Study: Playing Computer Games Makes Kids Smarter 201
Nightspore writes: "The Sunday Times is running this article on the results of a study by the Economic and Social research Council (ESRC). The study found that, 'people who play games regularly seem to develop a mental state that we have seen before only in serious athletes or professionals such as astronauts, whose life depends on concentration and co-ordination ... Their minds and bodies work together much better than those of most other people ... They had more friends, were better adjusted and tended to read more.'" Hey it's just a study, but it's amusing.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
"Maybe the fact that i've been been in a gifted program for education since third grade says something"
Well LA DEE FRICKIN' DA mistar smartie pants! You think you're the only one? I bet if we took a poll on /., the minority group would be the ones that ARE NOT (or WERE NOT in most cases) in a gifted program!
I think he meant he was in a "special" program.
Re:quake? (Score:1)
A thing about correlation... (Score:1)
There's a correlation between the sales of ice cream and violent crimes. Does this mean ice cream causes violent crimes? No. It just means when it's hot outside, there are more edgy people and more people buying ice cream.
Just because people who play video games more tend to have more friends, are better adjusted and tend to read more, is no arguement for game playing increses studiousness and better socially fitted. In fact, it might quite possibly be the opposite. People can come up with all the hypotheses they want, but it's very hard to make a convincing argument.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
"Me? Slightly drunk and with hardly a wink slept all night from the gaming the night before, I managed to walk away with a 1420 or so. eh? eh? " sound like another lame college kid subtly bragging about being a nerd who drinks... bah...
An interesting article but... (Score:2)
So the majority of the surveys were taken at lan gaming competitions by competitive players. Of course "cyberathletes" like Thresh who compete at these events will have attributes in common with sportsmen, but most gamers aren't like that.
Taking the data from such a limited population makes the results unrepresentative.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
hmm...since when did "I" officially become lower-case?
"Here are the reasons these things dont apply"
'dont' what word is that again? Oh wait, that's right, it's a CONTRACTION! You're (yes, it IS the correct You Are you're) missing an apostrophe!
"Its not about them "just not understanding""
Hmmm you mean they don't understand how l33tx0r c0unt3rs7r1|3 is? Oh yeah, and if you DO play counterstrike you should be shot, then hung...and maybe quartered too!
"Maybe the fact that i've been been in a gifted program for education since third grade says something"
Well LA DEE FRICKIN' DA mistar smartie pants! You think you're the only one? I bet if we took a poll on
"Or how about this: I've been given numerous state and county awards. "
hahahahahaha not I'd be careful...not exactly a compliment considering how easy such awards are to get 'mano.
"I have also taken the college SAT's and have scored higher than the average college bound senior (and im fourteen by the way)"
ummm yeah, whoooeeee it seems like the average 'college bound senior' (gee, umm...I wonder where you got that quote from??) isn't so smart really...I mean, really! That could mean you got a score of 1005 or so (bah, close enough for government work!)...again, most people on
"Poor verbal skills? hah. Games might not be the best way to learn english, but from my experience they dont really detract. Of course there are allways exceptions, after all i cant say that Doom really taught me anything except having a blast on the computer. Ive played untold hours of games, some for more than 3 days or more total (that happens when you try to completely beat certain Role Playing Games). But i can definitely speak to someone both precisely and eloquently."
You know, grandiloquence is more than the just using big long words...as a good friend says, 'what's the use of responding with a paragraph when a sentence will do?' Using big words usually just makes you look stupid in most casual social situations...and no, pretending to be a shakespearian (hmmm close enough) character with the 'thou's and 'thee's and the nose thumbing and the 'wherefore's and all that jazz doesn't make you seem smart either.
"Parents are allways telling kids to take responsibility for their actions, lately, all i have seen from parents is pointing blame, be it at the Media, at games at whatever. How about picking up a book and reading it with your kids, and i mean often too, not once a year. Talk to them, and maybe then they wont be "less than ready to live up to their full potential"."
