how does video games help with problem solving

Playing these 6 video games could help improve your problem-solving skills

Jane McGonigal , a world-renowned designer of alternate-reality games who has a Ph.D. in performance studies, wants to change people's conception of video games as " just escapist, guilty pleasures."

" My number one goal in life is to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize," McGonigal writes on her website . 

She tells Business Insider she wants people to realize that games can be "powerful tools to improve our attention, our mood, our cognitive strengths, and our relationships."

And research is on her side. 

Studies suggest that mainstream games like "Call of Duty" may improve our cognitive abilities significantly more than games specifically designed to do so by designers like Luminosity.

To help spread the truth about common misconceptions, seven neuroscientists from around the world signed the document "A Consensus on the Brain Training Industry from the Scientific Community" in 2014 to say they "object to the claim" that brainteaser games can improve cognitive abilities, as no scientific evidence has been able to confirm such a claim. 

Even better for gamers, research from North Carolina State University and Florida State University suggests that mainstream games geared toward entertainment can help improve attention, spatial orientation, and problem-solving abilities.

In her book, " Super Better ," McGonigal writes that the researchers she talked to about this seeming contradiction offered a simple explanation: "Traditional video games are more complex and harder to master, and they require that the player learn a wider and more challenging range of skills and abilities."

If you want to have fun and stimulate your mind, McGonigal recommends playing one of these six games three times a week for about 20 minutes.

McGonigal says playing fast-paced games like "Call of Duty," a first-person shooter game, can help improve visual attention and spatial-intelligence skills, which can lead to better performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Another fast-paced game, "Forza," a car-racing game, may help improve your ability to make accurate decisions under pressure.

Taking on the role of a criminal in a big city in "Grand Theft Auto" may help train you to process information faster and keep track of more information — up to three times the amount as nongamers, some studies suggest — in high-stress situations.

Strategic games like "StarCraft," a military-science-fiction game, can also improve the ability to solve imaginary and real-life problems, possibly because they teach users to both formulate and execute strategic plans.

Games that require strategic thinking, like science-fiction third-person-shooter game "Mass Effect," also test and refine your information-gathering skills.

Lastly, "thinking games" like "Final Fantasy," a fantasy-role-playing game, can help train you to evaluate your options faster and more accurately.

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Neag School of Education

Well-designed video games can enhance problem-solving skills and make learning more effective.

• May 29, 2013
• Community Engagement

The tragic December deaths of 20 first-graders and six school staff members in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, along with the Boston Marathon tragedy and other recent attacks, have brought the decades-old debate over the behavioral effects of video games back onto legislative floors throughout the nation. Citing the fact that gunman Adam Lanza, 20, played violent video games, members of the U.S. Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force detailed their plans to address “our culture’s glorification of violence” through media, and commentary stemming from reports like Katie Couric’s May 2013 video game violence exposé has highlighted the need for greater clarification of how we should read and interpret video game research.

Clearly, it’s a complex and emotional issue further complicated by discussions that focus almost exclusively on the negative effects of gaming. The reality, however, is that there’s little research outlining whether or not violent video games beget actual violence: many existing studies, like one described in a recent edition of the UConn Today , focus on aggression without explicitly acknowledging the complex relationship between cognition, transfer, and real world behavior. This has led to two major problems, the combination of which throws a wrench in the socially and politically-charged rhetoric surrounding violence: 1) the dismissal of other, more influential factors common to violent criminals—biological predisposition to mental health issues, instability at home and/or work, lack of positive role models, having no one to confide in, access to weapons, and in-the-moment opportunity versus need; and 2) neglect for how learning in all types of games—violent or not—actually happens.

While the first problem may better fit sociologists and psychologists who have direct experience with individuals who commit violent crimes, the second is something that we as teachers, administrators, and researchers can tackle head on. There’s general consensus in the educational psychology community that the nature of environment-learner-content interactions is vital to our understanding of how people perceive and act. As a result, we can’t make broad assumptions about games as a vehicle for violent behavior without attending to how environment-learner-content interactions influence transfer—the way learning and action in one context affects learning and action in a related context.

It might help to think of transfer in terms of what we hope students will do with the information they learn in our classes. For example, you might teach geometric principles in your math class thinking that those techniques will help your students craft a birdhouse in shop. However, one of the most well-cited studies of the subject (Gick & Holyoak, 1980) showed that only one-fifth of college students were able to apply a particular problem solving strategy—using ‘divide-and-conquer’ to capture a castle—in another, almost identical context less than 24 hours after exposure to the first. Even with explicit direct instruction explaining how the same strategy could be used to solve both problems, fewer than 50% of students were able to make the connection. Though links between situations might seem self-evident to us as teachers, they usually aren’t as obvious to our students as we think they should be.

This gives us reason to believe that, regardless of subject, students—or in the case of video games, players—are rarely able to take something they’ve used in one context and independently apply it in a totally different one. Put another way, even if violent gaming raises general aggression, increased aggression doesn’t automatically translate to real world violent behavior . Gamers might use more curse words while playing Call of Duty , but they won’t learn to steal a car solely by playing Grand Theft Auto —there needs to be a mediating instructor who can provide well-guided bridging between the game and reality, especially for in-game activities that aren’t isomorphic with real world action (i.e., firing a gun).

This relationship between environment-learner-content interaction and transfer puts teachers in the unique position to capitalize on game engagement to promote reflection that positively shapes how students tackle real-world challenges. To some, this may seem like a shocking concept, but it’s definitely not a new one—roleplay as instruction, for example, was very popular among the ancient Greeks and, in many ways, served as the backbone for Plato’s renowned Allegory of the Cave . The same is true of Shakespeare’s works, 18th and 19th century opera, and many of the novels, movies, and other media that define our culture. More recently, NASA has applied game-like simulations to teach astronauts how to maneuver through space, medical schools have used them to teach robotic surgery, and the Federal Aviation Administration has employed them to test pilots.

To be clear, this is not a call for K12 educators to drop everything and immediately incorporate violent games like Doom or Mortal Kombat into their classrooms. Instead, it’s a call to consider how we can take advantage of game affordances (including those of violent games) to extend beyond predictable multiple-choice materials that leave students wishing they could pull out their smartphones. It’s a call for legislators to give greater consideration to the role of transfer before passing sweeping bans on violent video game play. It’s a call for all of us to use games as a vehicle to talk about racial, social, gender, and other inequities that are very much a part of the world we live in.

It’s a bold idea that can feel scary, but the potential benefits are beyond exciting. Research generated by people like Kurt Squire, Sasha Barab, and James Paul Gee suggests that interactive games can be used to teach children about history, increase vocabulary, challenge them to set and achieve goals, and enhance their ability to work in teams. They expose students to culturally diverse casts of characters in addition to providing instant feedback about goal-oriented progress. Most importantly, perhaps, they can be powerfully engaging, giving students a reason to pursue learning beyond the classroom.

To maintain a positive trajectory, teachers looking to make the most of the instructional affordances of video games should keep an eye out for games they feel comfortable playing alongside and discussing with their students, take advantage of opportunities to participate in university game-based learning research studies, and remain open to modifying their instructional approaches. Parents should connect with teachers for up-to-date research coming from organizations like Games+Learning+Society and have their children reflect on material they’ve been exposed to during play—for example, social and cultural stereotypes, gender roles, and ways of thinking presented in each game. Legislators should consult university researchers in both communications and educational psychology to get a wider perspective on how play and learning merge to generate behavior in the real world.

Our collective understanding of game-based learning is evolving at lightning speed, and we need to dispel false information that ignores how games actually affect player thinking and action. More work, involving teachers, administrators, researchers, designers, parents, and politicians, is needed. The next step is to enhance our collaboration by working to create multi-disciplinary games that incorporate not just academic content but educational practices that lead to broader critical thinking and problem solving. Though far from complete, our combined effort has the potential to move beyond the swamp of video game violence and excite kids about school before they say “game over.”

Stephen Slota is doctoral candidate in educational psychology at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education as well as an unashamed gamer. An educational technology specialist and  former urban high school teacher, he has a bachelor’s in molecular and cellular biology and Master’s in curriculum and instruction. His research interests include the situated cognition underlying play, the effects of gaming on student achievement, and prosocial learning through massively multiplayer online role-playing games ( MMORPGs).

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The Playing Brain. The Impact of Video Games on Cognition and Behavior in Pediatric Age at the Time of Lockdown: A Systematic Review

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A growing number of children and adolescents play video games (VGs) for long amounts of time. The current outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has significantly reduced outdoor activities and direct interpersonal relationships. Therefore, a higher use of VGs can become the response to stress and fear of illness. VGs and their practical, academic, vocational and educational implications have become an issue of increasing interest for scholars, parents, teachers, pediatricians and youth public policy makers. The current systematic review aims to identify, in recent literature, the most relevant problems of the complex issue of playing VGs in children and adolescents in order to provide suggestions for the correct management of VG practice. The method used searches through standardized search operators using keywords related to video games and the link with cognition, cognitive control and behaviors adopted during the pandemic. Ninety-nine studies were reviewed and included, whereas twelve studies were excluded because they were educationally irrelevant. Any debate on the effectiveness of VGs cannot refer to a dichotomous approach, according to which VGs are rigidly ‘good’ or ‘bad’. VGs should be approached in terms of complexity and differentiated by multiple dimensions interacting with each other.

1. Introduction

In the last decades, a very large body of literature has shown an increasing interest in video games (VGs) and their impact on the brain, cognition and behavior, especially in children and adolescents [ 1 ]. Indeed, a widely growing number of children and adolescents play VGs for a long time, often developing real addictive behaviors [ 2 , 3 ]. In addition, the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdown have significantly reduced outdoor activities and direct interpersonal relationships [ 4 , 5 ]. However, literature data are still inconsistent. For example, according to some meta-analytic reviews [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], exposure to violent VGs is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, cognition and affection in children and adolescents. Conversely, many cross-sectional and intervention studies have shown that the intensive use of some types of VGs leads to significant improvements in many cognitive domains and behaviours [ 1 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Video games are even considered as ‘virtual teachers’ and effective and ‘exemplary teachers’ [ 12 , 13 ].

