A recent study has found that the impact of a video game lies in its content, mechanics and dynamics and has concluded that action games are better at improving cognitive function than "brain games."
There is a wide variety of video games these days, resulting to a variety of brain impacts. Different conclusions are achieved because of the different specificity of each kind of video game.
The researchers involved in the study compared video games to food. "The term video games refers to thousands of quite disparate types of experiences, anything from simple computerized card games to richly detailed and realistic fantasy worlds, from a purely solitary activity to an activity including hundreds of others, etc. A useful analogy is to the term food - one would never ask, 'What is the effect of eating food on the body?' Instead, it is understood that the effects of a given type of food depend on the composition of the food such as the number of calories; the percentage of protein, fat, and carbohydrates; the vitamin and mineral content; and so on," the research team wrote, PsyPost reported.
Shawn Green and Aaron Seitz, main authors of the study, also wrote that action games, where quick and accurate movements and decision making are involved, allow the brain to use and improve attention skills, brain processing, cognitive function, and even low-level vision. Brain games, on the other hand, specifically designed to actually improve cognitive function, do not harbor the same results, according to Science Daily.
The study was published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