DUH TAKE RESPONSIBILITY...why are you blaming it on your parents?! Did I wish I had? hell yeah, even though I did a lot (and unlike you I will not toot my own horn by listing my accomplishments...!!) But after careful and copious thought, I have decided that the only one to blame for anything in my life is me. In fact, I have and always have taken a laissez-faire, c'est la vie attitude towards life, and only fairly recently realized that...in the wonderful words of Tom Lehrer (the mathematician/entertainer that EVERYONE should know!)..."Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it".
As for myself? I will continue playing games, but along the way I will continue to do interesting stuff as well and if life takes a turn for the worse, I'll just roll with it and see if I can't find some silver linings in the clouds.
PS
Cause and effect? (Score:5)
I certainly feel more inclined to kill people the more I learn about them.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Note to Nintendo - I will purchase a Game Cube as soon as Mario Kart is released for it, and not a moment sooner. Please make it kick ass.
Thanks,
Don Negro
Re:it does make people smarter (Score:1)
You're talking about a different group of people (Score:1)
Most games, still, are not this kind of online environment -- for one thing, just about every console game isn't an online game, and often console games are multiplayer.
I would definitely agree that becoming obsessive about online games might reduce your ability to deal with the rest of the world. It's the same as becoming addicted to any online environment; are obsessive online gamers any different than obsessive IRC addicts or IM-heads?
None of this applies to a bunch of kids clustered in front of the Playstation, though.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
It seems it never fails, the post that corrects someone else always contains a mistake of its own.
I'm sure I'll see mine about .01 second after clicking "Submit".
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
the statistics nazi says... (Score:4)
The population of interest is computer gamers but the sample is taken from those gamers who go to competitions. Therefore the sample is not random and one ought not make conclusions about all gamers based on gamers who go to competitions.
A recent study by the Home Office indicated that those who regularly played computer games when young were more likely to go to university and get a better-than-average job
Someone already mentioned correlation != causation, but I'll elaborate. Television sets are much cheaper than computers and internet access; also, university attendance is very much correlated to income. I don't have survey data to back this up, but it seems that income ought to have been considered to make sure that it's not a lurking variable. (affects both variables but is unseen)
</soapbox>
Re:quake? (Score:3)
Yeah, if video games really affect kids can you imagine the result of Pacman. We'd all be hanging out in dark places, eating pills, and listening to electronic music... =P
Re:Cause and effect? (Score:1)
While amusingly he himself did not even 'measure up' to the aryan 'ideal'.
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Delphis
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
Yea, I just smile.
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Delphis
Re:Playing games does not _make_ people smarter (Score:2)
Re:Tends to != Guarantees (Score:1)
Re:Role Playing Games (Score:2)
My interpretation of the event you described would be "chao-baz continues his lightning-like movement across the room, striking an opponent who saw him coming and has begun to..." and continue with the enemy's action... the difference between that and a charge (moves half distance before and after the attack) would be "chao races across the room striking his opponent, who attempts to..." enemy's attack of opportunity "before chao lunges out of range". The difference added with tumbing is that the enemy has no chance to react.
Role Playing Games (Score:5)
The only thing video games did was drive my ambition to hack warez that I downloaded and squeeze every last bit of juice out of that crappy old OS (DOS).
Re:Playing games does not _make_ people smarter (Score:2)
Re:Guns don't kill people ... (Score:1)
(That's a link for all of us old-timers out there
Might make them smarter... (Score:1)
This makes sense (Score:1)
I can't help but think of a parallel between these overly concerned parents and the type of people that watch a LOT of tv.
Do you ever watch the evening news? Try holding a straight face when there's LIVE BREAKING news outside the bookstore about a woman that might be missing for a couple days. Everything the talking heads say must be said with a most serious attitude. The news anchor doesn't have time to tell if the story has any truth to it.
It's a lot more fun to watch stoned. You can at least laugh at it.
Re:Role Playing Games (Score:1)
the most important skill, as i see it, was the problem solving using an arbitrary set of rules. ie given the thief's scale walls, the magician's 4 spells and your ball of wax you have to storm a castle. figure out a creative way to do it.
that and it kept me out of drugs until later in school which I think was a good thing.
Civilization and Machiavelli (Score:5)
A specific real-world example (my own experience):
I played, and I still do, a *lot* of Civilization as a young lad. I later on read the works of Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince, The Discourses).
