Video games have traditionally been considered harmful for children because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing them from going outdoors and experiencing the real world. In spite of the fact that this is the case, a team of researchers working at the University of Vermont revealed that the exact opposite might be true, and this research might just turn our conception of what video games can do to kids up on its head.
The study involved conducting an MRI for around 2,000 children who were between the ages of nine and ten and it showed that those who played video games for up to three hours a day were actually more intelligent. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that they had a better recall for information, which basically means they had improved memory capacity, and they were also better able to reign in any and all impulses that they may have had.
Compared to children who never played video games, gamer kids tended to have a better attention span and memory with all things having been considered and taken into account. This suggests that children who play video games may end up becoming smarter than might have been the case otherwise, and that is a surprising revelation for parents who have been trying very hard to stop their kids from supposedly wasting time on them.
One thing to note is that this study did not definitively state that playing video games will make children smarter, but it does suggest that this could occur within the right framework. The general guideline from pediatricians is that children should play no more than one or at most two hours of video games per day, and this study intentionally exceeded that guideline to see what would happen. The results go against the grain, and it will be interesting to see if further studies are conducted that might broaden our understanding on the impacts of video games on children and their cognitive development.
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The study involved conducting an MRI for around 2,000 children who were between the ages of nine and ten and it showed that those who played video games for up to three hours a day were actually more intelligent. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that they had a better recall for information, which basically means they had improved memory capacity, and they were also better able to reign in any and all impulses that they may have had.
Compared to children who never played video games, gamer kids tended to have a better attention span and memory with all things having been considered and taken into account. This suggests that children who play video games may end up becoming smarter than might have been the case otherwise, and that is a surprising revelation for parents who have been trying very hard to stop their kids from supposedly wasting time on them.
One thing to note is that this study did not definitively state that playing video games will make children smarter, but it does suggest that this could occur within the right framework. The general guideline from pediatricians is that children should play no more than one or at most two hours of video games per day, and this study intentionally exceeded that guideline to see what would happen. The results go against the grain, and it will be interesting to see if further studies are conducted that might broaden our understanding on the impacts of video games on children and their cognitive development.
Read next: 38% of US Adults Are Buying Things From Social Media, Here’s What Motivates Their Purchases