The current systematic review focuses on some crucial outstanding issues within the debate on the effects of VGs on cognition and behavior in order to provide suggestions for parents, pediatricians, health providers and educators dealing with pediatric ages, especially in the complex pandemic period. Namely, it analyzes the most debated and educationally relevant problems on the relationship between video games, cognition and behavior: 1. video games’ effects on cognitive function; 2. video games’ effects on attention and addictive behaviors; 3. video games and prosocial or aggressive behavior. Therefore, the current analysis may be accounted as an original contribution to the practical dimension in the educational and rehabilitation field for parents and educators.

Early common predominant opinions mainly focused on VGs according to dichotomous thinking, as enjoyable entertainment or harmful tools [ 14 ]. The recent literature instead provided evidence on the impact of VGs on the brain and its functional modifications while playing [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], showing that video games involve different cortical and subcortical structures, with cognitive and emotional competence, such as frontal and prefrontal regions, the posterior and superior parietal lobe, the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, limbic areas, the amygdala, the entorhinal cortex and basal nuclei [ 1 , 20 , 21 , 22 ].

Mondéjar and colleagues [ 15 ], in a group of twelve healthy preadolescents between 8 and 12 years old, evaluated the frontal lobe activity and the different types of cognitive processing during five platform-based action videogame mechanics: 1. accurate action, related to processes such as concentration, attention, impulse control and information comprehension; 2. timely action, related to working memory, selective attention, decision-making, problem solving and perception; 3. mimic sequence, related to working memory, focalized attention and inhibition control; 4. pattern learning, as selective attention, planning, inhibition control and spatial orientation; 5. logical puzzles related to attention, working memory, the capacity for abstraction, information processing, problem solving, or resistance to interference. They found prominent bioelectrical prefrontal activity during the performance related to executive functions (timely action, pattern learning, logical puzzles) and more global brain activity and a higher presence of alpha waves, or a greater activation of the temporal lobe, in the accurate action and mimic sequence. Similarly, they correlated higher magnitudes on frequency bands with five game mechanics in ten healthy children, who played with a VG platform for an average of about 20 min [ 16 ]. Theta waves, related to memory and emotions, were more significant in the five mechanics, while beta waves, related to concentration, were more prominent in only two. Moreover, activation was more significant in the intermediate and occipital areas for all the mechanics, while recurrent magnitude patterns were identified in three mechanics.

Similarly, Lee et al. [ 17 ], found a thinner cortex and a smaller gray matter volume in critical areas for evaluating reward values, error processing and adjusting behavior, namely, the anterior cingulate cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex and the frontoparietal areas, in young male adults with internet gaming disorders, compared to age-matched healthy male controls. A neuroimaging study examined in individuals affected by gaming disorders the differences during the playing of a violence-related vs. a non-violence-related version of the same VG [ 18 ]. While functional connectivity of the reward-related network and the behavioral inhibition system was altered, the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cerebral area were overstimulated, similarly to smart drug addiction [ 17 , 23 ].

Recently, Kwak et al. [ 19 ] longitudinally compared 14 adolescents with internet gaming disorder to 12 professional internet gaming students who practiced for about ten hours a day, within a defined support system that included practice, physical exercise, lectures on team strategy, rest and mealtimes. After one year, both groups showed increased brain activity within the attention system of the parietal lobe. However, professional gamers improved problematic behaviors, impulsivity, aggression, depression and anxiety, while adolescents with internet gaming disorder showed no behavioral improvement and a dysfunctional brain activity within the impulse control network in the left orbitofrontal cortex.

The current systematic review was structured according to the guidelines and recommendations contained in the PRISMA statement [ 24 ].

Eligibility Criteria

Both experimental and correlational studies and meta-analyses between the years of 2000 and 2020 that investigated outcomes of VG exposure were included. They were considered children and adolescents. Studies employing different methodologies were included: studies in which naive participants were trained to use a VG versus a control group and studies comparing experienced versus non-gamers, or inexperienced players. Primary outcome measures were any type of structural and functional data obtained using neuroimaging techniques and behavioral testing.

Information Sources

One hundred and twenty-two studies were identified through electronic database searching in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus (Elsevier) and Web of Sciences. The final database search was run on January 2021 using the following keywords: video games; video games and cognition; video games and epidemic; cognitive control; behavior control; brain and video games; spatial cognition; prosocial behavior; violence in video games; aggressive behavior; addictions in adolescents; children and video games.

Study Selection

Inclusion criteria: written in English; published since 2000; deals in depth with cognitive skills, attention, executive functions, or cognitive control; follows a high methodological rigor.

Exclusion criteria: does not refer to key topics directly; the full text could not be obtained; lack of transparency due to missing methodology information. Ninety-nine studies were reviewed and included, whereas twelve studies were excluded because they were irrelevant to the topic or because the full text was not obtained. General communication materials, such as pamphlets, posters and infographics, were excluded as they do not provide evidence about their effectiveness.

Figure 1 shows the selection of studies flowchart.

Selection of studies flowchart.

3.1. Effect of Video Games on Cognitive Functions

Any modern VG requires an extensive repertoire of attentional, perceptual and executive abilities, such as a deep perceptual analysis of complex unfamiliar environments, detecting relevant or irrelevant stimuli, interference control, speed of information processing, planning and decision making, cognitive flexibility and working memory.

Literature data in the last years have proven that VGs may improve a variety of cognitive domains [ 1 , 25 ] as, for example, even just 10 hours of VG could improve spatial attention and mental rotation [ 26 , 27 ]. A large variety of design studies reported in habitual players better performance in multiple cognitive domains, including selective attention [ 3 , 21 , 26 , 28 ], speed of processing [ 21 , 28 ], executive functions [ 29 , 30 ] and working memory [ 31 ]. Similarly, a large body of intervention studies have shown improvements in the same cognitive domains in non-players following training in action VGs [ 27 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Recently, Benoit et al. [ 38 ] examined in 14 professional VG players and 16 casual VG players various cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, attention, memory, executive functions, manual dexterity and tracking multiple objects in three dimensions [ 39 ]. Professional players showed a very large advantage in visual–spatial short-term memory and visual attention, and less in selective and sustained attention and auditory working memory. Moreover, they showed better speed thresholds in tracking multiple objects in three dimensions overall, though the rate of improvement did not differ in the two groups. In two previous meta-analyses, Bediou et al. [ 40 ] focused on the long-term effects of action VGs on various cognitive domains using both cross-sectional and intervention studies. Overall, the results documented a positive impact of action video gaming on cognition. In cross-sectional studies, a main effect of about half a standard deviation was found. The habitual action game players showed better performance than non-players. Likewise, intervention studies showed about a third of a standard deviation advantage in cognition domains in action VG trainees. Perception, spatial cognition and top-down attention were the three cognitive domains with the most robust impact [ 40 ].

Homer et al. [ 41 ] examined the effectiveness of a custom-designed VG (‘alien game’) in a group of 82 healthy adolescents (age range 14–18 years; average = 15.5 years) trained to play for 20 min per week for 6 consecutive weeks. Such a digital game was devised to target, in a fun way, the specific executive ability of shifting, as the ability to shift between tasks or mental sets, hypothesizing that after playing the ‘alien game’ over a period of several weeks, adolescents would show significant improvements in the targeted ability. Pre- and post-test measures of another executive ability, inhibition, as the ability to control a prepotent response, were also recorded in order to examine the extent to which training would transfer from one executive ability to another. Significant advantages both in shifting and in inhibition abilities were found, providing evidence that VGs can be effective tools for training executive abilities [ 42 , 43 ].

Similarly, Oei and Patterson [ 44 ] examined the effect of action and non-action VGs on executive functions. Fifty-two non-VG gamers played one of four different games for 20 h. Pre- and post-training tests of executive function were administered. The group that trained on the physics-based puzzle game, demanding high level planning, problem solving, reframing, strategizing and new strategies from level to level, improved in several aspects of executive function. In a previous study, the same authors [ 45 ] instructed 75 non-gamers, (average age 21.07 ± 2.12) to play for 20 h, one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks. They compared effects of action and non-action games to examine whether non-action games also improve cognition. Four tests pre- and post-training were administered. The results showed that cognitive improvements were not limited to training with action games and that different games improved different aspects of cognition. Action VGs have even been used to treat dyslexic children [ 46 , 47 ]. Only 12 h of action VGs, for nine sessions of 80 min per day, significantly improved reading and attentional skills [ 48 ].

Moreover, several meta-analytic studies provide evidence that action VG training may become an efficient way to improve the cognitive performance of healthy adults. Wang et al. [ 49 ], in a meta-analysis, found that healthy adults achieve moderate benefits from action VG training in overall cognitive ability and moderate to small benefits in specific cognitive domains. In contrast, young adults gain more benefits than older adults in both overall cognition and specific cognitive domains.

In summation, the studies on VG effects, by different methodologies, document both in adults and in children significant positive outcomes in different cognitive domains. Such performance improvements may be paralleled by functional brain remodelling [ 14 ].

3.2. Video Games Effect on Attention and Addictive Behaviors

Attentional problems are accounted as a crucial area of focus on outcomes of intensive game-play practices in children and adolescents. However, literature on the topic appears inconsistent. While some research has found mixed results [ 50 ] or a positive effect [ 51 , 52 , 53 ], or no relationship between VG practice and attention, other studies have linked VG playing with greater attention problems, such as impulsiveness, self-control, executive functioning, and cognitive control [ 53 , 54 , 55 ].

Gentile et al. [ 56 ], examining longitudinally, over 3 years, a large sample of child and adolescent VG players aged 8–17 (mean = 11.2 ± 2.1), suggested a bidirectional causality: children who spend more time playing VGs have more attention problems; in turn, subjects who have more attention problems spend more time playing VGs. Therefore, children and adolescents with attention problems are more attracted to VGs (excitement hypothesis), and, in turn, they find it less engaging to focus on activities requiring more control and sustained attention, such as educational activities, homework or household chores (displacement hypothesis). According to such hypotheses, and to the operant conditioning model [ 57 , 58 ], VGs, providing strong motivational cues, become more rewarding for impulsive children and teenagers [ 51 ] who, in such contexts, experience a sense of value and feelings of mastery that they do not experience in their daily relationships [ 59 ].

