Kids who spent an above-average time playing video games improved their intelligence more than average. TV watching had neither positive nor negative effects.
Does Playing Video Games Lower Risk of Depression?
Boys played video games more often than girls and used social media less frequently. However, young people should be encouraged to be physically active and to break up extended periods of sitting with light physical activity.
Boys played video games more often than girls and used social media less frequently. However, young people should be encouraged to be physically active and to break up extended periods of sitting with light physical activity.
‘On average, the children spent 2.5 hours a day watching TV, half an hour on social media and 1 hour playing video games.’
Over 9,000 boys and girls in the USA participated in the study. At the age of nine or ten, the children performed a battery of psychological tests to gauge their general cognitive abilities (intelligence). The children and their parents were also asked about how much time the children spent watching TV and videos, playing video games, and engaging with social media.
Followed Up After Two Years
Just over 5,000 of the children were followed up after two years, at which point they were asked to repeat the psychological tests. This enabled the researchers to study how the children’s performance on the tests varied from one testing session to other, and to control for individual differences in the first test. They also controlled for genetic differences that could affect intelligence and differences that could be related to parents’ educational background and income.The results showed that those who played more games than the average increased their intelligence
between the two measurements by approximately 2.5 IQ points more than the average.No significant effect was observed, positive or negative, on TV-watching or social media.
“We didn’t examine the effects of screen behaviour on physical activity, sleep, wellbeing or school performance, so we can’t say anything about that,” says Prof. Torkel Klingberg at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. “But our results support the claim that screen time generally doesn’t impair children’s cognitive abilities, and that playing video games can actually help boost intelligence. This is consistent with several experimental studies of video-game playing.”
Intelligence is Not Constant
The results are also in line with recent research showing that intelligence is not a constant, but a quality that is influenced by environmental factors.“We’ll now be studying the effects of other environmental factors and how the cognitive effects relate to childhood brain development,” says Torkel Klingberg.
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Action Video Games may Help You Read!
Action video games may help improve reading and other related skills like vision, the deployment of attention, cognitive flexibility, and working memory.
Action video games may help improve reading and other related skills like vision, the deployment of attention, cognitive flexibility, and working memory.
One limitation of the study is that it only covered US children and did not differentiate between different types of video games, which makes the results difficult to transfer to children in other countries with other gaming habits. There was also a risk of reporting errors since screen time and habits were self-rated.
The study was financed by the Swedish Research Council and the Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro) at Karolinska Institutet. The researchers report no conflicts of interest.
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Therapeutic Video Games For Elderly Care
Digital training for the elderly with therapeutic gaming solution in care facilities can boost their cognitive and physical performance. This technique is considered as sustainable preventive approach that needs to be extended.
Digital training for the elderly with therapeutic gaming solution in care facilities can boost their cognitive and physical performance. This technique is considered as sustainable preventive approach that needs to be extended.
