Real-life lessons from video games

Violent video games do lead to more aggressive thoughts and behaviors, but may also help youth improve attention and spatial orientation skills and develop a sense of teamwork, according to a Sunday symposium during APA’s Annual Convention.

Fifteen years of research on video-game playing among high school and college students compiled by Douglas A. Gentile, PhD, of Iowa State University’s Media Research Lab, point to several dimensions of video-game play that may have effects on learning and skill development. They include:

• The amount of time a game is played.
• The game's content, context, structure and mechanics.

“We’re trying to get beyond the question of whether video games are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and instead put all the pieces of the elephant together in terms of what video game users actually learn during play,” Gentile said.

For example, adventure-based games that require players to react quickly and develop alternative solutions within a game’s context may improve problem-solving skills, Gentile noted.

Other research by Gentile demonstrates the positive effects of video-game play on surgical skill. In a study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons, those who played video games:

• Were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures.
• Made 37 percent fewer errors compared to non-gamers.

In fact, Gentile noted, a surgeon’s frequency of video-game play seems to be a better predictor of suturing skills than their years of medical training or the number of surgeries they’ve performed.

More information:
Read the APA press release