Video games and
science have a sordid past. They make you smarter, dumber, fat, skinny,
relaxed, aggressive, and now, new research adds improved memory to that list. A
recent study suggests that specifically three-dimensional video games can boost
performance on memory tests by up to 12 percent. Researchers note that this is
typically the percentage of memory function lost between the ages of 45 and 75.
In the study, 69 college students (who weren’t already gamers) were split into
three groups. Two groups were assigned to play either a 2D game (Angry Birds),
or a 3D game (Super Mario 3D World) for 30 minutes every day over two weeks.
There was also a group that didn’t play any games, to establish a baseline.
Cognitive and memory tests were performed by the students before and after the
two weeks. While the control group and the participants who played the 2D game
didn’t show any improvement, the scores of the 3D gamers jumped by 12 percent.
A separate group
of competitive gamers were also tested on the standardized memory test.
Professional 2D game competitors, who play Super Smash Bros, were compared to
professional 3D competitors, who play League of Legends. In these studies, 3D
games were classified as those who had a perceived depth that players could
explore, rather than side-scrolling games. Results showed that League of
Legends players ranked higher on average by about 10 percent, close to the
non-gamer scoring. Researchers draw their knowledge of why this might be
happening from research in rats. They’ve seen before in studies that this kind
of 3-dimensional, detail-rich video games stimulates the hippocampus, which
controls spatial memory in the brain. Video games, in essence, can serve as
practice for the brain. The study showed promise for memory growth in
college-age humans, but the team’s next step is to see if similar principles
apply to fixing memory loss in older people.
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