The truly scary thing is that I kept thinking of Civilization the entire time and the information made a lot more sense to me after playing all of those hours. (my conservative estimate: 3 or 4 months worth, but I hauled that number out of my ass)
I had a better understanding of his works simply because of my experience in that game and what's more, my strategies in said game have changed, so that I am a much better player because of it.
Of course, reading all of that has ruined me in that I now tend to write really long sentences, though I haven't yet achieved the one feat that I have only seen from Machiavelli and Dave Barry, which is, of course, the 1.5 page sentence, in which the author creates an extraordinarily long sentence, containing much information, all the while being grammatically correct, and conveying one basic idea in a surprisingly clear manner, such that the reader, after having read it, actually goes back to see where said sentence began, and reads it again, just to make sure that the sentence is, indeed, that long.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
Whatever, it has been my own anecdotal evidence (sic, I'm trying to say, "my own observations are that") computer game playing, while improving hand-eye coordination and strategic thinking, (does) limit normal social interaction.
Modern computer games train gamers to work withing the systems of chat room, message boards, and other onliine forms of communication. (however,) in a classical social situation (dinner party, traditional work meeting, academic classroom, etc,) the result that I have noticed is that the gamer is:
I am concerned that we are developing a culture, that's already overrun the walls of the petri dish that is the 'Net, of people capable of making their own assessment of self-righteous high-brow palaver that is really merely another attempt to build a wall around the kid protecting him from new ideas.
This is just my agenda. This is just based on anecdotal evidence. So it must be true, right?
mefus
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um, er... eh -- *click*
Re:Still the obsessive will exist. (Score:1)
If I have red eyes, you know I've succumbed.
Er... I'm working a hobbit down the levels, right now.
I'd be less embarrassed if I wasn't too old for this.
mefus
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um, er... eh -- *click*
Re:Civilization and Machiavelli (Score:1)
mefus
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um, er... eh -- *click*
Re:long sentences will not be allowed by the cutof (Score:1)
mefus
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um, er... eh -- *click*
Re:wow (Score:1)
The earth elemental hits you. (more...)
The earth elemental hits you. (more...)
The earth elemental hits you.
you die.
mefus
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um, er... eh -- *click*
Re:Guns don't kill people ... (Score:1)
I love you. Do you have a twin sister?
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Re:Do games make people smarter... (Score:1)
Dopewars especially makes for a fine memory/gambling/perceived violence buzz.
Re:Civilization and Machiavelli (Score:1)
More stories like this! (Score:2)
Re:Leisure Suit Larry (Score:2)
That's right, always use a condom. =)
In other news... (Score:5)
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Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:1)
I think I am a fairly loud person, but I find myself suddenly quiet in some social settings where I feel that the 'audience does not measure up!'
ISIHAC! (Score:1)
For those of you who don't listen to BBC Radio, it's a comedy programme billed as 'the antidote to panel games'. Amongst other amusements (most notably, the seminal game 'Mornington Crescent'), it has a round where the four panellists make up a sentence between them, adding one word each in turn, with the aim being to avoid completing the sentence. Admittedly, it makes for far less grammatical and logical sentences than those of the authors mentioned, but it's a whole lot more fun :)
Comment removed (Score:4)
Re:wow (Score:1)
you may be able to move your hands well, but that doesn't mean you can kick
i know i have good hand/eye coordination, but my arm/eye coordination sucks
Re:quake? (Score:2)
Kintanon
Re:quake? (Score:5)
Kintanon
Re:Minds and body? (Score:1)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Leisure Suit Larry (Score:4)
Re:Playing games does not _make_ people smarter (Score:3)
I think that's exactly the reason people pay for it. That's why these studies are almost always so flawed.
Game Industry Exec: "Here is a $300,000. We'd like a study exploring how video games make kids smarter, and, umm... improve sexual performance among adults. Oh, and I believe you might find that they reduce cholesterol too. Check that out. Thanks!"
- Isaac =)
Zoning Out (Score:3)
Most computer games are good for developing concentration. The ideal is to obtain a zen-like state which figther pilots and athletes usually describe as being "in the zone". This is when you feel like you are inside the game, everything is reflex and the outside world disappears. I believe this is a talent which is definately not developed by most other typical teenage activities like watching TV, socialising, etc. I agree that the degree to which game players learn to concentrate will give them a great edge in other skills.
