
Action video games improve brain function more than so-called ‘brain games’ - frostmatthew
http://www.psypost.org/2015/10/action-video-games-improve-brain-function-more-than-so-called-brain-games-38100
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83457
I don't know about action games in general but I definitely feel like highly
competitive games (esports) have an extreme mental side to them. I'm thinking
about some of the top games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota,
Starcraft. Most of the difficulty in those games is decision making, being
able to keep track of multiple things at once and, at least in the team games,
be able to gather information about your opponent and communicate that to your
teammates effectively.

edit: and you get good at those by playing and practicing that one game for
thousands of hours

~~~
rnet85
Indeed, like the amount of planning and strategy in this Q3 match is
incredible,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkDjsBiO58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkDjsBiO58)

~~~
83457
thanks for this. I played quake live for a couple months solid last year and
just couldn't make a dent against anyone in duels except other new players
even though i was working hard to improve

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hmahncke
PDF link to actual scientific publication here:
[http://bbs.sagepub.com/content/2/1/101.full.pdf+html](http://bbs.sagepub.com/content/2/1/101.full.pdf+html)

It should be mentioned that the article is a review article and doesn't
provide any actual head-to-head comparisons between "action video games" and
"brain games." In addition, one of the authors (Aaron Seitz) developed a
cognitive training program (Ultimeyes) that is much more like a "brain game"
than an "action video game"

A summary from the article than its title is "A new article argues that it is
the specific content, dynamics, and mechanics of individual games that
determine their effects on the brain and that action video games might have
particularly positive benefits."

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SCAQTony
In other words it suggests penalties trump rewards. It seems to work that way
with addictions too: [http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/to-quit-smoking-turns-
out-pen...](http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/to-quit-smoking-turns-out-
penalties-work-better-than-reward-incentives/).

That is to say: I suspect the "penalty" of getting "killed" in a humiliating
fashion thus thwarting a goal is more of a motivation than the reward of
hearing a voice say, "good job for memorizing that numerical pattern."

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johnloeber
If that turns out to be true, then that's a huge finding. That's especially
considering the fact that modern psychology/therapy is generally recommending
positive reinforcement (treats) as opposed to negative reinforcement
(penalties) for teaching/conditioning behavior. This could lead us to revise
commonplace methods for teaching children, training pets, and for managing
individuals and groups in general.

~~~
mrob
It's possible that the source of the negative reinforcement matters. In games
it comes from either the environment, or from another person who's part of a
(temporary) outgroup. If you simulate aggression towards that person you will
be rewarded. In schools it comes from another person in a position of
authority over you, and if you act aggressively towards them the punishment
will escalate to you point where you are almost guaranteed to lose.

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doctorpangloss
"Action video games" is the fascinating academic-grant-ready rebranding of
violent video games, in case anyone is confused what this is talking about.

Is there a stigma associated with violent video games? Of course. No academic
institutions are funding developmental psychology research into violent video
games the way they fund the study of educational games. This is despite
violent video games being way more appealing to children.

Beyond psych? More people have inhabited the Office level in Counter-Strike
for more combined time than any office building ever built in Manhattan. But
you'll never read about video game architecture in an architecture journal,
design blog, etc. It's a universal aversion to serious conversations about
games just because they involve shooting aliens.

Can development psychologists get out of the ghetto of investigating games'
impact on violence or attention deficit? Maybe. Studies like the one done in
this article are a good step forward. But this study still indicts video games
for something, just different video games. The improvement-in-vision studies
are on the right track, but they are at this point half a decade old. Surely
someone has some fresh ideas.

Those game developers haven't read a single page of psychology literature. Yet
they have succeeded in massive, non-chemical cognitive behavioral
modifications. You'd think someone could make an academic career out of this.

~~~
gilgoomesh
While the article did mention first (Wolfenstein: The New Order) and third
(Grand Theft Auto V) person shooters as "action video games", the term could
easily apply to games like Rocket League which – while similarly fast-reflex
online multiplayer games – are violence free.

