Can Video Games Make You Smarter? R video games good for U?

articiansays...

In a few years people will never know such a ridiculous question was ever asked, because it's so obvious. Ignoring the generalization of the term "smart", how can I medium that engages your mind every step of the way and teaches you so many things NOT make you more intelligent? This is as stupid as the whole "are video games art" 'debate'.

SDGundamXsays...

As someone who researches the effects of video games on education (primarily on learners of English as another language) I can tell you the empirical research into the topic is not nearly so cut and dried.

There was a lot of hype about the "brain age"-type games when they first came out, some of which this video references, but what we know now is that those types of games only make you "smarter" in the sense that they make you better at solving similar puzzle-types. In other words, the gains you see are really just the effects of practice. The supposed "smartness" does not transfer over to other skill areas. See this link for more info: http://pamkato.com/2013/04/17/do-brain-training-games-work-yes-no-and-maybe/

So basically everything referenced in this video can be explained by "practice" rather than by some special characteristic of the video games themselves (certainly video games make the practice part fun, though). Furthermore, there is pronounced lack of research into whether the benefits such as those reported in this video actually mean anything significant (i.e. whether being able to more concretely differentiate different levels of gray when you are younger actually leads to better vision when you are older compared with non-gamers, whether you retain the ability to read small text as you age better than non-gamers, etc.).

I do believe there are cognitive benefits to ALL kinds of gaming (board games, pen-and-paper RPGs, card games like poker, crossword puzzles, tic-tac-toe, etc.) but based on the empirical evidence so far I'm not convinced there is anything particularly special about video games that leads players to become "smarter" in the sort of general sense that is being suggested here.

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