Video Games Boost Visual Skills 355
cmburns69 writes "A new study published in Nature Magazine (MSNBC summary) suggests that playing action games improves visual skills. Among other things, young adults who played action games such as Grand Theft Auto and Medal of Honor regularly could track up to five objects at a time - 30% more than non-players. Apparently, the game type is important, as ten hours of the block-rotating game Tetris failed to improve test scores."
Hand Eye Coordination... (Score:5, Interesting)
How true.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:nothing but pratfalls (Score:5, Interesting)
I had lots of accidents when I was younger, but many of them because I was an aggressive driver. One potential problem (note: this is anecdotal) is games may have reinforced a very competitive personality. I.e. those things within my control I'll push to the limit to win, those outside my control I'll just swear at. Solution to the aggressive driving thing, get a vehicle with little pep and decent gas mileage. Patience is a virtue, especially as it keeps you out of many accidents and lowers the points on your record.
so we all know what this means, I need to play even MORE video games, or less Grand Theft Auto.
Delving into the actual study may reveal it's games which encourage good on-the-fly plan developing and limited time spent on it and a good diet (the study center only fed the subjects healthy food.) I know when I was seriously hooked on games I'd skip food until my bloodsugar made me twitchy.
And in other news ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've experienced a similar thing (Score:3, Interesting)
Because of this, my vision and reflexes are kind of sharp -- at least in a specific way. I've had many moments that remind me of the scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where the older lady knocks over the cup to test the young girl's reflexes. She snatches the cup without thinking. I'm always catching things while they are being knocked over or grabbing things out of midair, just out of conditioning.
However, I suck at a lot of other physical things, most sports, and am a bit of a klutz at times. It's kind of like working on your bicep over and over, but neglecting other things. You've got this unnaturally strong bicep but the rest is much weaker. And I don't juggle, thinking of how this is going to pay off in all these other ways. I just like to juggle.
I'm pretty much just speculating, but I would suspect that playing a lot of video games gives you good visual skills that probably don't translate into a lot of other real-world stuff simply because the abilities that are developed are so narrow.
Compare to a football quarterback (you see, Marge, there are jocks, and nerds. Being a jock...oh, sorry, I digress). As a QB, you have to track several receivers, the pass rushers, keep an eye on the game clock, and keep your wits under the very real-world threat of being flattened by some steroid-raging linebacker. Plus all the physical skills, and the playbook knowledge (no, it ain't the same as programming C++, but you don't have 300-lb Bubba bearing down on you while you are coding either). There's a much wider range of skill development there, that encompasses both the physical and mental. Not to say that there are not other ways to develop those things, but let's just say that if you gain any skills out of playing Quake 12 hours a day, be thankful.
I have experienced the opposite (Score:5, Interesting)
Strategy and reflexes, both help my driving.
Aside from one incident where I almost rammed someone's car after playing too much destruction derby, I am a wicked driver.
I've physically dodged some wild accidents, and once I powerslided to dodge an accident... Since my car is shorter perpendicular to the road as opposed to straight on it, I avoided an accident by a few inches... People who don't use their turn signal are asking for it.
Mainly I avoid accidents by putting a ton of car lengths ahead of me... Sure aggressive drivers can juke in, but those fuckers are just as likely to juke out too. All that dodging is not a sign of a good driver, just a retard.
It helped me (Score:5, Interesting)
The biggest thing they wanted was for me to get hand-eye coordination. I basically had none. The biggest exercise was a tennis ball on a tether. When they took it and swung it like a pendulum at my head, I literally could not bat it away before it bounced off me (sounds mean, but it was more like a game ). No change after three years of this.
So my parents bought me an Atari 2600 somewhere around age 7. By the end of that summer, I had quite good hand-eye coordination (and had flipped the score on Defender a few times ). My mom was more than glad to let me play games endlessly after that
(*) of course, I think 20 years later now, looking at a CRT screen all the time has probably degraded my vision back a bit too
If we're not in the Army or visually-impaired... (Score:2, Interesting)
Benefits:
- Boost in visual skills
- Games teach problem-solving abilities, perseverance, pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, estimating skills, inductive skills, resource management, logistics, mapping, memory, quick thinking, and reasoned judgements. (Click here [muohio.edu] for the source of that info.)
- Games boost self-esteem. (Here [muohio.edu] again is the source for that.)
Drawbacks:
- Massive amount of time spent playing. I can't count how many times I've at my computer from 6 PM to 8 AM playing Civilization III. (The time spent playing could have been better spent studying, reading, exercising, getting to enjoy the world, travelling, etc.)
- The solitariness of most games. There seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle in which a socially-isolated person plays games in order to avoid having to be around other people. But then the act of being alone playing games makes you even more socially isolated. I wasted most of my childhood with Nintendo when I should have been outside playing. My college years were similarly wasted with computer games.
I guess the main point about games is, don't the drawbacks outweigh the benefits? (BTW, I'm on week number 3 of overcoming my computer game addiction. I had to go cold turkey. Good luck to others if you're in the same boat.)
Troll. Mod this down. (Score:3, Interesting)
On page 537: "Competing interests statement: The authors decleare that they have no competing financial interests."
Mod this libelous garbage back to where it belongs.
oh so true so true (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope I am not the only one who can attest to years of mudding having increased typing speeds and accuracy. when its a matter of life or death, you learn speedily to type accurately. when I started mudding back in the 7th grade, I was typing at like 15-20wpm /10 errors, now after nearly a decade of mudding, I type ~100wpm /2 errors. I will admit though, that some terms from my mudding days have seeped into my daily vocabulary; more than once I have said things like "let me check my eq" when I meant to imply "let me see if I have that" ... it gets scary...
let us not forget the hours and hours that we gamers have wasted on mini-puzzles and macro-puzzles that are tossed into games so frequently these days. I know for a fact that those skills have come in handy for me in the form of increased logical problem identification speeds.
