Video games have benefits

Avid computer gamers may be pleased to know the countless hours they spend playing computer games can actually help them perform better in school.

A study released from the Children’s Digital Media Center at UCLA found the cognitive skills developed from playing computer and video games can help people in areas of science and technology.

The study, titled “The impact of computer use on children’s and adolescents’ development,” found that avid computer gamers showed higher levels of visual attention and spatial representation than non-gamers – skills necessary in today’s science and technology world.

“Computer imaging is used tremendously in science today,” said Patricia Greenfield, a professor in psychology at UCLA and co-author of the study.

And there is no better way to develop the visual skills necessary for processing computer images than by playing computer games filled with intense graphics.

Popular computer games like Counter-strike and Quake III require players to have developed spatial representation skills in order to compete with other players.

Spatial representation involves the spatial visualization of objects, or the ability to deal with 2-D images seen on a computer screen and interpret them in a hypothetical 3-D space.

Spatial skills help players “read” the information on the screen, and repeated practice can enhance these spatial skills.

In one study, Greenfield had one experimental group play action video games which had them aim at specific targets, while a control group played Jeopardy. The results indicated the group that played the action video games had improved spatial skills over the control group, which played a word game.

Aside from increased spatial skills, computer games can also improve visual attention among frequent game players.

One study mentioned in the report used college students as subjects and measured their response times to two events of varying probabilities at two different locations on a computer screen.

The study concluded that expert game players had faster response times than novice players.

Expert game players also showed better developed attentional skills, or the ability to keep track of events occurring at multiple locations on a computer screen – important in many first-person action games.

But despite these findings, there is no conclusive evidence that links video game playing, attentional skills, and success in academic performance or specific occupations, according to the study.

But this news doesn’t phase Yee Loera, a fifth-year psychology student and avid gamer who says he sometimes plays for five or six hours straight.

Loera, who goes by the screen name “Iceman” in many computer games, says the appeal of playing computer games has always been the escape they provide to daily life.

“I just slip on my headphones and step away from everything,” he said.

The same goes for Nicholas Sun, a fourth-year computer science and engineering student, whose favorite game is Warcraft III “because of the strategy involved and the competitive play.”

Sun estimates he spends up to 30 hours per week gaming.

Loera and Sun represent a smaller group of hard core gaming fans who have developed and maintained their cognitive skills with years of intensive game playing.

“They probably have really great spatial skills,” Greenfield said amusingly.

For most occasional gamers, there is no conclusive evidence that spatial representation and visual attention skills stay with them after a prolonged break from game playing.

But these skills may be regained quickly. The report found that subjects whose spatial skills improved the most after a series of tests were the same ones who started out with the worst spatial skills in pretests – most of them being females.

Much of this may lie in the violent nature of video games, which are more appealing to males.

“Most of today’s computer games are geared toward guys,” Loera said. “I think if girls were exposed to more video games, they’d have more interest.”

While some girls are avid players of first-person action games like Unreal Tournament, for the most part, Loera still believes action video games will be predominantly dominated by male players.

“The only games my sister plays are role playing games with deep story lines,” he said

But cognitive skills aside, males and females will continue to play computer games for one simple reason.

“They’re a great way to kill free time,” Sun said.