Video Games’ Unexpected Benefits to Human Brain

James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of York, played his first video game when his seven-year-old son Sam was playing Garry’s Mod. He wanted to play the game in order to help Sam solve problems in the game. Though Garry’s Mod does not feature educational elements, several issues concerned with thinking and learning have been identified by researchers. So when Gee saw how well the game held Sam’s attention, he wondered what benefits a better-designed video game might bring.

Negative ideas predominate in the attitudes of parents toward video games. To be specific, video games are often viewed as time-wasters. Such kinds of games are also invariably criticised by the media as the reason why some youth become violent or commit extreme antisocial behaviour. A recent content analysis of video games shows that as many as 89% of games include some violent content, but the majority of popular video games have nothing to do with aggressive elements. Many scientists and psychologists, like James Paul Gee, point out that the individuals can actually benefit from video games – primarily being smarter. Some skills, say high-level thinking skills, acquired from video games may help mould children’s future life.

‘There is increasing evidence that playing video games produce physiological changes in your brain,’ according to psychologist Shawn Green from the University of Wisconsin. ‘Video games change the brain’s physical structure the same way as learning to read, playing the piano or navigating using a map does. Just as exercise helps improve your muscles, the combination of concentration and beneficial increases of neurotransmitters like dopamine, which strengthens neural circuits, can build the player’s brain.’

Video games give your child’s brain a real boost. In many video games, the skills required to win are closely bound up with abstract and high-level thinking. Specifically, some of the mental skills, which are not even taught at school, can be trained by video games, including following instructions, solving problems, logic, hand-eye coordination and fine movement skills. Research also indicates that playing video games is an effective way to promote iconic, spatial and visual attention skills. There are even studies conducted on adults finding that better surgical skills tend to be associated with the experiences of playing video games. Jacob Benjamin, a doctor from the Beth Israel Medical Centre NY, has discovered a cor-relation between the skills at video gaming and those at keyhole or laparoscopic surgery. Similarly, experts say that one of the reasons for which fighter pilots of today are more skilful is that this generation’s pilots are being weaned on video games.

In addition, playing video games provides players with the opportunities to learn to manage limited resources and make the best use of those resources, the same way as in real life. In strategy games, for instance, gamers have to defeat opponents and win the game in the shortest time, which forces the players to be flexible and adjust their tactics quickly. Not only do strategy games involve a lot of skill practice, but action games do as well. Based on research at the University of Rochester, led by Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive scientist, battle or action games characterised by stressful events could be a training tool for real-world situ-ations. The study also suggests that playing action video games would prime the brain to make split-second decisions. Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, states that gamers must deal with immediate problems while maintaining the attentiveness to their long-term goals on their horizon. So it is critical for players to understand the instructions, follow the storylines and obtain detailed information from the game texts.

James Paul Gee says that playing a video game could be compared to coping with a science problem. Like students in a laboratory, gamers must assume some possible scenarios before making any move to ensure the accomplishment of their objectives. For example, players in some games need to try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an unexpected enemy when developing a city. If one does not work, they would modify and try another. ‘Video games are goal-driven experiences,’ says Gee, ‘which play an essential role in studying.’ Besides, mathematical skills are of great importance for winning in many games that demand quantitative analysis, such as managing scarce resources. In higher-level games, players usually fail in the first round, but they keep trying until they succeed and move on to the next level.

Many online games enable gamers to simultaneously participate in a particular game, which helps children meet new friends, enhance friendships with old friends and gain self-confidence through teamwork. Moreover, many games are based on history, city building, governance and so on. Such games indirectly teach children about aspects of life on earth.

In an upcoming study in the journal Current Biology, it is predicted by authors Daphne Bavelier, Alexandra Pouget and Shawn Green that people who play video games could process stimulus from real-life situations much faster than others. Over the course of the study, dozens of 18- to 25-year-olds who were not ordinarily video game players were tested. They were divided into two groups. One group played 30 hours of the action video game Call of Duty 2, and the other group played 30 hours of the strategy game The Sims 2. All of the subjects were then asked to make quick decisions in several tasks relevant to real-life contexts. The action game players were up to 20 percent faster at coming to a conclusion and answered just as many questions correctly as their strategy game playing counterparts.

Questions 5 – 8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 5–8 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

• 5.Video games are popular due to their violent content.
• 6.Those people who are playing video games have lots of dopamine in their brains.
• 7.It would be a good idea for schools to apply video games into their teaching activities.
• 8.The action game players minimised the percentage of making mistakes in the experiment.

Questions 9 – 13

Look at the following statements (Questions 9–13) and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person, A–F.

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 9–13 on your answer sheet.

List of People

A The writer

B James Paul Gee

C Shawn Green

D Daphne Bavelier

E Steven Johnson

F Jacob Benjamin

• 9.As with other daily life skills, video games alter the brain’s physical structure.
• 10.Brain is ready to make decisions without hesitation when players are immersed in playing stressful games.
• 11.Purpose-motivated experiences given by video games are fundamental to our learning.
• 12.Players are good at addressing prompt issues with future intentions.
• 13.Playing video games enables children to broaden their horizons in many aspects and gain self-confidence.

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