Do Video Games Affect Cognitive Processes

Introduction

Video gaming is a big part of the modern society, and video games have developed a lot throughout the years. The video game business is more popular than ever, since video games have become better in quality and more people are playing video games now than ever. (McCall, 2015) Now that more and more people are spending more time playing video games, its effects on the human brain have been studied. There has been speculation and supporting studies that video gaming could be possibly harmful for the development of the human brain, but there is also evidence suggesting otherwise. So how does video game playing affect the cognitive processes?

Cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier argues in her TED.com talk Your brain on video games,

But multiple researchers have also found positive attributes, like increased school performance, faster reaction time and better memory. Can video games enhance the processes on cognitive level, even though the most known and famous studies seem to point otherwise? To which degree can video gaming be helpful? In this essay the positive attributes of playing video games will be stated and analyzed. The research question of this essay is: How do video games positively affect cognitive

(Vedantam, 2009) In players of all ages, the symptoms of mental problems that could affect person’s cognitive processes such as depression can be reduced by playing the right videogames. An important factor in school success is that students maintain good mental health, in which playing video games can help. Also, if video gaming makes a person happier, the benefits of it in emotional level should be noted as helpful.

Cognitive processes

In a PsychCentral article Psychologist Rick Nauert wrote that “A common viewpoint is that playing video games is intellectually lazy. New research however, suggests such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception.”

A study conducted by Walter R. Boot et al. found that expert video game players, people who played video games on a daily basis, outperformed non-players in different tasks requiring a good short-term memory, attention skills and executive control. This study suggests that extensive, daily video game playing could possibly improve person’s cognitive processes.