Study Finds Video Game Playing Causes No Harm to Young Children’s Cognitive Abilities
Study Finds Video Game Playing Causes No Harm to Young Children’s Cognitive Abilities
Study Finds Video Game Playing Causes No Harm to Young Children’s Cognitive Abilities
By Sally Strong
February 7, 2023
Summary
New research findings challenge the fears parents have been hearing for years that children who spend hour after hour playing video games, or choose games of certain genres, would manifest unhealthy results in their cognitive ability.
Participating students reported playing video games an average of 2.5 hours daily, with the group's heaviest gamers putting in as much as 4.5 hours each day.
The team looked for association between the students' video game play and their performance on the standardized Cognitive Ability Test 7, known as CogAT, which evaluates verbal, quantitative and nonverbal/spatial skills.
"Overall, neither duration of play nor choice of video game genres had significant correlations with the CogAT measures. That result shows no direct linkage between video game playing and cognitive performance, despite what had been assumed," said May Jadalla, professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University and the study's principal investigator.
Certain types of games described as helping children build healthy cognitive skills also presented no measurable effects, in spite of the games' marketing messages.
"The study results show parents probably don't have to worry so much about cognitive setbacks among video game-loving children, up to fifth grade. Reasonable amounts of video gaming should be OK, which will be delightful news for the kids. Just keep an eye out for obsessive behavior," said Zhang.
"When it comes to video games, finding common ground between parents and young kids is tricky enough. At least now we understand that finding balance in childhood development is the key, and there's no need for us to over-worry about video gaming."
Reference
Strong , S. (2023, February 7). Study finds video game playing causes no harm to young children's cognitive abilities. University of Houston. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2023/february-2023/02072023-video-gaming-research.php