Actually, any modern VG is a highly engaging activity with a variety of attractive cues, such as, for example, violence, rapid movement, fast pacing and flashing lights [ 60 , 61 ]. According to the attractive hypothesis [ 56 ], it may provide a strong motivation and support for attention and even become addictive, especially in subjects with problems maintaining attention in usual, monotonous and poorly engaging tasks. Therefore, paradoxically, a greater VG exposure may improve visual attention skills involved in such engaging play [ 26 ], but it may impair the ability to selectively focus on a target for lasting time, without external exciting cues.

Probably, in line with the bidirectional causality framework [ 56 ], such rewarding conditions could become the psychological context for the structuring of addictive behaviors, such as a sense of euphoria while playing, feeling depressed away from the game, an uncontrollable and persistent craving to play, neglect of family and friends, problems with school or jobs, alteration of sleeping routines, irregular meals and poor hygiene [ 14 ]. The most psychologically fragile subjects may be most attracted to an engaging and rewarding activity, ensuring an effective compensation to their fragility [ 14 ]. However, the topic of video game addiction continues to present today many outstanding issues. There is a large consensus that ‘pathological use’ is more debilitating than ‘excessive use’ of VGs alone [ 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Addictive behavior appears associated with an actual lowering in academic, social, occupational, developmental and behavioral dimensions, while excessive use may simply be an excessive amount of time gaming. According to Griffiths’ suggestions, ‘healthy excessive enthusiasms add to life, whereas addiction takes away from it’ [ 65 ]. However, it is sometimes difficult to identify the clear line between unproblematic overuse of gaming and the pathological and compulsive overuse that compromises one’s lifestyle and psychosocial adjustment [ 66 , 67 , 68 ]. Therefore, there may be a risk of stigmatizing an enjoyable practice, which, for a minority of excessive users, may be associated with addiction-related behaviors [ 69 , 70 ]. Przybylski and colleagues, in four survey studies with large international cohorts (N = 18,932), found that the percentage of the general population who could qualify for internet gaming disorders was extremely small (less than one percent) [ 71 ].

In such a discussion of the pathological nature of VGs, another outstanding question is whether pathological play is a major problem, or if it is the phenomenological manifestation of another pathological condition. Several studies have suggested that video game play can become harmful enough to be categorized as a psychiatric disorder, or it could be a symptom of an underlying psychopathological condition, such as depression or anxiety. Moreover, the functional impairments observed in individuals with game addictions are also thought to be similar to the impairments observed in other addictions. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the brain reward pathways which are activated during video game playing are also activated during cue-induced cravings of drug, alcohol or other type of substances abuse [ 72 , 73 , 74 ].

Some longitudinal studies [ 14 , 75 , 76 ] proved that pathological addictive behaviors, such as depression, are likely to be outcomes of pathological gaming rather than predictors of it [ 77 , 78 ]. Lam and Peng [ 79 ], in a prospective study with a randomly generated cohort of 881 healthy adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years, found that the pathological use of the internet results in later depression. Similarly, Liau et al. [ 80 ], in a 2-year longitudinal study involving 3034 children and adolescents aged 8 to 14 years, found that pathological video gaming has potentially serious mental health consequences, in particular of depression.

In summary, attention problems and addictive behaviors in the context of VGs should be addressed in a circular and bidirectional way in which each variable can influence the others.

3.3. Video Games Effect and Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors

The positive impact of video games also concerns the social and relational dimension, as occurs in the VG training of prosocial or educational skills. Several studies have reported that playing prosocial VGs, even for a short time, increases prosocial cognition [ 81 ], positive affect [ 82 ] and helping behaviors [ 13 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 ], whereas it decreases antisocial thoughts and the hostile expectation bias, such as the tendency to perceive any provocative actions of other people as hostile even when they are accidental [ 13 , 86 ]. Such findings have been found in correlational, longitudinal and experimental investigations [ 82 , 85 , 87 ].

In four different experiments [ 13 ], playing VGs with prosocial content was positively related to increased prosocial behavior, even though participants played the VGs for a relatively short time, suggesting that VGs with prosocial content could be used to improve social interactions, increase prosocial behavior, reduce aggression and encourage tolerance.

Following experimental, correlational, longitudinal and meta-analytic studies provided further evidence that playing a prosocial VG results in greater interpersonal empathy, cooperation and sharing and subsequently in prosocial behavior [ 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ].

Such literature’s data are consistent with the General Learning Model [ 91 , 92 ], according to which the positive or negative content of the game impacts on the player’s cognition, emotions and physiological arousal, which, in turn, leads to positive or negative learning and behavioral responses [ 12 , 93 , 94 , 95 ]. Therefore, repeated prosocial behavioral scripts can be translated into long-term effects in cognitive, emotional and affective constructs related to prosocial actions, cognition, feelings, and physiological arousal, such as perceptual and expectation schemata, beliefs, scripts, attitudes and stereotypes, empathy and personality structure [ 83 , 91 ].

In the same conceptual framework, educational video games have been found to positively affect behaviors in a wide range of domains [ 12 ], school subjects [ 96 ] and health conditions [ 97 , 98 ]. In randomized clinical trials, for example, diabetic or asthmatic children and adolescents improved their self-care and reduced their emergency clinical utilization after playing health education and disease management VGs. After six months of playing, diabetic patients decreased their emergency visits by 77 percent [ 99 ]. Therefore, well-designed games can provide powerful interactive experiences that can foster young children’s learning, skill building, self-care and healthy development [ 100 ].

Violence in VGs is a matter of intense debate, both in public opinion and in the scientific context [ 101 , 102 ]. A vast majority of common opinions, parents and educators consider the violence of VGs as the most negatively impacting feature to emotional and relational development of youth and children. Actually, studies agree on the negative impact of violent video games on aggressive behavior. Several meta-analyses have examined violent VGs [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 103 ] and, although they vary greatly in terms of how many studies they include, they seem to agree with each other. The most comprehensive [ 8 ] showed that violent VGs, gradually and unconsciously, as a result of repeated exposure to justified and fun violence, would increase aggressive thoughts, affect and behavior, physiological persistent alertnes, and would desensitize players to violence and to the pain and suffering of others, supporting a perceptual and cognitive bias to attribute hostile intentions to others.

Similarly, experimental, correlational and longitudinal studies supported the causal relationship between violent VGs and aggression, in the short- and long-term, both in a laboratory and in a real-life context. A greater amount of violent VGs, or even a brief exposure, were significantly associated with more positive attitudes toward violence [ 104 ], higher trait hostility [ 105 ] and with increased aggressive behaviors [ 106 ], physical fights [ 107 ] and aggressive thoughts [ 108 ] and affect [ 109 ]. In a two-year longitudinal study, children and adolescents who played a lot of violent VGs showed over time more aggressive behaviors, including fights and delinquency [ 110 ]. Saleem, Anderson and Gentile [ 82 ] examined the effects of short-term exposure to prosocial, neutral and violent VGs in a sample of 191 children of 9–14 years old. Results indicated that while playing prosocial games increased helpful and decreased hurtful behaviour, the violent games had the opposite effect.

In summation, the overall literature data support the opinion that violent video games, over time, affect the brain and activate a greater availability to aggressive behavior patterns, although some researchers have pointed out that the negative effects of violent VGs are small and may be a publication bias [ 14 , 111 ].

4. Discussion

The focus of the current overview was to identify, from a functional point of view, the most significant issues in the debate on the impact of VGs on cognition and behavior in children and adolescents, in order to provide suggestions for a proper management of VG practice.

Overall, the reviewed literature agrees in considering the practice of VGs as much more than just entertainment or a leisure activity. Moreover, research agrees that any debate on the effectiveness of VGs cannot refer to a unitary construct [ 14 ], nor to a rigidly dichotomous approach, according to which VGs are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ [ 1 , 12 , 112 , 113 ].

The term ‘video game’ should be viewed as an ‘umbrella term’ that covers different meanings, far from a single unitary construct [ 14 , 114 ]. Furthermore, VGs and their effects should be approached in terms of complexity and differentiated by multiple dimensions interacting with each other and with a set of other variables, such as, for example, the player’s age and personality traits, the amount of time spent playing, the presence of an adult, the game alone or together with others and so on [ 115 ].

Gentile and colleagues [ 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 ] have identified five main features of VGs that can affect players: 1. amount of play; 2. content; 3. context; 4. structure; and 5. mechanics. Each of these aspects can produce or increase different thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

However, the content effects, individually focused, are frequently overemphasized. According to the General Learning Model, children would learn the contents of the specific games and apply them to their lives. Nevertheless, a violent game using a team-based game modality may have different impacts than a violent game using a ‘free for all’ game modality. Although both are equally violent games, the former could suggest teamwork and collaborative behaviors, while playing in an ‘everyone for oneself’ mode could foster less empathy and more aggressive thoughts and behaviors [ 8 , 88 ].

Likewise, the outside social context can have different effects and it may even mitigate or reinforce the effects of the content. Playing violent games together with others could increase aggression outcomes if players reinforce each other in aggressive behavior. Instead, it could have a prosocial effect if the motivations to play together are to help each other [ 120 ].

According to the dominant literature, the psychological appeal of video games may be related to an operant conditioning that reinforces multiple psychological instances, including the need for belonging and social interaction [ 57 , 58 ]. On such drives and reinforcements, the playing time can expand, and it may become endless in addicted subjects. However, the amount of play, regardless of the content, can become harmful when it displaces beneficial activities, affects academic performance or social dimensions [ 52 , 121 ], or supports health problems, such as, for instance, obesity [ 122 , 123 , 124 ], repetitive strain disorder and video game addiction [ 76 , 83 ]. However, a greater amount of time inevitably implies increased repetition of other game dimensions. Therefore, it is likely that some associations between time spent and negative outcomes result from other dimensions, and not from amount of time per se. Moreover, children who perform poorly at school are likely to spend more time playing games, according to the displacement hypothesis, but over time, the excessive amount of play may further damage academic performance in a vicious circle [ 116 ].

VGs can also have a different psychological appeal in relation to their structural organization and the way they are displayed. Many structural features can affect playing behavior, regardless of the individual’s psychological, physiological, or socioeconomic status [ 125 ], such as, for instance, the degree of realism of the graphics, sound and back-ground, the game duration, the advancement rate, the game dynamics such as exploring new areas, elements of surprise, fulfilling a request, the control options of the sound, graphics, the character development over time and character customization options, the winning and losing features as the potential to lose or accumulate points, finding bonuses, having to start a level again, the ability to save regularly, the multi-player option building alliances and beating other players [ 125 ].

