Science Says: Playing Games Does Not Improve Cognition

Here's something interesting I stumbled upon last night. I read an article that explains that playing video games does not boost cognition as many have believed it should over the last 3 decades. While I was ready to begin debating over the validity of this article by the title alone I started thinking about this in a new light - if games do not help improve puzzle solving, problem solving, memory, or heavy decision making then perhaps people who play games that have great cognition skills to begin with gravitate towards gaming to challenge their skills and adept problem solving. Then I finished reading and found that this is definitely one of the possibilities brought to light.

An assistant professor at Florida State University, Walter Boot, has began re-evaluating claims that playing certain genres of games such as first-person shooters and puzzle solvers would help improve your brain's abilities with critical thinking and attention to detail. Boot brings up an interesting argument that any study that has been conducted over the last 10 years that shows benefits of gaming to be flawed. Many of those studies compared the cognitive skills of frequent gamers to non-gamers and found gamers to be superior. However, Boot and his coauthors point out that this doesn't necessarily mean that their game experience caused better perceptual and cognitive abilities. It could be that individuals who have the abilities required to be successful gamers are simply drawn to gaming.

"Despite the hype, in reality, there is little solid evidence that games enhance cognition at all" he says.

When the original studies were being conducted researchers were looking for those who "excelled" in playing games. This is already suggesting that those who casually play games need not apply because there is a demand for more of an expert. This raises the bar and will not allow the kids who play once or twice a week to believe that they are as good as someone who plays every day. Even studies that featured non-gamers that trained to play action games had their own problems with games.

Boot grew up playing video games and was indeed interested in research that could prove that gamers held higher cognitive skills so naturally he and fellow researchers from FSU and the University of Illinois conducted their own video-game training study to find if any other abilities would improve after game playing but were not able to bring about the same benefits that other studies have been able to.

Thanks to their research they were able to create a new outline for future studies that are looking to prove if there are any benefits from playing games. They also have not written off the possibility of some type of improvement from playing video games. Boot does leave us with advice that is very important for everyone to take.

"Play games because you enjoy them, not because they could boost your brain power."