The specific description of action video games in the article is:

> complex 3D settings, that feature quickly moving targets that pop in and out
> of view, that necessitate substantial visual processing of the periphery,
> that include large amounts of clutter and task-irrelevant objects, that
> require the player to consistently switch between highly focused and highly
> distributed attention, and that require the player to make rapid, but
> accurate decisions

There is no mention of violence or shooting.

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Ohtrahddis
Those who are interested in some discussion about games may find extra credits
youtube channel interesting.

This particular episode mentions the previous study on violent video games,
and talks about how maybe video games actually help make people more
empathetic:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fftjo1CepQE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fftjo1CepQE)

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hacker_9
Is this much of a surprise? 'Action video games' these days take place in
basically real life 3d simulations - any problems you solve in them can
basically map directly into the real world (travelling from A to B,
resource/time management, awareness of what your enemies/competition are
thinking/doing etc)

~~~
strictnein
When my wife asks me why I enjoy FPSs (Titanfall, Call of Duty, Halo, etc), I
try to explain to her that its like the fastest game of chess imaginable. The
difference being that you can only see a couple of the pieces on the board and
you have to try to keep track of where you think the remaining pieces are in
your mind.

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Axsuul
With this type of evidence, it can be easy to justify spending even more hours
playing video games. However, everything in moderation. It's very easy to take
it too far when it comes to action video games. Now we should ask, which one
is better for your well being in the long run? Action video games tend to be
significantly more addicting than its counterpart. Is it worth that
repercussion for slightly improved brain function?

~~~
ajuc
> Is it worth that repercussion for slightly improved brain function?

It's like reading - it's worth it for the eintertainment, and the benefits are
nice bonus. And it's easy to lose too much time on it. But I wouldn't switch
from reading fiction to reading encyclopedia to be "safer from book
addiction".

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wainstead
Jane McGonical goes into this in her new book Superbetter too. She singles out
Luminosity.

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thret
My parents swear by Luminosity, are they wasting their time?

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throwaway13337
Yes - for the most part improvements in those memory games improve...
performance on those memory games. There is a paper showing that Luminosity
specifically doesn't help.[0]

Our brains are really good at learning to optimize for a very specific task.

edit: reference

[0]
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131514...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131514001869)

~~~
Frqy3
As an example of that task specificity, for master level chess players, they
are better than amateurs and novices at memorising real chess board layouts,
but not significantly better at scrambled board layouts.

[http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog/2012/02/15/how-
experts-r...](http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog/2012/02/15/how-experts-
recall-chess-positions/)

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Asbostos
It's unfortunate that video games need research to make them seem worthwhile,
but sports are widely accepted as being good things for kids to do. Even
though I'd bet there's a negative correlation between time spent playing sport
and academic performance, at least at the more extreme ends of the spectrum.
At high school, it's not even good for preventing obesity since the most
lasting obesity starts in childhood before teenage years. Anecdotally, I know
several people who played competitive sport at high school then quickly became
overweight afterwards apparently because they maintained the high-energy
eating habits they needed as a teenager.

~~~
eru
> It's unfortunate that video games need research to make them seem
> worthwhile, [...]

Just wait a generation.

I am willing to bet however, that your opinion on sports is too pessimistic.
At low to medium levels sports probably helps academic performance, because it
helps everything. (But for a proper bet, we'd have to agree on more precise
terms, and odds we are offering, and an amount, and then go ahead and do some
research.)

~~~
mhurron
> Just wait a generation.

There are still plenty of people who have grown up with games as a normal part
of life that look down on those who play them as wasting time and hold it as a
badge of honour when they no longer play them, as though this means they have
now matured.

Modern sports grew out of gentleman's games in universities, the whole culture
was something that people looked up to as civilized before it came to be
something everyone 'participated' in.

> At low to medium levels sports probably helps academic performance

I don't believe the parent was talking about actually playing sports, which
would help, but was more talking about the Sunday Afternoon Football game
where it is socially acceptable to sit and watch the game and associated
commentary for hours

~~~
eru
Have you actually read Asbosto's comment?

> [...] but sports are [...] for kids to _do_. [...] correlation between time
> spent _playing_ sport and academic performance, [...] preventing obesity
> [...]

