Over the past decade, many studies and news media reports have suggested that action video games such as Medal of Honor or Unreal Tournament improve a variety of perceptual and cognitive abilities. But in a paper published this week in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, Walter Boot, an assistant professor in Florida State University's Department of Psychology, critically re-evaluates those claims. Researchers believe that it is a persuasive argument that much of the work done over the past decade demonstrating the benefits of video game play is fundamentally flawed. Many of those studies compared the cognitive skills of frequent gamers to non-gamers and found gamers to be superior.
However, new research points out that this doesn't necessarily mean that their game experience caused better perceptual and cognitive abilities. It could be that individuals who have the abilities required to be successful gamers are simply drawn to gaming. Researchers looking for cognitive differences between expert and novice gamers often recruit research participants by circulating ads on college campuses seeking "expert" video game players. Media reports on the superior skills of gamers heighten gamers' awareness of these expectations. Even studies in which non-gamers are trained to play action video games have their own problems, often in the form of weak control groups.
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110915131637.htm
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110915131637.htm