However, I'd still have reservations about having kids play lots of computer games. For one thing, zoning out is only good for some real world skills. If you want to be a pilot or racing driver it's great and for programmers and other technical people it's good too, however for other jobs it may be a bad thing. I feel that I do it too much (I'm an engineer), it makes me concetrate on some details and forget others.
I'd also worry about the type of games. It's not the violence that concerns me , but the mindlessness of a lot of current computer games. Strategy and RPGs may be very good for developing a wider range of skills, but FPS games only involve a small amout of tactics beyond blowing away anything that moves. So, you may be zoning out but only processing very simple actions.
Of course, this is only based on personal experience. YMMV.
His point (Score:2)
So instead, next time, I suggest you take a pause and do a little reasoning before throwing out obvious flamebait as a reaction to something nobody said except in your mind. (That roleplaying games are good for kids because this boy got interested in math because of it. He never said that.)
- Steeltoe
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
flow states (Score:2)
In my own work, I have used this concept and have concluded that gaming is similar to athletics (and other activities) in that participants are active and get into this flow state. We have all "been in the zone" at one point or another where we play the game and tune out everything else and do not have to deliberate over the best move, but can tell almost instincively what do do next. This is a couple of the criteria for what is called the flow state.
The book Beyond Bordom and Anxiety is an interesting read if one is interested in such things.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
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Re:quake? (Score:2)
Well, I'm not a "leading professional" of the type the article refers to (being a sysadmin is RARELY life-threatening), but I can assure you that playing FPS games enhances your ability to concentrate and solve problems quickly.
I gamed some in the late 70s and early to mid 80's
Now I don't game at all online because of a slow connection at home so LAN parties are the only times I play multiplayer. The result of this is that I sorta suck at multiplayer games. So what? I have fun, and my opponents get some relatively easy frags. This does NOT make me a homicidal maniac.
It's refreshing to see that some psychologists (especially British psychologists) were able to overcome therir innate prejudice against anything that smacks of violaence long enough to take an objective look at this subject.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins,
Re: (Score:2)
Still the obsessive will exist. (Score:5)
Despite the fact that they are rare, you do not see the media giving tons of coverage to every person struck by lightning. People by now realize that even though being struck by lightning is rare, there is nothing spectacular about it. So the media doesn't cover it. If only the media would get over shark attacks. Sheesh. In any case, many people play video games, and many of them have different reasons for doing so: hobby, relaxation, obsession... Which type of person a media outlet chooses to cover as representing "gaming" tells more about the media outlet than it does about gamers themselves. Thankfully this article was mostly positive. Maybe I won't feel so sheepish about admitting to other adults that I play video games.
I think you were hasty. (Score:2)
I recall that the study mentions that obsessive gaming is not good. It is important to have friends and have other interests, and computers should not be written off as not-important. My parents instituted a log system for me back in the days of the NES (nintendo entertainment system) and we would laugh about the bad japanese-to-english translations even as 2nd graders. My parents (smart people too) did take an interest in me, and made sure that I didn't play video games for too long, and that is a good thing (although I didn't understand why). I am interested in reading, computers (and assorted console systems), running (varsity in high school), choir, techno music, all the while doing quite well in school.
Notice that TV does not enter into the picture here. That is the real killer of intelligence. That's another debate.
I can still relate to obsessive gamers (sometimes I'm ashamed to admit it) as I too wanted the latest and greatest systems, yet I can relate to a lot more varied people as well due to my varying interests. If anything playing games has just added another type of person to the people I can be friends with: Gamers, and computer 'geeks' (in addition to other stereotypes such as athletes, musicians, vocationally oriented automobile fellows, and ravers). I'm a good example of this study, but I think that my parents regulating how much I could play had a big hand in it too. kninja
Lan parties? (Score:2)
Re:quake? (Score:2)
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A picture is worth 500 DWORDS.
Don't tell my kids! (Score:3)
If my kids get a hold of this one, I'm done for.
