And They Say Video Games Are No Good

"Brain games" are a very popular category of the so-called casual gaming category of video games, but a recent UK Broadcasting establishment study suggests that they do not improve cognitive abilities in any way. It was only a six-week study, but well over eight thousand 18 to 60 year-olds were involved. Participants played these brain games for at least 10 mins a day and three days each week, but researchers couldn't find any statistically significant difference between this group and a control group of just about 3,000 that only surfed the web.

These findings counter those of others that had advised an improvement in memory among older game-players. Most psychologists nevertheless, caution that memory as a cognitive function is very situation-specific, meaning that fungability or the cross-applicability has a tendency to be low. As an example, playing a video gaming classic like Tetris or Pacman will improve your memory for jobs particular to those titles and not really transfer over to others. It's easily possible how unlikely it is that video gaming performance should translate into increased ability in something not related to gaming!

Confusing the matter further nevertheless , is the possibility that some brain games are a lot better than others and more handy, even if only moderately so. The US National Institutes of Health has developed some games in collaboration with a commercial distributor which do seem to have helped older people that enjoy them. Then there are the criticisms of the BBC study, targeting especially on its method, which concerned spectators of its favored "Bang Goes the Theory" programme a self-selected population, always suspect in rigorous scientific research.

Psychologists and cognitive scientists have long suggested activities such as learning a new language or even picking up a new sport for something that would actually challenge our intellectual abilities. Learning a new language is obviously mentally stimulating, but research now proves that new neuron connections are formed by powerful exercise no matter what our age.

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