Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games | Psychology Today

Overview

The most recent issue of the American Journal of Play (Fall 2014) includes an article by researchers Adam Eichenbaum, Daphne Bavelier, and C. Shawn Green summarizing recent research finding evidence of lasting positive effects of video games on basic mental processes—such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making. Most of the research involves effects of action video games—that is, games that require players to move rapidly, keep track of many items at once, hold a good deal of information in their mind at once, and make split-second decisions. [...] compared with a control group of surgeons who did not have that experience (Schlickum et al., 2009). [...] In two previous articles (here and here), I summarized evidence countering the common fears about video games (that they are addictive and promote such maladies as social isolation, obesity, and violence). I also pointed there to evidence that the games may help children develop logical, literary, executive, and even social skills. Evidence has continued to mount, since then, concerning especially the cognitive benefits of such games.

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