Seriously, I'd rather they play video games (especially ones like Alpha Centauri and Riven) than watch TV. But I'd rather they be involved in electronics or tae kwon do or ultimate frisbee too. Too much of any one thing can be detrimental... I know from my unfortunate summer of Warcraft II in high school.
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:5)
You: "Hello, good sir. How are you this fine day?"
hax0r1: "whatx0r?"
hax0r2: "what j00 say!?"
hax0r1: "I will own j00000!!!"
You: "Um... excuse me. Do you speak English?"
hax0r3: "Let's g0. This l00z3r doesn't speak 1337."
Re:Video Games Saved My Life (Score:2)
Re:Considering the rest of the population (Score:2)
ROFL. It's like a distilled version of natural selection.
"Scientists have found that children who scratch their ass for 1 hour every day instead of watching television are smarter that children who don't."
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Sounds interesting, but the premise is flawed. (Score:5)
A couple quotes from the article that disprove this hypothesis:
"Their minds and bodies work together much better than those of most other people."
"Bryce did her research by visiting computer gamers, often during regional or national competitions around Britain"
What her research proves is that gamers who are talented enough to play at "national competitions" have better hand-eye coordination, reflexes, and quicker responses. Duh, I already knew that. She should study me -- I play games constantly. And I lose. Badly.
Rather than studying people who excel at gaming she should have studied people before and after they took up gaming. The unorthodox and obviously biased means in which this study was carried out suggests the author was only fishing for a catchy headline.
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Considering the rest of the population (Score:4)
Re:Role Playing Games (Score:3)
D&D and Gamma World was some serious motivation for developing reading and writing skills. I discovered those games at a fairly young age and I give them some credit for boosting those skills.
Government ties Intelligence to Criminal activity! (Score:2)
Dragon Magic [dragonmagic.net]
Makes us more intelligent... (Score:3)
I remember back in the late 80's studying for Higher Physics, and reading a couple of pages of my textbooks while my ZX Spectrum games took 5 minutes to load...
An excellent way to break up time spent studying and time spent relaxing (playing "Lords of Chaos", for example)
Re:Playing games does not _make_ people smarter (Score:3)
In fact, you're still skipping a logical step. It could just mean that those smart people who happen to play video games do better at it than everyone else (i.e. smart people could even play games less than others). I'll bet if you did a study at the world bowling championchip you'd find the contestants were also brighter in other areas. This does not necessarily mean that bowlers are smarter than everyone else. [bowlers, please disregard last sentence. It was a comment I pulled out of my hat, not one meant to be flamebait].
Do games make people smarter... (Score:5)
Neither, it turns out... (Score:3)
There is a certain scientific approach to the claim that video games help kids and adults develop better reflexes and hand-eye coordination, but that's no surprise, and it's completely different from claiming it makes them "smarter".
*sniff* (Score:2)
not to say I don't love Alpha Centauri
Re:long sentences will not be allowed by the cutof (Score:2)
Slightly (OK, very) OT, but your subject reminded me of a wonderful report that came through the IBM Infoman heldesk software I used back in my days of *shudder* corporate IT support. Infoman had a very limited length description field for each ticket, which made it difficult to input a meaningful description. I can't remember what the exact fault was in this case, but the description in the summary field read:
User reports that text has been trunca
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It's true ! (Score:3)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Either way, it wont matter to me.
But how will such colloquialisms effect the advancement of our soceity and technology?
Let's face it, the Internet is developing Eubonics. How many speeches, patent applications, journal articles, and other forms of communication have you read that have been written in Eubonics?
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
It's interesting to ask if chat rooms are making us a lesser society or if chat rooms are bringing together otherwise socially disenfranchsied people.
Perhaps a little of both, but the latter makes me feel better about the technolgoy.
Let's not be hasty (Score:4)
However, it has been my own anecdotal evidence that computer game playing, while improving hand-eye coordination and strategic thinking, does severly limit normal social interaction.
Modern computer games train gamers to work within the systems of chat rooms, message boards, and other online forms of communication. When the gamer is in a classical social situation (dinner party, traditional work meeting, academic classroom, etc), the result that I have noticed is that the gamer is:
1) Less social. That is, less likely to interact with other people because, for lack of a better phrase, the other people "just don't understand."