The more or less realistic mechanics can also configure the game differently and affect fine or gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination or even balance skills, depending on the type of controller, such as a mouse and keyboard, a game control pad, a balance board, or a joystick.

Therefore, VGs may differ widely in multiple dimensions and, as a result, in their effects on cognitive skills and behavior [ 3 , 33 ]. Moreover, the different dimensions may interact with each other and with the psychological, emotional and personality characteristics of the individual player and context. Even the same game can have both positive and negative effects in different contexts and for different subjects.

The current analysis of the literature, therefore, supports the need for further experimental and longitudinal research on the role of multiple characteristics of video games and their interactions. A wide-ranging approach dynamically focused on the multiple dimensions will allow a deeper theoretical understanding of the different aspects of video games.

Nevertheless, according to common opinion, the violence would always have a negative impact on behavior, especially in pediatric subjects. However, a strictly causal relationship between violent VGs and aggressive behavior appears rather reductive [ 126 , 127 ]. Aggressive behavior is a complex one and arises from the interaction of a lot of factors. Therefore, violent VGs, with no other risk factors, should not be considered ‘per se’ the linear cause and single source of aggressive or violent behavior. Antisocial outcomes can be influenced by personality variables, such as trait aggression, or by a number of the ‘third variables’ such as gender, parental education, exposure to family violence and delinquency history [ 83 ]. According to social learning theories [ 128 ], aggressive behavior would arise from repeated exposure to violence patterns [ 129 ]. Therefore, children who have other risk factors for violent or aggressive behavior, such as violent family patterns, excessive amount of time spent playing, playing alone, and so on are more likely to have negative consequences from playing violent video games.

An alternative theoretical framework [ 126 , 127 ] assumes that violent behavior would result from the interaction of genetically predisposed personality traits and stressful situations. In such a model, violent VGs would act as ‘stylistic catalysts’ [ 127 ], providing an individual predisposed to violence with the various models of violent behavior. Therefore, an aggressive child temperament would derive from a biological pathway, while the violent VG, as a ‘stylistic catalyst’, may suggest the specific violent behavior to enact.

Conversely, playing prosocial VGs, even for a short time, increases prosocial cognition, affect and behaviors in children and adolescents [ 13 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 89 ]. Several intervention or training studies showed that a prosocial VG should activate experiences, knowledge, feelings and patterns of behavior relating to prosocial actions, cognition, feelings and physiological arousal. In turn, in line with the General Learning Model, [ 91 , 130 ], recurrent prosocial behavioral scripts produce new learning, new behavioral patterns and emotional and affective cognitive constructs [ 83 ].

Moreover, several studies emphasize the educational and academic potential of VGs that may become effective and ‘exemplary teachers’ [ 12 , 82 ] providing fun and motivating contexts for deep learning in a wide range of content [ 12 ], such as school learning [ 96 ], rehabilitation activities [ 46 , 47 ], new health care and protection behavior development and the enhancement of specific skills [ 97 , 99 , 100 ]. Similarly, the literature data document that the intensive use of VGs results in generalized improvements in cognitive functions or specific cognitive domains, and in behavioral changes [ 1 ]. Actually, VGs involve a wide range of cognitive functions, and attentional, perceptual, executive, planning and problem solving skills. They can, therefore, be expected to improve different perceptual and cognitive domains. However, on a methodological level, the impact on behavior and cognition cannot be simplistically viewed as the linear result of a causal relationship between VG and performance. For instance, subjects with better perceptual abilities are likely to choose to play and, as a result, their increase in performance may reflect their baseline level rather than the effects of the game.

Studies focused on the attentional functions in VG playing reported inconsistent data. Playing action games may improve attention skills implied in a specific game. However, according to the attractive hypothesis [ 56 ] and operant conditioning theory, children and adolescents with attentional problems may be attracted by the motivating and engaging VG activities. On the other hand, children and adolescents with a wider VG exposure show greater attention problems [ 53 ]. The relationship between VGs and attention, then, seem to be approached in terms of bidirectional causality [ 56 ].

Similarly, since VGs and their cues appear more pleasant and desirable, a large amount of attractive VG exposure can lead to addiction and impair ability to focus on effortful goal oriented behavior [ 131 ]. However, the literature does not yet appear to agree on the objective diagnostic criteria for classifying behavioral game addiction [ 132 ].

In the fifth edition appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [ 133 ], the diagnostic criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder included both specific internet games and offline games. However, this has led to some confusion as to whether excessive video games must necessarily occur online [ 134 , 135 ]. According to some authors, since ‘Internet addiction’ includes heterogeneous behaviors and etiological mechanisms, the term ‘video game disorder’ or simply ‘gaming disorder’ would be more suitable [ 136 , 137 ], while the term ‘Internet addiction’ appears inappropriate. Individuals rarely become addicted to the medium of the internet itself [ 137 , 138 ]. Moreover, it has also been supported theoretically [ 135 ] and empirically proven [ 139 ] that problematic internet use and problematic online gaming are not the same.

The debate on the relationship between pure game addiction behaviors and game addiction in comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders appears still on. Some researchers have argued that game addiction, as a standalone clinical entity, does not exist [ 140 ], but it is simply a symptom of psychiatric illnesses such as major depressive disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Equally poorly defined is the question of genetic predisposition and vulnerability to game addiction.

Likewise, the relationship between clinical symptoms and changes in brain activity and the dynamics by which video games triggers such widespread brain plasticity needs to be more clearly defined.

5. Conclusions

The current analysis of the literature provides strong evidence on the power of video games as highly motivating and engaging tools in the broader context of cognitive, emotional and relational development of children and adolescents. However, the effectiveness of such tools does not arise exclusively from their content, but it results from a set of variables interacting each other.

Video games, beyond their content, can favor pathological aggression, withdrawal, escape from reality and reduction of interests. Virtual reality becomes more attractive than the real one and can become the ‘non-place’ to escape from the complexity of everyday life. Recently, to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities have forced populations to stay home and children and adolescents may experience an exacerbation of exposure to video games.

Parents, educators and teachers should ensure an educational presence, monitoring times and modalities of VG practice in a broader context in which children and adolescents live with a wider repertoire of interests, without losing social and relational engagement. Moreover, pediatric health care visits may be a great opportunity to support parents helping children to deal with media and video games.

On these assumptions, as practical suggestions to prevent or mitigate addictive behaviors, parents and educators should enforce the golden rule as the educational presence of the adult.

Moreover, in line with the literature, the core values to prevent a negative impact of video games should be focused on a few rules to be proposed with assertiveness and authority: 1. set a clear time limit to play, 2. prefer games that can also be played with family, 3. alternate video games with other games and activities, 4. avoid highly addictive games, 5. keep a social life in the real world.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, D.S., L.D.F. and G.L.; methodology, D.S., E.G.; formal analysis, D.S., E.G. and L.D.F.; data curation, E.G. and L.D.F.; writing—original draft preparation, D.S., E.G. and L.D.F.; writing—review and editing, D.S.; supervision, D.S. and G.L.; funding acquisition, D.S. and G.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Arts on the Brain

Emory undergrads experience & explore!

Video games on the Brain

Technology has expanded the canvas upon an artist’s ability to express their stories. Videogames prove to be an art form that can solely exist in the digital space and demonstrates a collision of art and science. Our brain interprets these artists’ creations in many ways, both presenting itself as beneficial, yet also damaging to the brain. Video games have both positive and negative effects on the brain, as they can be used for education purposes or can have more drastic consequences. 

When overviewing the positive effects of videogames on the brain there are some main areas of the brain to focus upon: premotor and parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex, dopamine and grey matter. Cognitively, all video games are proven to improve one’s problem solving ability as well as reasoning capabilities. 

Different types of video games develop different skills as well as activate different parts of the brain. More broadly speaking, games that require team efforts help develop collaboration abilities. Other action focused video games have the ability to increase brain activity in the premotor and parietal cortex, where motor skills, quick thinking, and control of sensory movements are required. These same video games have the ability to physically improve one’s peripheral vision as well as hand-eye coordination. Examples of these types of games include Space Invaders and Halo. Games that require more logical thinking, such as Tetris, display an increased use of the prefrontal cortex, where decision-making is controlled. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when learning and activates sensations of reward. In the context of playing video games, dopamine is released in the brain’s striatum, invoking senses of pleasure and addiction. 

For the sake of this post, I’ll be emphasising my focus on experiments regarding grey matter. Grey matter helps process information in the brain, by more specifically processing signals that are generated by other sensory organs in the body or other areas which contain grey matter. This grey matter serves to move motor sensory stimuli to nerve cells in the nervous system. There, synapses produce a response to the certain stimuli. Hippocampal grey matter, more specifically, is crucial for the maintenance of healthy cognition. One experiment demonstrated how playing video games has the potential to increase hippocampal grey matter in young adolescents. This experiment tested the influence of the video game Super Mario Kart on the grey matter in the hippocampal and cerebral region of adolescents. 

Figure 1: Demonstrates the increase of grey matter in the hippocampal region.

As seen in the brain scan it is apparent that there is a great increase of grey matter in the brain of the adults immediately after playing the video game. 

Though there are positive effects apparent when playing video games, some of the negative impacts outweigh those of the positive. More broadly speaking, some of the negative effects that videogames can have on the brain is that of the “video game brain.” This effect occurs when one has dedicated so much time to video games that the underside of the frontal lobe begins to shrink, leasing to other symptoms such as mood alterations. With more frequency of playing video games, a visible decrease in activity in the prefrontal lobe is apparent. This is known to lead to symptoms such as increased moodiness, anxiety, and aggressiveness, which may occur even after the conclusion of the game itself.

For the sake of this post, I will be focusing the spectrum of my research to the cingulate cortices. Studies have demonstrated that even one week of violent video gaming can lead to a decreased activation of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala, during both numerical and emotional tasks. Both of which areas are utilized in solving and controlling emotional confliction. This frequent play of violent aggressive video games lead to symptoms such as players being relatively more anxious, spike in increases of violent-related and aggressive behaviors for the short and long term period. In the study, it was noted that when players shot and fired a weapon in violent video game play, there was a suppression of emotional response in these areas to cope with their actions afterwards. This is seen in the posterior cingulate cortex, which serves for motor control, cognition, and planning activated by emotions, or in this case weapon usage. Some video games that can demonstrate these effects on humans are Fornite and Call of Duty.

