I was pretty strict with my children about video games when they were growing up. Because I had never been a gamer I somehow decided it wasn’t good for my children to spend time playing video or online games. We never owned a game console, and I limited their video game time to “educational” games. Now, looking at the research, I realize I may have been wrong about video games (and they ended up being gamers anyway!)
Video Games Can Increase Perceptual Learning
Research shows that playing video games isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are benefits: training in action video games can increase the speed of perceptual processing and something called perceptual learning. It’s possible to train the senses—vision, hearing, motor skills—and improve their capabilities, especially with action games.
When people play video games, it can increase how quickly they’re able to process sensory stimuli. It can increase the ability to filter out extraneous sensory stimuli and focus on one perceptual channel.
Brian Glass (2013) cites research studies showing that when people who are new to video games are taught how to play action games, they can process visual information faster as a result, even outside of the gaming context.
Even Adults Can Create New Neuron Structures
For many decades, it was assumed that the brain has the most flexibility and neurons at birth and that it’s basically downhill from there. There’s the old adage about not consuming too much alcohol, lest it kill the finite number of brain cells you have. Along with this idea came the theory that brain structures become more rigid over time—that as people get older, their brains can’t be rewired. This has all turned out to be untrue. The adult brain has neuroplasticity—its neural structures can change and keep changing and learning. The skills learned from video gaming are an example of neuroplasticity.
Strategy Games Increase Cognitive Flexibility
In addition to the perceptual learning that action video games provide, research shows that strategy games can also improve cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to coordinate four things:
- What you’re paying attention to
- What you’re thinking about
- What rules to use
- How to make a decision
The more cognitively flexible you are, the higher your intelligence and psychological health.
Cognitive Flexibility Is Trainable
Glass took women who were not gamers and had them play games for an hour a day for 40 days. Cognitive flexibility was measured before and after the training. Cognitive flexibility scores were higher after the 40 days.
Takeaways
- If you don’t play video games, you might want to try some to improve your own flexibility.
- If you’re a game designer or planning to become one, look for opportunities to include perceptual learning and/or cognitive flexibility in your games.