Videogames: 7 scientific studies explore their potential

During the 1970s when Pong, a video game with extremely simplified black and white graphics depicting a ping-pong simulator, was the first video game to be marketed.

Since that time, video games have gone through an ever-faster development and, today, there are dozens of gaming systems with millions of titles to play. As if that were not enough, the videogames have then landed on mobile phones and have conquered the internet.

In this panorama, there are those who believe that videogames are an unhealthy pastime, with many more disadvantageous effects than benefits. In this article, instead, we will explore, with the help of 7 recent researches, how video games can be useful in different aspects of our lives, from increasing social skills, helping scientific research, to enhancing sports performance.

1) Videogames and decision making Some studies claim that videogames can enhance players’ ability to make decisions. In this regard, the cognitive scientists of the University of Rochester have discovered that action videogames would be able to train people to make accurate and precise decisions quickly. A sample of subjects aged 18 and 25 was divided into two groups. Some have played an action game such as Call of Duty, others for a slower game like The Sims (real life simulation). Afterwards, they were asked to answer questions and make decisions about some problems. The results showed that those who had played action games had been 25% faster than others in coming to the solution of the questions.