2) Think less critically about the situation. They become uninterested in anything that doesn't relate to current games or to the prospect of new games.
3) Have poor verbal skills. Nearly all computer games operate without a verbal component. The verbal skills of the gamer atrophies.
I am concerned that we are developing a culture, that is growing, of people who are less than ready to live up to their full potential.
This is just my concern. This is just based on anecdotal evidence. I accept the fact I may be totally off base.
Re:Cause and effect? (Score:2)
Kids that grew up on Quake don't kill people... (Score:4)
Re:Games and Learning (Score:5)
However, if you see games as something to have fun experiencing then cheats are generally a good thing. They're a tool to skip frustrating, badly-balanced areas of a game and get to the fun stuff; a player who's really enjoying a game generally won't resort to cheating.
Now, all kids have to do is look up the cheat codes for God mode, and get after it with a BFG
Are you really bemoaning the fact that today's lazy kids don't work as hard at playing games?
it does make people smarter (Score:2)
Or wait, bad analogy. Here's a better one:
The next time some crazed maniac goes on a high-school rampage, I'll be more able to escape the gunfire...
Re:Cause and effect? (Score:3)
Re:Role Playing Games (Score:5)
I knew a young man who was homeschooled in the unstructured mode - pointed toward resources and encouraged to learn. He had no interest in multiplication until discovering D&D at age thirteen, at which time it took him two days to "catch up with his grade level.
Last I heard he was a geometer by trade; writing software for math visualization.
Flawed study (Score:2)
Maybe the well-adjustedness of the subjects is what led them to be involved in tournaments in the first place. Which came first, the sociability or the 18hrs per week of gaming? The study doesn't indicate at all, and isn't designed to prove, that games lead to smarter or more well-adjusted kids. It just indicates there might be a correlation. Correlation != cause and effect. Maybe the kids are more polished & smarter than the norm because they're in a higher, more-privileged socioeconomic class, which having a computer still tends to indicate unfortunately.
Re:Games and Learning (Score:2)
Anti-emulation progaganda [slashdot.org], anyone?
Re:Role Playing Games (Score:3)
Games and Learning (Score:4)
Now, all kids have to do is look up the cheat codes for God mode, and get after it with a BFG.
Re:Neither, it turns out... (Score:2)
Note that the link given was not to the study itself, but to a newspaper report on the study. Reporters and editors might have butchered the facts. But if it was described accurately, the UK gov't just wasted a research grant.
What particularly bothered me was all the claims of better skills being "developed". You can support that claim only with a longitudinal study, where you measure the abilities of your test and control groups repeatedly over a period of years. Then, if the two groups had the same scores at the beginning and different scores at the end, you might have actually proved something. If you randomly picked who went into groups x1 (gamers) and x2 (TV-watchers), and then sent a large man out to shadow each test subject and force him to conform to your plan, it probably did. But when the groups are self-selected, it's possible that choosing x1 and developing more y are both due to z, which you don't know enough to measure. And in a cross-sectional study (that doesn't follow the subjects over time), choosing x1 was quite likely related to having more y in the first place.
For example, although it's not surprising if shooter-type video games improve eye-hand coordination, merely showing that gamers average better ehc doesn't tell you whether gamers developed that from gaming, or the uncoordinated just bombed out of the games and went back to the boob tube. To me, showing that moderate video gamers go out for sports more makes it seem likely that they were better coordinated to begin with. (E.g, terrible coordination kept me out of sports as a kid -- and if video games had been invented, I don't think I'd have been racking up the record scores. D&D, in the original text-based version, was a game I really could get into -- but I was too adult by then to have the free time.)
As for intelligence, it's obvious that smart kids select challenging entertainment, while boobs prefer to watch the boob tube. It wouldn't be suprising if it also works the other way around (games increase intelligence) but you can't prove it either way from just a correlation. Likewise, video games quite likely increase your ability to concentrate, but you'd see the same correlation if people who couldn't concentrate didn't play the games.
