ScienceDaily: Video games can help boost children's intelligence
“Children are spending more and more time in front of screens. How this affects their health and whether it has a positive or negative impact on their cognitive abilities are hotly debated. For this present study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam specifically studied the link between screen habits and intelligence over time.
Over 9,000 boys and girls in the USA participated in the study. At the age of nine or ten, the children performed a battery of psychological tests to gauge their general cognitive abilities (intelligence). The children and their parents were also asked about how much time the children spent watching TV and videos, playing video games and engaging with social media.
Followed up after two years
Just over 5,000 of the children were followed up after two years, at which point they were asked to repeat the psychological tests. This enabled the researchers to study how the children's performance on the tests varied from one testing session to the other, and to control for individual differences in the first test. They also controlled for genetic differences that could affect intelligence and differences that could be related to the parents' educational background and income.
On average, the children spent 2.5 hours a day watching TV, half an hour on social media and 1 hour playing video games. The results showed that those who played more games than the average increased their intelligence between the two measurements by approximately 2.5 IQ points more than the average. No significant effect was observed, positive or negative, of TV-watching or social media.”
My Takeaways From This Article
In a rather peculiar research done, a longitudinal study showed that children who played video games and were engaged in online media such as social media, TV and other types were shown to have higher than average IQ compared to those who don’t.
Of course this is just a correlational study which does not prove that playing video games increases IQ. There have been many other studies that showed opposite trends for different age groups. However, it's just interesting to see these kinds of studies because it highlights the ambiguous nature of media and video games.
Normally video games have been portrayed in a negative light due to the violence narrative and its ability to steal productivity from anyone. While these are true I think it’s pretty refreshing to see some of the potential positives of video games and media consumption.
Full article is here!
Do you play video games? What do you appreciate about video games and other media consumption?
#VideoGames #Intelligence #Development
@sunnyWriting4806 I used to watch my brother play video games and I loved every second. This article made me think about the good 'ol days. I play the SIms 4 occasionally and it helps me when I'm stressed but I can get quite caught up in it.
@comfortableNight4463
Video games is definitely a valid way to stress relieve and I'm glad you recognize that! Video games definitely brings me back through memory lane though. I definitely agree with you!
@sunnyWriting4806 I sometimes play video games! I really appreciate that they can help me unwind. I think that it doesn't take much brain power to play Animal Crossing or the Sims and it helps me decompress. Of course, there should be limits to everything!
@fruityPond7887
You're right! Limits to everything is how we should be living our lives. But the chillness of playing animal crossing and other games can't be beat and can be an excellent de-stressor at times!
@sunnyWriting4806 Absolutely! They are good because they don't require a lot of thinking, which can be great when our minds need a break! Thank you for your reply!