“Choosing to attack is associated with greater activity in the posterior anterior cingulate cortex, while choosing to defend was associated with activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex .” As demonstrated in the figure above, specific brain regions are active when choosing an attack or defend strategy. 

One of my favorite video games to play at the moment is Among Us. Among Us is a Social Deduction Game where one imposter tries to kill all the crewmates on board without exposing their identity. If seen killing, crewmates can report the killer and vote out the imposter. The crewmates are responsible for finishing as many simple tasks as they possibly can. Some of the brain functions involved in the game vary depending on the position you are assigned at the beginning of the game: crewmate or imposter. 

When playing the game Among Us strategies of how to operate are required, utilizing the frontal lobe to map out one’s judgement and impulse control. Controlling sensory movements in this action-filled game is crucial. Secondly, there is violence present in this game. So those in the positions of imposters will experience different activities in their brain than those who are crewmates. After the killing of a crewmate, the person playing the imposter will experience a suppression of emotional response after their killing, more specifically suppressed in the rostral angular cortex and the amygdala. Whereas the crewmate on the opposite hand, will feel emotions of reward and pleasure upon completion of their tasks and calling out those who may seem suspicious during the play of the game. This releases dopamine through the brian’s striatum. All in all, videogames all impact the players brain in different ways, having both positive and negative effects upon one’s cognition.

Works Cited:

Itgsnewsauthor. How Gaming Affects the Brain . 4 July 2015, 

www.itgsnews.com/how-gaming-affects-brain/. 

Izaak. (2020, September 22). How to play Among Us: Beginner’s guide, tutorial, and 

frequently asked questions. Retrieved November 01, 2020, from 

https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/how-play-among-us-beginner-s-guide-tutorial-fr

equently-asked-questions

Melissinos, Chris. Video Games Are One of the Most Important Art Forms in History . 22 Sept. 

2015, time.com/collection-post/4038820/chris-melissinos-are-video-games-art/. 

Palaus, Marc, et al. Neural Basis of Video Gaming: A Systematic Review . 22 May 2017, 

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5438999/. 

Robertson, Sally. What Is Grey Matter? 23 Aug. 2018, 

www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Grey-Matter.aspx. 

Staff, Science X. Brain: A ‘Cingular’ Strategy for Attack and Defense . 20 Apr. 2015, 

medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brain-cingular-strategy-defense.html. 

West, Greg L., et al. Playing Super Mario 64 Increases Hippocampal Grey Matter in Older 

Adults . journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0187779. 

6 Comments Add yours

I really enjoyed your post! Although I don’t play video games that often, I definitely liked learning about how and why they activate different parts of the brain. I knew that playing lots of video games can be unhealthy for our minds and physical bodies, however, I didn’t realize that they could entirely shrink our frontal lobes in severe situations. I also enjoyed reading about the Among Us portion in your post as I might have had a slight obsession with it last month. I never even realized all the intricate connections between doing small tasks in an online game and how they affect different parts of my brain. Great read!

Hi Lyla, I love your post so much! It was well written and also intriguing. The strucure of this post was so clear that I could see an introduction, a positive effect part, a negative effect part, and a conclusion. When trying to explain some professional and biological stuffs, you perfectly used great and clear pictures to illustrate the explanation. Just as what Rishika said, I knew that it was definitely unhealthy for one who plays lots of video games, I failed to realize that video games could cause such severe situation such as shrinking the frontal lobes. Thanks you so much for bringing such good work to me!

Wow! Though I have heard of many of the positive effects of playing video games that you touched on like increased problem-solving skills and increased ability to work in teams, I had not heard much about the possible negative effects of gaming. In my experience, many negative claims I have heard about video games are brushed to the side and seen as a misunderstanding from an older, less informed generation. It was interesting to see activation in the posterior cingulate cortex as shown in figure 2, highlighting how the attack portion is activated during in-game attacks. Still, it was very cool to see both positive and negative effects explored in this post!

Hi Lyla, this is such an interesting post about arts and brain! I am also a player of both Mario and Among Us, and I really agree with your argument about the effect of the video game. Before reading your post, I haven’t realized how my brain would be affected by those video games and simply thought games could increase my brain activity. Now I get to know the specific areas like grey matter and frontal lobe will be impacted by the stimulus from games. It reminds me the reason why teenagers should not play too many video games. Proper time management on playing games can reduce the shrink on our frontal lobe, thus help maintain a normal function of controlling emotions and decision making. Thank you for posting it!

I really enjoyed this post and found it super relevant considering how much time people spend playing video games today. It was really interesting to hear about the different kinds of effects, both positive and negative, that video games can have on our brains. It seems to be important to find a balance so that one does not spend too much playing them. It may even be beneficial for someone to mix up what type of games they are playing so that the negative effects are less harmful. Overall, this was super interesting to read!

I really enjoyed reading this post and found it super relevant considering how much time people spend playing video games today. It was really interesting to hear about the different kinds of effects, both positive and negative, that video games can have on our brains. It seems to be important to find a balance so that one does not spend too much playing them. It may even be beneficial for someone to mix up what type of games they are playing so that the negative effects are less harmful. Overall, this was super interesting to read!

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Do Video Games Improve Cognitive Performance?

Study finds improved cognitive and memory skills in kids who play video games.

Photo:  Pressmaster / Shutterstock

A study of nearly 2,000 children found that those who reported playing video games for three hours per day or more performed better on cognitive skills tests involving impulse control and working memory compared to children who had never played video games. Published in JAMA Network Open , this study analyzed data from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, supported by NIDA.

“Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems,” said NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow. “This study suggests there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”

Scientists at the University of Vermont, Burlington, analyzed data obtained when children entered the ABCD Study at ages 9 and 10 years old. The research team examined survey, cognitive and brain imaging data from nearly 2,000 participants from within the bigger study cohort. 

The three-hour threshold was selected as it exceeds the American Academy of Pediatrics screen-time guidelines, which recommend that video gaming time be limited to one to two hours per day for older children. 

Investigators found that the children who reported playing video games for three or more hours daily were faster and more accurate on cognitive tasks than those who never played. 

In the gamer group, functional MRI brain imaging analyses found higher brain activity in regions of the brain associated with attention and memory. This group also had more brain activity in frontal brain regions associated with more cognitively demanding tasks and less brain activity in brain regions related to vision. 

While prior studies have reported associations between video gaming and increases in depression, violence and aggressive behavior, this study did not find that to be the case. There were reports of higher mental health and behavioral issues in this cohort but the authors could not confirm whether this trend reflected a true association or chance. They note this will be an important measure to continue to track and understand as these children mature.

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Your Gaming Skills Can Help You Shape Your Career

• Igor Tulchinsky

Video games are fast-moving, dynamic, and anything but static. Your career can be too.

Studies have shown the benefits of gaming — whether it’s better spatial awareness, faster cognitive processing, or improved mental health, social skills, and decision-making capabilities. Here are some ways you can harness the unique skills and lessons gaming has taught you to shape your future working life.

• Don’t settle. Video games are fast-moving, dynamic, and anything but static. Your career should be too. Every job requires some combination of problem-solving, strategy, and teamwork — just like every video game. But not every company you encounter will be as solutions-oriented, innovative, or collaborative as you might desire. Aim to find an organization that will value you and your skills.
• Challenge your beliefs. How often have you written off a video game before even playing it? We all have internal biases that can alter our perception of the world. The same is true for our careers — you likely have personal beliefs about certain companies, industries, and job titles. Just like you shouldn’t judge a game by its popular presentation, you shouldn’t with jobs either. Instead, take the time to speak to people on the inside.
• Try again. Fail again. Fail better. We’re often too afraid to fail in real life because we believe we won’t get a second chance. In some ways, that’s true — there are no extra lives here. But just like in video games, we can test hypotheses, experiment, process variables, and establish new ways of understanding our world.
• Have patience. Video games can be repetitive. The same can be said for work, and our lives in general. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The patience and hard work are what make the glorious cut scenes, rare achievements, and final fights worth it. In your career, the work you put in now will pay off long-term, too.
• Think like a creator. Game developers often employ transformational creativity. This is when designers, often drawing on leaps forward in technology, drive revolutionary changes in the entire video game ecosystem. One way to cultivate transformational creativity in your work life is to embrace adjacency. If you’re struggling to come up with new ideas or find yourself making the same errors when addressing a task, try thinking about how other, adjacent disciplines might approach a similar problem.

Growing up in the golden age of video games, it was hard not to feel like you were living two lives at once.

• IT Igor Tulchinsky is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of WorldQuant, LLC, a global quantitative asset management firm. He was previously a portfolio manager at Millennium.

Partner Center

• Posted June 29, 2021
• By Emily Boudreau
• Learning Design and Instruction
• Technology and Media

Parents and educators alike may wonder why a child can spend hours playing Minecraft but can’t engage with an app that runs through multiplication facts with the same focus. Why are some games more “fun” than others?

“What’s really motivating about a good learning game is the learning,” says Louisa Rosenheck , researcher at MIT’s Education Arcade Lab and a an adjunct lecturer at HGSE. “Humans like to learn, and we like to get better at things.” But, she observes, many games used in classrooms or that are deemed “educational” tend to focus on content and procedural skills, and don’t necessarily encourage learning that sparks intrinsic motivation and genuine engagement.

With this in mind, Rosenheck and a team of other researchers at the Education Arcade Lab developed a series of design principles that inform the development of what they term “ resonant games ” — games that are open ended, exploratory, allow learners to make connections to bigger systems and concepts, and promote deeper learning overall.  

Choosing a Good Learning Game

Parents and educators need to be able to navigate a tremendous amount of content and options when selecting games that will engage children in authentic learning. While not an exhaustive list, Rosenheck notes that good games will:

• Give players agency or choice in the way they play or their goals in the game.
• Spark curiosity, making players ask more questions and wonder how things work.
• Provide “hard fun” — an appropriate level of challenge that is engaging and satisfying.