So this really doesn't say anything that a reasonable and unbiased person wouldn't have guessed in the first place. The only reason the authors (or perhaps just the reporter?) seem surprised is that they were biased against "geeks" going in. This report, devoid of real information as it is, might help dispell that prejudice. Bookmark it and beat the geek-haters over the head with it regularly -- they're too dumb to see the flaws, right? 8-)
Video Games Saved My Life (Score:2)
Re:Let's not be hasty (Score:2)
Well, maybe computer games, but if you want to see a social video game, just get out your N64. With its 4 controller slots standard and TONS of REALLY FUN 4-player games, the N64 is a great party gaming platform. Me and my friends have hours of fun playing the likes of Goldeneye and Super Smash Bros.
Selfdestruct Mechanism (Score:2)
I'm often tempted to say that 'the way nature intended it' is 'good' but this alone is far too simple a point of view I believe. After all, we are part of nature, we create much of the environment around us, like a bear creates his own cave pretty much. Does the fact that a bear lives in a cave make him an unnatural being? I think not. Similarly, I don't think the 'things' we create around us make us 'unnatural' neccesarily.
However, nature has a way to deal with excesses of particular things/species in ways we often cannot fathom. Mind you, 'video games' by my earlier description have become part of our 'nature'. Violence has ofcourse always been part of our nature.
Nature encourages improvement. Nature encourages better adaptation to the world we live in at any particular moment in time. However, nature also kills excessive cancerous species. So, a very interesting (well to me:) thing to wonder is when nature is still nourishing us, and when nature will start turning against us.
Do video games create supersadistlittlehitlers that will kill us all, or enough to get the numbers right again? Maybe, and maybe they are just yet another innovative tool to make humans adapt even more to their increasingly competitive environment. Video games have been around for quite a while, it would be far more illustrative to see 'where are all those videogame players from back then now?'. Was Bill Gates a fanatic video game player? Larry Ellison? President Bush? I don't care much about a bunch of kids having supernatural reflexes because they play quake often, blah. Where is that report that links 'ideas' to 'reality' ?
Re:Cause and effect? (Score:2)
I don't believe that Hitler's psychosis was quite so cut and dry. Being that he was most likely half jewish, he knew that he couldn't be one of the Aryans that he thought and spoke so highly of.
Hitler's hate of Jews was very similar to Charles Manson's hatred of blacks. Manson believed himself to be half black as well.
Re:Cause and effect? (Score:3)
Johnny and Mum (Score:2)
Johnny: Yes mum, the researcher said I'll pay better attention if I play games.
Mum: Ok.
Mum: Johnny, start doing your homework or you'll have no time.
Johnny: Mum! The researcher told me that playing games will improve my intelligence so I'll be able to do my homework much faster!
Mum: Ok
Mum: Johnny, turn the game machine off and go play with your friends.
Johnny: But mum, the researcher said that I'll have improved social interactivity if I play games. [*BANG* *BANG* *NUKE*]
Mum: Ok
Mum: Johnny, it's time for dinner!
Johnny: But mum, according to the research I'll be able to improve my bodily interactions if I play games, so I'll be able to adjust to hunger.
Mum: Ok.
long sentences will not be allowed by the cutoff p (Score:2)
the master at this was this [amazon.com] guy, who wrote one sentence (either in "the sound and the fury" or "light in august" or maybe "absalom, absalom!", i forget) that spans ~3 pages or so. Every lit. major tries to do this at least once, but all of them fail in the one pre-requisite, i.e., being William Faulkner. (Although David Foster Wallace has come close.)
anyway, after reading the article, wouldn't it make more sense to assume that the smart kids (e.g. ones who would find "news for nerds" insteresting) would be indoors playing games and not outdoors? all games give different types of education, i'm pretty sure that if you spent 60 hours playing Mario Bros. or something you would probably get dumber [whitehouse.gov] instead.
-d.
--
Slashdot: When News Breaks, We Give You The Pieces
For instance... (Score:2)
Kudos to you Doom! Kudos to you Quake!
I'm just suprised we haven't seen a spark in the number of chain-gun incidents in police reports
:)
PS. For all of you just an alt-tab away from an FPS: Yes this is toungue-in-cheek... sheesh!
wow (Score:2)
Re:Games and Learning (Score:2)