Gaming gets good rap from psychologists (1 Viewer)

[Born2baplacebo]

Playing video games improves manual dexterity among surgeons, making them faster and less likely to make mistakes, US researchers have said.
The findings were contained in a raft of research about how video games effect the people who play them, discussed Sunday at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston.
"The big picture is that there are several dimensions in which games have effects," including their content, how they are played, and how much, said psychologist Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University.
"This means that games are not 'good' or 'bad' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could."
Gentile presented several studies on video games including one involving 33 surgeons specialising in laparoscopy, the use of a thin lighted tube to inspect and treat various conditions in the pelvic and abdominal cavities.
Laparoscopic surgeons who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures, and made 37 percent fewer errors, compared to their non-gaming colleagues, the study found.
Studies involving high school and college students confirmed previous findings about the social effects of playing violent video games, the Iowa State researchers said.
Students who played violent games were more hostile, less forgiving, and more apt to view violence as normal, than peers who played non-violent games.
But students who played "prosocial" games got into fewer fights at school and were more helpful to other students, the researchers reported.
Yet another study, at Fordham University, measured the effect of learning a new video game on problem-solving skills in middle-school-age children and found that "playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skills."
"Certain types of video games can have beneficial effects improving gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to problem-solve - attributes that have proven useful not only to students but to surgeons," the researchers found

woo! the source that makes me playing games worth my time

*starts playing games*

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

There are also some studies the computer games can be used for remediation of attention and visual scanning (esp. first person shooters). It all sounds pretty cool (but it is important that they try rule out whether gaming increases these skills or that people with good skills play computer games- not many studies have been able to rule out the latter).

(I've heard of this study - but i'm pretty sure its few years old. the SMH running out of news? )

 

[Slidey]

There are also some studies the computer games can be used for remediation of attention and visual scanning (esp. first person shooters).

Are you sure? I thought it was RTS's.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Are you sure? I thought it was RTS's.

All the studies I've come across are on FPS and visual scanning and attention. There might be studies on RTS's though?

 

[sam04u]

There is conclusive evidence that gaming can rapidly increase muscle elasticity and rate of contractions for short involuntary spasms, in those suffering epilepsy.

 

[TacoTerrorist]

Gamers also have slightly faster reaction times on average.

 

[Serius]

*significantly faster reaction times