Having 3 hours PER DAY to do anything for leisure, even if it's a form of escape from terrible circumstances, is quite the luxury. I would guess at the population level circumstances that allow 3 hours a day of non-essential activities like this to be associated with circumstances that allow better cognitive performance than those without 3 hours a day of time to do something for personal interest.
Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
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Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#12Huh, my immediate assumption was income played a huge role but the video game cohort had poorer parents.
The gender difference is huge though, the nongaming cohort had 288 males and 840 females while the gaming cohort had 372 males and 307 females.
Also, I'm a bit confused why they just dumped anyone with between one and three hours of videogame playing a day.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#13If you're playing video games competitively, you're probably not drinking to excess.
I don't think many 9-10 year olds are alcoholics.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#14My son started playing games (with me) at 4 yo (partly because we were all locked indoors for months on end).
Anecdotally - and providing you use some discretion as to choice of game - I’ve found it absolutely fascinating to watch both the pace of development of problem-solving skills, and some of the frankly astounding leaps of logic and intuition young kids are capable of. I vividly remember one rock-moving puzzle in Breath of the Wild that had me stumped until he piped up with a proposal that turned out to be the correct solution. Fascinating stuff.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#15If you're playing video games competitively, you're probably not drinking to excess.
These were children - 9 and 10 years old. It is doubtful that any of them were playing competitively or drinking to excess.
Even in older folks, 3 hours a day isn't really playing competitively nor does it mean you aren't drinking. We used to spend many hours getting drunk and high and playing games. It was great fun, and still is from time to time.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#16Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#17[deleted]
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#18Problem is avoiding them being used as a coping mechanism for stress
Yea, video games can definitely end up being an unhealthy coping mechanism used to avoid addressing your real life issues. That said they are probably on balance a better coping mechanism than some of the other popular ones out there (Alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling) but definitely worth keeping an eye on. Especially because video games aren't restricted for children like all those others things are (at least in theor…
Gambling is roughly described as gaming with higher stakes, IMO. My totally unqualified, unsubstantiated guess would be the average gambler has higher cognitive performance than the average video game player. A dumb gambler goes broke sooner or later, which doesn't make them all quit but it does make some of them quit, which I would wager causes a selective effect towards the smarter ones.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#19Problem is avoiding them being used as a coping mechanism for stress
Videogames as a coping mechanism for stress stopped me from committing suicide. It's not so simple, nothing ever is.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea, video games can definitely end up being an unhealthy coping mechanism used to avoid addressing your real life issues. That said they are probably on balance a better coping mechanism than some of the other popular ones out there (Alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling) but definitely worth keeping an eye on. Especially because video games aren't restricted for children like all those others things are (at least in theor…
Gambling is roughly described as gaming with higher stakes, IMO. My totally unqualified, unsubstantiated guess would be the average gambler has higher cognitive performance than the average video game player. A dumb gambler goes broke sooner or later, which doesn't make them all quit but it does make some of them quit, which I would wager causes a selective effect towards the smarter ones.
I think you're envisioning gambling as a poker shark, when it could be someone betting on horses, playing slot machines, or buying scratch cards.