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Study Says Action Video Games Can Boost Learning Abilities

npr.org

A new study by researchers at the University of Rochester says that playing video games can boost learning skills. But it's not every game that will help you improve your brain power.

The study says it is action games, like the very popular Call of Duty, that has a positive effect on learning skills, rather than a more passive game, such as The Sims.

This study mainly involved college-aged people, and researchers say it showed for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities in general.

One of the authors of the study, Shawn Green, tells WXXI News that another benefit shown by this research is that the improved learning performance had a lasting effect.

(With) our group and other groups, we've seen the effects last when we've tested up to two years later; (the longest afterwards that we've actually tested), and a large portion of the effects were still present then."

Even though the more action packed games, many of which have violent themes, produced this effect, Green says this study should not be looked as an excuse to have everyone play as many video games as they can.

"Several of the authors are parents, we don't want this to be taken as kind of, “oh, now you have carte blanche to play as many video games as you want...To some extent, the right experience… is to get a variety of different experiences and not to just binge on video games...”

The researchers are now trying to learn which characteristics in the action video games were key to improving a player's learning skills.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.