Importantly, games with structures that promote these features avoid the trend of “gamification” — a superficial way of spicing up a learning task with extraneous elements like points, badges, and leaderboards. But these features are often separate from the learning experience, serving to “trick” kids into learning. Instead, games that put authentic learning first focus on deeper concepts, exploration and experimentation, and developing a sense of accomplishment by building skills and applying them to real-world contexts by:

• Spending time on playing and figuring things out for themselves, rather than instruction or explanation. 
• Providing feedback to a player so they can form their own understanding of the game’s systems.
• Helping players make connections with real systems and authentic problems — for example, focusing on conceptual math, rather than drilling addition facts.

Going Beyond Entertainment

Many adults have a tendency to truncate or limit game time, but it’s important to understand that fun and learning can often be one and the same. Instead, the challenge may not just be to find a high-quality game, but to find ways to support kids in making meaningful connections between their play and the world around them. Adults can also add structure and depth to games by providing opportunities for reflection and conversation. To better support game-based learning, educators and caregivers can:

• Talk to kids about what they’re playing on their computers. A great starter question is “what have you figured out?”
• Emphasize skills like persistence or working through frustration. Games provide a valuable opportunity to reinforce social emotional learning in addition to academic competencies. 
• Recognize that these games provide children with a chance to build social connections and that during the pandemic, online games have been a major social support. Cutting out computer time isn’t just cutting back on screen time but could also limit social interaction.
• Let go of some control. Instead of devoting time to explaining how a game works, let kids explore and carve out time for reflection and sharing instead. 

Key Takeaways

• A good game puts the learning first and doesn’t rely on bells and whistles to motivate kids to engage with its content.
• Leave room for kids to explore and solve problems independently, as figuring out the rules is half the fun. The teacher or caregiver shouldn’t feel they must have all the answers.
• Encourage conversation and reflection to connect the game with the real world. This could take the form of parents talking to their kids or kids talking about the game with their own social networks. 

Additional Resources

• Games from MIT’s Education Arcade
• A Curious Mind: How Educators and Parents Can Encourage and Guide Children’s Natural Curiosity — in the Classroom and at Home
• Harvard EdCast: What It Means to Learn Science
• Thinking Lessons
• Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of a Video Game
• Cultivating Early Literacy Apps

Usable Knowledge

Connecting education research to practice — with timely insights for educators, families, and communities

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Video games encourage the development of problem-solving skills

Video games today have ceased to be simple hobbies and have become powerful tools that can help people develop cognitive skills and solve problems effectively. This evolution is due to the complexity and diversity of the challenges presented in modern video games.

First, video games encourage problem solving by requiring players to find creative solutions to overcome obstacles within the game. Whether facing puzzles, combat strategies, or logic challenges, players must think quickly and make informed decisions to advance through the game.

Additionally, many video games foster strategic thinking and long-term planning, as players must consider the consequences of their actions and make decisions that will affect the outcome of the game. These skills transfer effectively to real-life situations, where effective decision making is crucial.

Video games encourage the development of problem-solving skills. We’ll explore how video games can be a valuable tool in improving our problem-solving skills, how this translates into tangible benefits in everyday life, and what video games Kidmons offers to foster these skills.

The importance of encouraging problem solving

Problem-solving skills are essential in childhood, and playing has an important role in their development. Through games, such as puzzles, construction games, and role-playing, children learn to identify challenges, analyze options, and find solutions. These experiences not only foster creativity and decision making, but also promote persistence and self-confidence in problem solving. These skills are essential for meeting academic and social challenges as children grow. In addition, playing games creates a safe environment to make mistakes and learn from them, which contributes to comprehensive development and greater adaptability in adult life.

Video games encourage the development of problem-solving skills in children in several ways:

They stimulate critical thinking: Many video games require children to analyze complex situations and make informed decisions to advance in the game. This promotes the ability to evaluate different options and their consequences.

Develop creativity: When faced with in-game challenges, children often must come up with creative solutions. This stimulates their creativity and teaches them to expand their perspectives.

Develop planning skills: Strategy, construction and simulation games require children to plan their actions in the short and long term. This helps them understand the importance of planning in problem solving.

Encourage persistence: In video games, children often face difficult obstacles. Persistence is key to overcoming these challenges, which teaches them not to give up in the face of real problems.

Improve decision making: Games often p resent ethical and moral dilemmas that require children to make difficult decisions . This helps them develop ethical and rational decision-making skills.

In summary, well-selected and supervised video games can be effective tools for improving problem-solving skills in children, as long as they are used in moderation and in conjunction with other educational and social activities.

Types of video games that encourage problem-solving skills

There are several types of video games that can be especially effective in improving children’s problem-solving skills. These include:

Puzzles and logic games: Games like chess, Sudoku, Tetris or puzzle games in general require children to analyze patterns, find solutions and plan strategies . At Kidmons we offer games like Puzzle for Kids: Safari or Simon Memorize that are, in addition to being fun, educational.

Adventure and exploration games: Titles like “The Legend of Zelda” or “Minecraft” encourage problem solving as children must discover routes, invent solutions to survive, and complete missions. Try Labyrinth Adventures at Kidmons!

Building games: Games like “LEGO Worlds” allow children to design and build their own worlds, stimulating creativity and problem solving related to engineering and design.

Real-time strategy (RTS) games: Require strategic planning, resource management and quick decision making, which improves problem-solving skills and long-term planning.

Mystery-solving games: Games like “Professor Layton” or “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” require children to investigate and solve cases, which improves their deductive and problem-solving skills.

Physics games: Games like the famous “Angry Birds” challenge children to understand physics and mechanics concepts to overcome obstacles.

Simulation games: Games like “SimCity” challenge children to manage resources and make decisions to build and maintain a city, which encourages management and problem-solving skills.

Role-playing games (RPG): Video games encourage the development of problem-solving skills in role-playing games as well. Children must make decisions that affect the plot and its characters, which develops decision-making and critical thinking skills.

A simple game offered by Kidmons is Kitten Carer , where the child must take on the role of pet caretaker. This game offers benefits by allowing children to take on the role of a virtual pet sitter. It encourages empathy, responsibility, and organization as you care for and feed the virtual kitten . It also teaches the importance of animal care and develops decision-making skills when facing care situations.

When choosing video games for children, it is important to find a balance between entertainment and learning, and monitor their screen time to ensure healthy and balanced development.

In short, video games encourage the development of problem-solving skills. The problem-solving skills acquired through play in childhood are essential for the comprehensive development of children. These skills not only help them overcome academic and social challenges as they grow, but also give them valuable tools to deal with real-life situations effectively. Play encourages creativity, critical thinking, decision making, and persistence, critical skills that last a lifetime. By providing a safe environment to practice problem-solving, play prepares children for a more resilient and successful future.

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How video games help solve real-world problems faster

You might be an occasional gamer, breaking out the PlayStation, Xbox, or PC when you need to give your brain a break. But, did you know that video games help solve real-world problems faster?

As the famous game developer and researcher, Jane McGonigal noted in her TEDTalk,  gamers are out-of-the-box problem solvers.  Why? Because, as she claims, gamers spend roughly 80% of their time  failing while playing video games. Interestingly enough, constant failure makes one person quite the task in other aspects of life – but gamers are pleased with it. The more they fail, the harder they try to correct their failures and complete the task (or mission).

Game developers such as McGonigal see amazing potential in gamers. And with all the improved skills and desire to think and solve serious problems, gamers might be an amazing asset to humanity.

Well, the first thing that video games help is that they  are fun.  Period. Your brain and body are relaxed to the highest level, so much that you have no worry in the world.

But, besides having fun, there are a lot of positive things that come out of gaming. Playing games,  including violent shooter games,  can boost one's learning, health, and social skills according to the American Psychological Association .

“Important research has already been conducted for decades on the negative effects of gaming, including addiction, depression and aggression, and we are certainly not suggesting that this should be ignored,” said lead author Isabela Granic, PhD, of Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands.

The study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development found out that playing games increase the grey matter. Basically, that's the size of your brain, and it also helps refine learned and hardwired skills too.

In other terms, playing video games  directly affects and impacts regions of the brain where memories are created and stored.  Also, it affects the part of the brain responsible for spatial orientation, information organizations, and motor skills. 

And additionally, the study conducts that, similar to exercising, playing games for at least 30 minutes a day  can improve your life drastically.

How do video games help develop problem-solving skills?

Video games are a really fun way to spend your time. And the more popular the games have become, the more hooked we've gotten to it. Especially now that you have  so many ways of playing video games. You have different gaming consoles, computers, laptops, tablets, and even smartphones. It really became a part of our life day by day. And, of course, having a Prebuilt Gaming PC helps you even more.

But, there's a silver lining here – we benefit from it. A lot.

Well, there are a couple of how video games help solve real-world problems faster:

• Learning from your mistakes
• You go through deep practice
• You get to try different things
• Learning when  to give up
• You face a lot of different problems

All the benefits

We all make mistakes on a daily basis. But the difference between that and the video game mistake is that in video games  you know immediately you made a mistake. If you try to jump from a cliff to the other and can't reach it, you learn to understand the distances that are too long to jump. This is a very imporant skill, as the ability to learn from your mistakes can be crucial.

Deep practice, on the other hand, is what psychologists call repeating a set of circumstances over and over again. Like, when you die at a boss's mission, and you keep repeating the same behavior until you eventually get it right and pass the mission. While this is tremendously frustrating, it teaches you consistency and it's useful in terms of problem-solving.

Another benefit of video games is that you could try different things to solve a problem without it costing you anything. The trial and error approach in video games is just as useful as it is in real life. But video games teach us that the solutions and the approaches w take aren't always obvious, and trying another thing is harmless.

And as funny as it may seem, video games teach you when to give up. In real life, you may often keep hitting a brick wall with your solution without knowing it's not the solution. In video games, it's kind of different. You will not try running the same minefield repeatedly 100 times because you'll learn soon enough that it always blows up.

How video games can improve hand-eye coordination

Until very recently, video games were only thought to be played by people with no social life whatsoever. However, a number of studies showed that video games  actually have a positive impact on visuomotor control. 

Visuomotor control is also known as hand-eye coordination, which is the harmony between eye and hand movement.

The University of Toronto found our from a study that people who play regularly video games perform better in the sensorimotor tasks. Especially people who play first-person shooters like "Call of Duty",  or "Assassin's Creed". The study suggested also that playing those kinds of video games might become a treatment for people who suffer from hand-eye coordination or sensorimotor skills in general.

