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Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

nida.nih.gov

41–50 of 332 posts

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#42
post #8

Careful now. Self-assortment into those who don't play at all and those who play at least three hours per day? There's good reasons to think those weren't otherwise equivalent populations in the first place. I'm buying "associated" but any sort of claims about effects from the games are going to have to come from elsewhere.

Would you assume the same thing about playing a musical instrument or playing a sport? What is playing video games except practicing cognitive performance? It works spatial reasoning, logic, dexterity, problem solving, reactions, etc.

Yes, but for different reasons. Playing an instrument or sport means you're more likely to have a non-poor family with parents who have time to spend with you.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#43

My 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…

What games do you recommend for kids of that age?

Minecraft in creative mode

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#44

Huh, 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.

Video games are like the cheapest way to keep a kid busy for low income working parents. I guess they could send the kids outside but people nowadays start asking questions if a kid is caught outside while single mom is working for 3 hours or something. Given infinite money I think many of those parents would send the kid with nanny if needed or whatever to organized sports, piano classes, etc.

> Video games are like the cheapest way to keep a kid busy for low income working parents

Source on that? Video games (console or pc) is very expensive and not something low income folks can generally afford for their kids.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#45
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you assume the same thing about playing a musical instrument or playing a sport? What is playing video games except practicing cognitive performance? It works spatial reasoning, logic, dexterity, problem solving, reactions, etc.

could be kids who have access to a console and have several hours a day free might be in a different socioeconomic environment? but with cheap phone games, maybe not. hmmm...

I’m inclined to disagree based on antithetical first hand experiences. In fact the only console we ever had growing up, my father smashed in front of us after a year because all he gave a shit about was our grades. When a few classes started slipping he blamed the box.

Also, “associated” is different from “causality”, right?

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#46

My 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…

What games do you recommend for kids of that age?

I’ve found that the same games I was playing around that age are actually still fun - Commodore 64 games. Basic, non-distracting graphics and simple joystick controls make things easy for young kids.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#47
Video gaming is massively better than mindless "content" watching because it has the perception-thinking-action feedback loop. On the other hand, I have little hope about gaming in the today's society: the pressure to make money will select the most addictive type of gaming that's going to be even worse than mindless watching (slot machines in casino?)

Btw, what does "associated with better outcomes" really mean? It means that in a large sample of lab rats, 10% demonstrated a sudden spike of activity, 40% didn't react and 50% slided into depression. The study gave each outcome a score and found that the average score is slightly positive, so readers are encouraged to think that all the lab rats had this outcome. After the study got completed, those 10% of the rats got suicidal and died within a week, but studying that was outside the scope of the study.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you assume the same thing about playing a musical instrument or playing a sport? What is playing video games except practicing cognitive performance? It works spatial reasoning, logic, dexterity, problem solving, reactions, etc.

Yes, but for different reasons. Playing an instrument or sport means you're more likely to have a non-poor family with parents who have time to spend with you.

I think having parents who can help you develop a growth mindset is awesome and something generally reserved for upper/middle class parents. The part where your mind grows comes from practicing. So practicing video games is the same as practicing sports or instruments, the games encourage you to keep pushing yourself in the same way that a coach or teacher would.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#49
I credit RuneScape with teaching me the value of delayed gratification and basic economics. I credit competitive Halo 3 with teaching me team building and strategy skills. I credit StarCraft with training my mind to travel at warp speed.

Honestly. My video game experience was instrumental to my success so far in life. This is not surprising to me.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you been to a casino? 95% of Blackjack players aren't even playing basic strategy, something that takes a single day to learn. Instead, mid-rank players in popular online games like Valorant and Overwatch 2 are quite formidable multi-level thinkers.

But what percentage of those people are playing as anything other than a lark? I might go to the casino one time every three years. I can guarantee I am utilizing a sub optimal strategy
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