Video games: what impact on cognitive skills? – Featured

February 23, 2023

Should we prevent our children from playing video games because it would dumb them down? A new American study seems to lean once morest this hypothesis. That said, no video game appears either as a method of improving memory or reflexive abilities.

If some adore them, others attribute all the evils to them. Video games are therefore far from unanimous. But then are they useful for improving memory, concentration or even reasoning? Or are they tools to be lobotomized?

Despite the strong reluctance towards these playful devices, several studies have already shown a cognitive interest in playing video games. This is the case of a meta analysis published in the journal Psychological Bulletin in 2017 which revealed that “playing action video games a few hours a week was enough to improve his spatial, attentional and perceptual cognitive faculties”, reported the authors of the University of Geneva. According to them, “Some Italian studies showed that such an activity also improved children’s attention and their writing skills”.

neither good nor bad

A team from the University of Houston wanted to know more, especially with an audience of pre-teens. So she conducted her own research in 160 participants between the ages of 9 and 12. The average playtime – for gamers – was 2.5 hours a day, with some peaking at 4.5 hours a day. Researchers compared playing or not playing with the results of a test Cognitive Ability Test 7 (CogAT), notably assessing verbal and spatial skills.

“Overall, neither the duration of use nor the type of game chosen shows any impact on the test results”, note the authors. Playing a video game would therefore not alter the cognitive skills of pre-teens. Good news ! But do they improve their skills? According to this study the answer is once more negative, because even with games sold as brain stimulants, no benefit might be measured.

Reasoned use

So can parents really let go of the console? The authors essentially believe that if reasoned use does not expose any cognitive danger, parents should “keep an eye out for the risk of compulsive behavior”.