The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain responsible for higher-order thinking, such as decision-making  and problem-solving. So, if we think of the brain as a muscle, video games are an amazing exercise for it.

What are the positives of gaming for kids?

Contrary to the popular belief that gaming is an addictive source of entertainment, recent studies show numerous benefits and key among them.

The following are the positive things of gaming for kids:

• Improvement of coordination
• Problem-solving skills
• Attention and concentration
• Brain speed
• Multitasking skills

When a kid is playing a video game, he is not simply staring at the computer inactively. The activities on the screen help a lot on the mental stimulation. For a person to play a video game, the coordination of the visual is mandatory. And since all video game involves rules, the player has to think of solving problems. This helps the kids at a young age solve problems faster and better. And more often than not, players need to make  split-second decisions  that will determine if he will pass the level.

Video games also help a lot of the concentration of the kid. All of the video games require attention, and it's very well known that it can keep you occupied for a very long time. This is brought about by the player's need to achieve a certain objective in order to pass the level.

And that's how video games help solve real-world problems faster, generally speaking.

David Brooke has been working with writing challenged clients for over four years. He provides ghost writing, coaching and ghost editing services. His educational background in family science and journalism has given him a broad base from which to approach many topics.

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What Video Games Can Help Improve Problem Solving Skills

• June 9, 2022

Problems are part and parcel of our daily lives. We all stumble across life with numerous issues at any given point in time. Some can solve them easily, while others take time. What is the difference between these two? It is their approach towards the problem.

Problems can be a blessing in disguise, and one needs to be able to see the potential of self-improvement in them.

One of the easiest ways that you must consider for  improving your problem-solving  skills is by playing video games, solving puzzles, online casino games, and more. Problems delay your thoughts, your actions, and all your plans. Without striving to overcome all these stumbling blocks in your direction, the possibilities of getting stuck in between traffic lights are high. You don’t want your goals to be messed up! So training your mind to break the loop and progress through reasoning will help build your problem-solving skills.

Fat Santa free play is available for a demo game, you can absolutely test your instinct and decision-making skills.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

If you are in a situation of being given a lot of tasks, time and deadlines, try to act like you are the character of GTA. Multi-tasking can improve your problem-solving skills because you are challenged to continue your work without any disturbances. You become more focused on accomplishing goals and finding solutions even if you receive tons of tasks on your desk.

As a matter of fact, video games have become more complicated. In order to assess the comprehension level of an individual in terms of business, work, and other community relationships, they prove to be good tools.

MOBA Games (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)

How can you solve problems logically if you are afraid to socialize? Do you have trust issues when working with somebody? Your social abilities are advantageous, especially when you are strategizing solutions and are involved in teamwork.

These MOBA games , such as DOTA, Mobile Legends, League of Legends, and more, allow you to set up your microphones, headsets, or even cameras in order to talk to your teammates during the game. You can detonate obstacles in one snap through collaboration. It helps build one’s social skills and opens one’s mind to a lot of avenues.

Call of Duty

There is no doubt that Call of Duty is very well-known because it trains you to be a visual observer, and your spatial awareness is also stimulated. COD teaches you to become goal-oriented, and that makes you a good example of a solution provider.

Given a situation, if you were monitoring the system of your company used by different departments and suddenly program errors started to occur.  Your resilience to not break under pressure is the only thing that can save you during the said crisis. This is just an example of how Call of Duty influences your problem-solving strategy.

Magic Poker

Another tip to take note of improving problem-solving skills is judgment and prediction. Poker is very popular amongst gamblers for its need for the right judgment abilities. Betting a higher coin value will increase the bet amount, and you will have to create a good card combination to aim for the jackpot. This is where you can brush up on your judgment skills and get yourself a win. Once you hit it, you can half or double your stakes. Do not compromise a good prediction because you may end up going home and broke.

4 Problem Solving Aspects that Video Games Enhance

As Albert Einstein once said , “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” This quote encourages everyone to keep on learning and reading in order to advance and develop our existing problem-solving skills. And when speaking of video games, there is a pool of skills that you can further develop.

Critical Thinking

Video games are created involving ways to train the player to think wisely and precisely no matter what the situation is. Offline and online games can be designed in different genres, but most challenging games, such as strategy games, require the player’s good analysis and reasoning capabilities. If you can analyze a difficult situation, then you are strong enough to surpass it.

Video games are very influential, especially if you are just at home and recently bought your PS5. If you are the person who excels in creativity while trying to win an opponent’s battle plan, you can counter your problems with a super skill.

The devil is in the details. They distract you from accomplishing your to-do list and ended up with a day-over. Video games enhance your focus and attention to get you to the desired point. You are trained to observe every single detail of a situation. This skill will also help you in enhancing your approach to a particular challenge.

Enhanced Visual Memory

Like a jigsaw puzzle, you are challenged to shape yourself from being shattered into pieces by your frustrations. When playing with puzzles, you become more attentive to remembering each piece, the size, color, shape and picture. Your memory is enhanced visually in order for you to identify the correct pieces and make your moves.

Tips for Playing Games

Gaming does not only involve fun time but also remarkable mental strategies. In order to be able to maximize the chances of success, one has to carefully create strategies.

Below are some pointers for approaching a challenge:

• Be careful with your time and plan ahead.
• Choose your battles wisely and never play if you don’t understand the game rules.
• Stick to a particular genre or a game if you want to master and entrust your winnings.
• Take advantage of the streams and gameplay because these may help you win or update your strategy.
• Lastly, do not disregard classic or ‘children’ games, such as chess or tic-tac-toe, because they are the backbone of most modern strategy games.

Games like chess force you to consider a wide array of possibilities and outcomes. It enhances your pattern recognition skills, and helps you learn to think strategically. Chess.com has apps for iPhones and Android devices.

We are all players in life. Sometimes we take home the crown, and sometimes we arrive home as losers. Winning your problems is the jackpot that everyone wants to achieve. Thanks to online game

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Can video games improve processing speed in children, how to help kids with adhd and slow processing speed..

Posted April 5, 2024 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

• Slow processing speed impacts children at school, socially, and in problem-solving.
• Emerging neurotechnologies also have the potential to improve slow processing speed.
• Improving executive functioning skills can impact processing speed in children.

Slow processing speed impacts children in a variety of ways. Slow processing speed often has a dramatic impact on school performance and the capacity to keep up with peers. It can negatively impact self-esteem . Because it is so frequently misidentified, it can also cause children to develop oppositional tendencies with parents and teachers. Slow processing speed frequently presents itself as children’s difficulty completing schoolwork in a timely fashion, slow-moving behavior, or, conversely, haphazardly rushing through tasks. Longer homework assignments, particularly those that involve writing, are the genesis of frustration and oppositionalism.

The impact of slow processing speed on children has often been underestimated. Slow processing speed is poorly understood or misidentified by parents, educators, and, perhaps most importantly, children. Its impact on academic and social-emotional functioning needs to be better recognized. For example, many family conflicts around activities, such as homework completion or getting ready for school in the morning, are due to unrecognized slow processing speed. Children’s frustration and lack of awareness of their slow processing speed can impact motivation , self-esteem, sustained effort, and school performance. Resignation about keeping up with homework assignments and the demands for taking notes or finishing tests on time is common. Long-term effects of slow processing speed issues in childhood have been linked to depression and psychological distress in adulthood.

Other issues may exacerbate the struggles of children with slow processing speed, including anxiety about their performance, a sense of isolation from others, and trouble keeping up with the pace of peer interactions. Children with slow processing speed also tend to have difficulty with a variety of executive functioning skills, including problems with task initiation, planning, task persistence, and time management .

In a world where speed and efficiency are so highly valued, using video games and other emerging technologies as a tool to help children with slow processing speed is valuable. Studies of neuroplasticity suggest that modest improvements in processing speed are possible. Some of the more promising interventions to improve processing speed in children involve video games and other screen-based technologies. Thus far, the most compelling research has focused on older adults. In a series of studies conducted across six major universities, Posit Science reports that its brain training program, BrainHQ, increased the speed of verbal and visual processing in older adults. The organization reports that the results generalized beyond tasks measured in the study and that improvement continued to be observed in five- and ten-year follow-ups. Other research indicates how action video games can improve processing speed. One recent study suggested that video games that target visual perception functions associated with visual-motor integration can enhance the speed of processing.

However, a prescription of endless video game play to improve slow processing speed is not recommended. The available data suggests that modest improvements in slow processing speed can be achieved through targeted video gameplay. The application of other cognitive training techniques, along with appropriate accommodations, is a far better course of action.

Processing speed is a cognitive process where technology combined with targeted training would seem to make an ideal pair. If we were to look at a physical comparison to processing speed, we might look no further than a running track, where advances in technology, training, equipment, and assessment have all contributed to faster times across many events. These technologies have resulted in world records, but more importantly, they have also made track athletes of all skill levels faster. Similarly to the track, there are limits as to how much improvement in processing speed any person can make as a result of their use of training and technology.

Traditional interventions for children with slow processing speed and ADHD involve the use of accommodations and alternative teaching strategies. For the most part, educators do not make any effort to improve the speed of processing. Instead, these children frequently have 504 plans developed that include additional time to complete tasks, reduction in the amount of expected work, receiving instruction in smaller chunks, scribing or note-taking, and a focus on quality rather than quantity of work.

Until recently, these were the primary interventions to help children with slow processing speed. This approach was based on the aforementioned assumption that processing-speed capacities were fixed, rather than malleable. The science of neuroplasticity, along with the availability of neurotechnologies and productivity tools , has altered this perspective. Psychologists have also begun to examine how other types of interventions and techniques can improve slow processing speed in children with ADHD, including exercise, direct teaching of executive-functioning skills, and complementary skill development.

It’s time to get moving faster on developing new interventions for kids with slow processing speed. While using video games might be the preferred intervention for many kids, the application of common technologies, such as audiobooks for slow readers, dictation apps for slow writers, and apps for time management , can also improve slow processing speed. There is no reason that we should not use both appropriate accommodations and available technologies to support these kids.

