Opinion: Can playing computer video games make you smarter?
Opinion: Can playing computer video games make you smarter?
Opinion: Can playing computer video games make you smarter?
By Richard Mayer
December 27, 2022
Summary
If you spend more than an hour a day playing video games, that's 5% of your life.
We want to know whether playing video games can increase cognitive skills: In other words, can game-playing make you smarter? We have performed experiments, conducted meta-analyses of research literature and even produced a couple of books: "Computer Games for Learning" and "Handbook of Game-Based Learning."
One half plays a video game targeting that skill for two or more hours over many sessions; the other half engages in some other activity, like playing a word-search game.
A careful review of published scientific research shows that most off-the-shelf video games do not improve cognitive skills.
Playing action video games, including first-person shooter games, can continually exercise your perceptual attention with immediate feedback, under a variety of ever-changing contexts, and with increasing levels of challenge.
We have found that playing "All You Can ET" for as little as two hours improved task-switching skills more than playing a word search game for the same amount of time.
Why do these games work while others do not? Our games are designed with six principles: focus on a well-specified target skill, provide repeated practice, give immediate feedback, maintain increasing levels of challenge, provide varying contexts for exercising the skill and make sure the game is enjoyable.
Reference
Mayer, R. E. (2022, December 27). Opinion: Can playing computer video games make you smarter? Silicon Valley. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.siliconvalley.com/2022/12/27/opinion-can-playing-computer-video-games-make-you-smarter/