Gamers on higher level, study shows
They’ve been mocked as mind-numbing, juvenile and even addictive, but it turns out video games can actually make you smarter, according to a blockbuster presentation yesterday at the American Psychological Association convention in Boston.
Researchers detailed a series of studies showing that today’s gamers could well be tomorrow’s surgeons. Their surprising conclusions included:
The popular multiplayer online game “world of warcraft
” can improve scientific thinking.
Laparoscopic surgeons who play video games are 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than non-gamers.
“There are some very compelling cases that video-game playing leads to advanced problem-solving in math, science, and spatial skills,” said
Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg. “I do think it has benefits.”
The study of surgeons was conducted by Iowa State University psychologist Dr. Douglas Gentile; Dr. Paul Lynch, associate professor of anestheology at the Mayo Clinic; and other researchers.
“I noticed that, invariably, the doctors who played video games were better at surgery,” Lynch said.
Gentile and Lynch argue that video games are producing a generation of more adept surgeons. And here’s the good news: The rest of the game-playing world is reaping benefits too.
With 92 percent of kids playing some sort of video game, Gentile says it’s become a “natural learning tool” for younger audiences.
But he warned that monitoring the content of what kids are playing was instrumental in gleaning gaming benefits.
Gleeful Hub gamers said they were not surprised by the results of the study.
“I can’t say I’m shocked. Games have definitely improved my concentration and reactions . . . especially for driving,” said 35-year-old Chris Boswell, a scientific researcher from Cambridge, who owns a PlayStation 2, a PSP and a Nintendo Wii.
Christopher Cavallacci, 21, an international relations student at Boston University, agreed, but warned “there is a severe downside.”
“It dulls the ability to finitely concentrate on anything that doesn’t have a million things going on at once, such as studying law books or history books.”
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very good!