Ahn, S. (2021). Combined effects of virtual reality and computer game-based cognitive therapy on the development of visual-motor integration in children with intellectual disabilities: A pilot study. Occupational Therapy International , 2021 , 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6696779

Cunha, F., Campos, S., Simões-Silva, V., Brugada-Ramentol, V., Sá-Moura, B., Jalali, H., Bozorgzadeh, A., & Trigueiro, M. J. (2023). The effect of a virtual reality based intervention on processing speed and working memory in individuals with ADHD—a pilot-study. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2023.1108060

Gale, C. R., Harris, A., & Deary, I. J. (2016). Reaction time and onset of psychological distress: The UK Health and Lifestyle Survey. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health , 70 (8), 813–817. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2015-206479

Simpson, T., Camfield, D., Pipingas, A., Macpherson, H., & Stough, C. (2012). Improved Processing Speed: Online Computer-based cognitive training in older adults. Educational Gerontology , 38 (7), 445–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2011.559858

Smith, G. E., Housen, P., Yaffe, K., Ruff, R., Kennison, R. F., Mahncke, H. W., & Zelinski, E. M. (2009). A cognitive training program based on principles of brain plasticity: Results from the improvement in memory with plasticity‐based Adaptive Cognitive training (IMPACT) study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 57(4), 594–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.02167.x

Randy Kulman, Ph.D. , is a child clinical psychologist, parent of 5, and founder of LearningWorks for Kids. He is the author of Train Your Brain for Success and Playing Smarter in a Digital World .

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How Online Games Help You Develop Solution-finding skills

Posted by Sponsored | Jul 23, 2020 | Classifieds | 0

Video games are one of the best ways to spend your free time. The more popular online games are become, the more hooked we’ve gotten. You can access your favorite games using a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Also, these games are available for everyone.

While they are fun to play, some critics have argued that spending too much time playing video games wastes time and precious energy. Video games are seen by some as something that is addictive and making people lazy.

Scientific studies have discovered that video games improve people’s creativity and problem-solving skills. They also improve financial management skills in the long run.

Video games and problem-solving skills

There are five core ways in which video games improve your ability to solve problems. Let’s look at them:

1. Learning from mistakes

Video games help players learn from their mistakes. When you make a mistake while playing your favorite game, you usually realize it on the spot. If you tried to overtake your competitors before turning that sharp corner, you learn to understand what distances are enough to beat your competitors.

You constantly adjust to the game’s environment. And this is a critical life skill. There is nothing that can stop someone who can learn from his mistakes in our modern world. As you play, you realize that you have to change your strategy or tactic instead of giving up.

2. Practice makes perfect

As you play video games regularly, you’ll go through an experience that scientists refer to as deep practice. This means that you’ll repeat something over and over again until you master the essential skills.

For instance, if you get shot by your enemies at a certain point in the game, you’ll get the same results every time until you change your tactic. This might seem frustrating but it is very useful especially when solving problems.

Deep practice improves your performance on gamblizard and helps you make the most out of the deposit bonuses available. You’ll learn to put your mind into solving the problems you are currently facing.

3. Trying out new things

Video games improve problem-solving skills because they allow you to try out different things without costing you a lot. For instance, if you are playing a puzzle game, you’ll keep trying out new things to figure out what works.

The trial and error approach is useful in the gaming world and real-life because it boosts your confidence. Most people avoid solving problems because they think they don’t know how to solve them. However, video games teach us that solutions are not always obvious and there’s no harm in trying out new things.

4. Games boost creativity

So, how are video games linked to creativity? Video games help your brain recover lost energies and reset. When you are playing a non Gamstop Book of Dead slots UK , you immerse yourself in it. And this allows your brain to form new connections and solve problems accurately. The number of tasks you’ll need to perform to solve your problems in life requires some degree of creativity.

5. Knowing when to give up

Video games are great tools at teaching you when to give up. In real life, you’ll keep trying out different ways to solve your problems. In a video game, you get feedback almost immediately.

Since you won’t try using the same tactic repeatedly, you’ll learn that not all solutions or strategies you come up with will be effective at solving problems . You’ll know when you are wasting time and when you are actually solving a problem.

Flexibility is key when you are trying to solve problems. Trying out new things is a critical key to solving your problems.

Video games improve your creativity and problem-solving skills. But this doesn’t mean that you should sit in front of your computer all day long. You need to improve yourself by reading books, watching tutorials, exercising regularly, eating nutritious foods, and socializing with your loved ones. A single hobby shouldn’t consume your entire day.

Don’t be afraid to play video games for a few minutes or hours after a long day at school or work. Video games help your mind relax and boost your creativity. There are lots of online games that you can play without having to pay for anything. Research extensively on the best video games in the market to avoid making mistakes.

Paul Calderon is a professional journalist, content creator, and editor. He encourages students to try out new ways to solve problems and unlock their potential. During his leisure time, he walks his dog or travels with friends.

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14 Video Games That Will Improve Your Problem-Solving and Strategy Skills

Table of Contents Show

Planet coaster, red alert remastered, call of duty series, forza horizon 4, mass effect, final fantasy, starcraft series, grand theft auto v, civilization series, titanfall 2 series, bejeweled 3.

Video games train your problem-solving skills by getting you to find solutions to complicated problems. They allow players to try out different things to figure out which one works best. Keeping this in mind, here are a variety of our favorite video games that will improve your problem-solving skills.

Running your own themepark isn’t that straight forward. You will be presented with numerous problems from which you’ll need to solve. From unhappy guests to budget problems, your moves will result in you winning or losing the various scenarios on offer. This great game will also allow you to explore your creative palate as you design the themepark of you dreams.

If you’ve never played the Red Alert series from EA (originally Westwood), then you’re in for a treat. It’s a fine series that truly marked the RTS genre. However, the remaster brings fresh attention to the series and it will also enable you to master your problem solving and strategy making skills. You’ll need to bankroll your army by collecting ore, purchase units and buildings, and then decide if and when to attack your opponent(s). Exciting? Absolutely. You’ll be smarter too from playing this game.

Feeling as though you’d love to delve into real-estate? Perhaps you could test-out your skills with the old-school board game, Monopoly. This game is all about decisions and, well, luck. There are numerous editions of this video game, launched on various platforms. Interestingly, this game first appeared as a video game back in 1985.

Another board-game that can be best played on a tablet. Chess is a game of problem solving and strategy. You’ll need to make the right moves, learning the power of each piece. With the Queen the most important and powerful unit, you’ll want to protect and utilize

How does a first-person-shooter make this list? Well, unless you decide to aimlessly run around firing, it’s your strategy that will make the difference, and that, of course, involves problem solving, too. Call of Duty is an FPS video game franchise developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. The game originally focused on games set in the Second World War. Over time, the developers have set the games in this series in futuristic worlds, the Cold War, and outer space. As part of a trained squad, you will play through the chaos of war. In addition to authentic squad tactics and movements, each soldier’s unique personality and training will come out on the battlefield. Call of Duty helps players to improve their spatial intelligence and visual attention skills.

Set in an open-world based in a fictionalized Kingdom of Great Britain, this racing video game was developed by Playground Games. The publisher of Forza Horizon 4 is Microsoft Studios, and it features a route creator that allows you to create races using customized routes. The game also features a dynamic weather system depicting the change of seasons. In the game, the environment changes depending on the season; for instance, Derwentwater freezes in winter, allowing the player to drive on the ice and reach areas that are inaccessible during other seasons. This fast-paced video game can improve your ability to make correct decisions when you are under pressure.

Set in the year 2183 within the Milky Way galaxy, Mass Effect is an ARPG (action role-playing game) that was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It’s the first installment in the Mass Effect game series. In the game, a highly advanced machine race called Reapers has threatened the existence of civilization. The player takes on the role of Commander Shepard and you have to stop a rogue agent who’s planning to carry out the Reapers’ galactic invasion. You need to complete multiple quests that involve squad and vehicular combat, space exploration, and interaction with NPCs (non-player characters). This game can help you learn how to evaluate your options quickly and correctly.

Final Fantasy, an anthology science fantasy media franchise, was created by a Japanese video game company called Hironobu Sakaguchi. It was developed and published by a Japanese video game holding company called Square Enix. The franchise centers on fantasy and science RPG games. Each game has different plots, settings, and characters. Character names are often derived from pop culture, languages, history, and mythologies of cultures from different parts of the world. Fantasy role-playing games can help to train players how to evaluate their options faster and accurately.

Set in a science-fiction universe, this military science fiction RTG requires strategic thinking. It tests and refines the player’s information-gathering skills. You’ll assume the role of three characters throughout the game. The game story is presented in several ways, including an instruction manual, conversations within the missions themselves, and briefings to each mission. StarCraft can improve your ability to solve real-life and imaginary problems.

Grand Theft Auto V was developed by a New York City-based company known as Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It’s the fifth game in the Grand Theft Auto series. The game offers you the option to explore Los Santos and Blaine County world in 4K resolution and beyond. You’ll also get the chance of experiencing the game running at 60 FPS (frames per second). Because players assume the role of a criminal, this may help to train them how to quickly process and keep track of information in high-stress situations.

Civilization, a turn-based strategy 4X game, was developed and published by an American company known as MicroProse. Players are tasked with leading the human civilization throughout several millennia. They can do this by controlling different areas, including military, research, trade, government, urban development, and exploration. The player can also control individual units in the game and advance the conquest, exploration, and settlement of the world. The game teaches you how to work as a team to solve problems and become productive at work.

Titanfall 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game that was developed by Respawn Entertainment. The publisher of Titanfall 2 is an American video game company called Electronic Arts. The player controls mecha-style exoskeletons, their pilots, and Titans. The game is set in science-fiction war-torn outer space colonies and features fast-paced future warfare. Players have the tactical ability to regenerate speed boosts, invisibility cloaking, and x-ray vision. The game can help you learn how to formulate and execute strategic plans to solve problems.

This hack-and-slash ARPG was developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It’s the third installment in the Diablo series. The gameplay revolves around the player defeating increasingly difficult enemies to obtain stronger equipment. You’ll fight enemies using various character class skills that you can customize by talent trees and equipment. Enemies are divided into monster families defined by their location, combat style, and theme. Diablo IV can improve your cognitive abilities and allow you to find solutions to problems faster when you are in a difficult situation.

This tile-matching puzzle game was published and developed by PopCap Games. It’s the fifth installment in the Bejeweled series. In the game, the player has to swap one of the on-screen gems with an adjacent one and form chains of at least three gems of the same color. This game can teach you how to relax and reduce stress, which is important when you want to solve a problem.

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