I always find it hard to say anything of value about a subject like this. I used to not believe in these things at all. But now that I think about it, gaming did get me into programming with Roblox. I'm also quite adept at puzzle solving and in general spotting things that are out of the ordinary. I guess I could attribute that to my great love for the legend of Zelda series but I'm no expert in this field. So, who knows...
Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
321–330 of 332 posts
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#322Huh, 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.
Why does everyone assume consoles? PC gaming is still a thing. And a study published now would have been done before gaming video cards became unaffordable.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#323Nictone has been known to cause nootropic effects, yet it results in long term damage and dependence. Considering the gaming industry is big money (just like big tobacco, big weed, big sugar, and big infinite scroll), I would take any study like this with a boulder of salt. Video games might improve cognitive abilities, but they also cheat the reward centers of your brain and offer the feeling of success while achiev…
Avoid games with IAPs in them. Free or not. The second an IAP shows up it twists the design towards "engagement".
MMOs are also a problem even if they have no IAPs.
There's a nasty feedback loop here. Non gamer parent won't pay upfront for a non predatory game for the kids. Kids will install free to play crap. Parent will think all the games are like that.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#324Problem is avoiding them being used as a coping mechanism for stress
... and instead using binge watching abysmal Netflix series as a coping mechanism for stress because it's more 'mainstream'? :)
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm happy you got all of that from video-games and in no way I'm advocating against video games for everyone. But, in my life, I credit sports for everything you said. With the added benefit of a healthy neurology and biology in general. Something video games - and the digital world, as a whole - have been demonstrated to be detrimental. I mean, by serious studies.
Studies don’t investigate something as complex as the total impact of video games or anything else in all contexts. You get individual studies of the impact in terms of say specific reflexes or some aspect of depression for some subset of games, but you would need a comprehensive set of studies for every single context to build a holistic picture which we simply don’t have. Occasionally it’s enough to find major down…
> Studies don’t investigate something as complex as the total impact of video games or anything else in all contexts.
Why not? What's the purpose of saying it's good for cognitive performance if cognitive performance isn't tested seriously?
Try at least two or three dimensions of it. Outside the video gaming context of course.
Otherwise just say: video gaming is good for getting better at video gaming.
That would be an honest conclusion.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm happy you got all of that from video-games and in no way I'm advocating against video games for everyone. But, in my life, I credit sports for everything you said. With the added benefit of a healthy neurology and biology in general. Something video games - and the digital world, as a whole - have been demonstrated to be detrimental. I mean, by serious studies.
I agree that the digital world can have detrimental effects, but I don't think it's alone in that. I have many friends, a brother, and a wife who also credit sports for all of the above, with the added benefit of a the trauma and lifelong pain from the injury that forced them to quit. Books honestly seem like a complete win. Hopefully my daughter will benefit from the safest parts of all 3.
Agree that reading books is a great habit to take.
It's sad that an injury from a physical exercise can cause a lot of trauma indeed, but I don't think practicing it is inherently bad because of that.
An accident can happen related to anything in life. People die from coconuts or tree branches falling upon their heads. We won't say trees or coconuts are inherently bad because of that.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm happy you got all of that from video-games and in no way I'm advocating against video games for everyone. But, in my life, I credit sports for everything you said. With the added benefit of a healthy neurology and biology in general. Something video games - and the digital world, as a whole - have been demonstrated to be detrimental. I mean, by serious studies.
Are you including “basic economics” in the list of things sports taught you? Curious how that would be learned.
If you look closely, it isn't hard to see that sports became major industries, collectivelly moving trillions of Dollars worldwide every year.
If you are interested in economics, you can learn a lot from it.
In an intersection with behavioral economics, you can even learn a lot of business from observing sports.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Studies don’t investigate something as complex as the total impact of video games or anything else in all contexts. You get individual studies of the impact in terms of say specific reflexes or some aspect of depression for some subset of games, but you would need a comprehensive set of studies for every single context to build a holistic picture which we simply don’t have. Occasionally it’s enough to find major down…
> Studies don’t investigate something as complex as the total impact of video games or anything else in all contexts. Why not? What's the purpose of saying it's good for cognitive performance if cognitive performance isn't tested seriously? Try at least two or three dimensions of it. Outside the video gaming context of course. Otherwise just say: video gaming is good for getting better at video gaming. That would be…
> Why not?
Because there are simply far to many variables involved. On one dimension you have type of game, but that variety impacts everything else.
Mario Party and Call of Duty for example may impact peoples emotions differently.
Tetris and StarCraft are both test actions per minute in a different way which may mean different things for reflexes etc.
Hours per week are another dimension, someone spending a few minutes per day playing Wordle is obviously different than someone who only works a part time job to have more time for their MMO addiction.
Finances is another dimension with actual free games being well free but some people spending their life savings on loot boxes in “Free to Play” games.
Degree of socialization is again varies wildly with a surprising number of marriages starting from MMO’s but single player games obvious don’t have that.
Exercise is another with some people getting a real workout playing beat saber and others getting embolisms from sitting to long with their addiction.
Etc etc.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
I credit Age of Empires 2 for teaching me about managing an economy and medieval history. I credit Age of Wonders for teaching me what strategy really means. Lots of other great games helped me build my English skills, most of all The Legacy of Kain series.
I used to play a lot of RPGs on the gameboy, but my English was still not good enough so I avoided reading. Sometimes I had my gameboy and a dictionary and I'd translate NPC dialogue one word at a time. I remember Final Fantasy 1 on gameboy had a surprisingly open world and I could walk all over the map, and it had random monster encounters. I'd be fighting a lengthy turn based battle about every 20 steps, and it cou…
I had a similar thing happened with Zelda for the original Gameboy. There was some mobs in one of the first dungeons, that needed to be killed in a particular order, written on a plack. I spent months on and off trying everything, but it took a older friend borrowing it until I got past it.
Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children
#330I 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.
I credit
- AoE for laying the groundwork of my love of history and archeology.
- Skyrim for making me finally learn how to create 3D art, which I still do as profession today.
- All those weird Japanese games that tell you that you don't have to conform to the predefine notion of what should and shouldn't be videogames.
Of course it doesn't replace real learning. It's hilarious when some gaming-addicted argue that 'videogames made me smart! see that research!'
Hell no Bob, smart people out there spend most of their time learning and play videogames just occasionally.