 18(10):850-5.

Gentile DA, Anderson CA, Yukawa S, Ihori N, et al. 2009. The effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behaviors: International evidence from correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 35(6): 752-763.

Gentile D. 2009. Pathological video-game use among youth ages 8 to 18: a national study. Psychol Sci. 20(5):594-602.

Green CS and Bavelier D. 2007. Action-video-game experience alters the spatial resolution of vision. Psychol Sci. 18(1):88-94

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