Researchers at the University of
York have discovered a link between young people's ability to perform well at
two popular video games and high levels of intelligence. Studies carried out at
the Digital Creativity Labs (DC Labs) at York found that some action strategy
video games can act like IQ tests. The York researchers stress the studies have
no bearing on questions such as whether playing computer games makes young
people smarter or otherwise. They simply establish a correlation between skill
at certain online games of strategy and intelligence. The researchers focused
on 'Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas' (MOBAs) - action strategy games that
typically involve two opposing teams of five individuals - as well as
multiplayer 'First Person Shooter' games. These types of games are hugely
popular with hundreds of millions of players worldwide. The team from York's
Departments of Psychology and Computer Science carried out two studies. The
first examined a group of subjects who were highly experienced in the MOBA
League of Legends - one of the most popular strategic video games in the world
with millions of players each day.
In this study, the researchers
observed a correlation between performance in the strategic game League of
Legends and performance in standard paper-and-pencil intelligence tests. The
second study analysed big datasets from four games: Two MOBAs (League of
Legends and Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2) and two 'First Person Shooters'
(Destiny and Battlefield 3). First Person Shooters (FPSs) are games involving
shooting enemies and other targets, with the player viewing the action as
though through the eyes of the character they are controlling. In this second
study, they found that for large groups consisting of thousands of players,
performance in MOBAs and IQ behave in similar ways as players get older. But
this effect was not found for First Person Shooters, where performance declined
after the teens. The researchers say the correlation between ability at action
strategy video games such as League of Legends and Defence of the Ancients 2
(Dota 2) and a high IQ is similar to the correlation seen in other more
traditional strategy games such as chess. Concluding, player's performance in
these games can be a measure of intelligence.
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