I think I should shut up know, I have a feeling I am going to be modded into oblivion...
Popular press missing the point? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tracking multiple inputs (Score:3, Interesting)
Tetris only has one important object on the screen at a time, I wonder how much visual object tracking would improve someone made a version of Tetris where you had to control two or more falling bricks at a time.
This reminds me of when I began to study music theory, and started to listen to multiple instruments at the same time. Most people who listen to classical music, or any highly arranged music, can pick out and track multiple melodies, including subtle ones whose only purpose is to enhance the piece. Contrast that to most rock (or any popular music,) where there is one main melody, a bass line that hardly varies from the melody, and no complex vocal harmony.
Most of my friends cannot listen to and enjoy complex music (other than as relaxing background noise.) The human mind adjusts too in environment, and if exposed to complex auditory stimuli, we learn to understand it quicker, and follow it with greater detail. If exposed to complex visual stimuli, we learn to parse it faster. This probably applies to all senses.
The real question is, as games improve in areas such as 3d audio, will other senses besides visual spacial object tracking improve?
true (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wish someone would've told my mother that (Score:3, Interesting)
It's usefulness didn't extend much beyond that, as it sorta required that the reciever had access to a TI, while you could do this on other systems, the TI offered blinding high speed in contrast.
Games like hunt the Wumpus had a sorta magical quality to them. They were entertaining and offered some form of logic skill development. There were others too, but essentally TI tried to hit the educational market, something that apple was far more sucessful at, for better or for worse.
My anecdotal experience with games & coordinat (Score:3, Interesting)
As a resident, I'm learning to do endoscopic procedures, such as colonoscopy, upper GI endoscopy, and a few other procedures ending with -oscopy. Manual dexterity and coordination play a significant role in performing these procedures well. You can read the entire endoscope manual about which wheel looks left, right, up or down, and which button takes a picture. But, you've gotta get your hands on the scope and start driving to gain any proficiency.
After my first day of endoscopy, I called my mom to tell her that all those hours spent in front of the Nintendo were now benefitting my career. She scoffed and said it was probably because I could play the piano. But, I remain convinced.
Just my $0.02!
Re:Or to complicate matters more... (Score:3, Interesting)
Where you can most use the boost in visual skills (Score:3, Interesting)
So not only tracking multiple objects, but understanding the "thinking" behind those objects (all of which you are doing in most video games) can keep you safe while driving. I find a lot of drivers are like a very badly written AI that telegraphs future behavior by every means except through the cars indicators!
The human eye is an imperfect thing... (Score:1, Interesting)
Videogames are a good training, because you have to keep track at anything moving outside your focus, and of couse, lots of timing and quick reaction helps a lot too. In some games like Mario Bros you had to see what was going on in the entire screen, especially because almost everthing could go from one side of the screen to the other.
My new car is one with the headlights always on, and it is frustrating, I keep seeing reflections with the corner of my eye and I think it's something moving....
Books are good too (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Popular press missing the point? (Score:3, Interesting)
In other words, guess what? People who actively practice keeping track of multiple moving targets get better at keeping track of multiple moving targets.
Guess what? Video games of a certain type often involve keeping track of multiple moving targets.
I remember reading about a WW1 pilot who'd take a pencil, make a small mark on a large, otherwise blank wall, then read a book for a while. Then, suddenly, he'd turn, and try to find the dot on the wall as quickly as possible.
As I recall, he had a very good kill record.
This is the key to driving today (Score:4, Interesting)
2. Assume everyone around you is a complete idiot. On multi-laned highways, never sit in a driver's blind spot, either give a half a car length or pass him. Even more, be aware of other drivers and their intentions. Watch them, you will notice distinct patterns, such that you can anticipate a driver's intent even when the asshole doesn't use a signal. BE CAREFUL OF ANY ERRATIC DRIVERS, these are the worst because you cannot possibly predict their intent. Give them plenty of ground and sneak past only if it's safe.
Re:yeah yeah yeah (Score:2, Interesting)
You haven't played a real RPG, then.
The game was based on contact with others; it's a fundamental aspect of finding people, getting together on a regular basis, and "working" towards a common goal.
I don't give two bits about how "unpleasant" your life may be, or what you consider the proper judge of "unpleasant" to be. (Christ Allmighty, I used "unpleasant", not "hard", "difficult", or any other substantial complaint! Leave my language alone!)
The point is, excerising any skill makes humans better at it. FPS games give better visual acuity and electronic response. Chess improves forethought. Baseball improves speed and athletic ability. And real RPGs improve social skills, basic math skills, and creativity / inspiration.
Re:This is the key to driving today (Score:3, Interesting)
A long-standing oddity: apparently idiots do cue their actions in ways the brain doesn't consciously notice, thus: Sometimes I get the urge to call some driver an idiot, frex I'll find myself saying, "Don't you dare pull out in front of me, you asshole" and every bloody time, the car that got my attention does something stupid or potentially deadly.
Dunno about antilock brakes, but stiff-sidewall tires make a huge difference in preventing skids. Frex put 6ply tires on a midsize car. The ride will be rougher than with standard 4-ply tires, but it'll also resist sideslipping and will be much more stable on turns. Also, get a set with all-weather tread, not regular highway tread. All-weather wear better and are WAY more stable on wet pavement.
And personally, I love my old Ford pickup's twin I-beam suspension. It's surefooted with great response in bad conditions (makes standard suspension feel like you're driving in mush). Doesn't rocket-jump worth a damn, tho