BD91 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Hey everyone! I just came across a pretty interesting study that compared 8 hours of playing the popular video game Portal 2 to 8 hours of using the popular brain-training software Lumosity. The study, while admittedly brief, showed a statistically significant improvement in the subjects who played 8 hours of Portal 2 in pre/post tests on problem solving, spatial skills, and persistence. Here's a link to the study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131514001869 Now, I myself do play a few video games and am a HUGE fan of the Portal series; and I remember in college whenever I'd get stuck somewhere along an assignment for to long (typically math) I'd take a break, play Portal for 20 minutes and seemed to always come up with the solution in relatively short time after the break. Obviously that's only an anecdote and doesn't prove anything, but I figured this thread could be an interesting starting off point for a larger discussion about the impact of video games on the human psyche on an individual & societal/cultural level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A4E Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 "Lumosity subjects showed no gains on any measure" I want to know if their results went down from the before tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. D. Stembal Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Whether the study is accurate or not, Portal 2 is an astounding game when played in co-op mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccuTron Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I'm not surprised at the results. Someone is trying to force nature, instead of following it. A game, by it's very nature, is constantly exploring what the brain can do, including cleverness. Like flowing water, the process will find all possible pathways, and exploit the most useful. A brain trainer is presuming to know in advance a category of skills to train, which strikes me as ossified from the start. It's the difference between working out in a gym, and being an animal in the wild. The animal blends all it's muscles and movements, the gym isolates them. ----------------------------------------- Also, spend time here: Video games good for brain health - UberStrike This all came about because I had a nasty brain injury several years ago, and I stumbled upon a child-friendly online shooter game (no gore, no plot, nothing extra…just unabated merciless skill from over 60 countries Countries/regions master list - UberStrike ). Pumping the deserving ones here: One home game blogger, who wrote paragraphs about other mainstream games, said that when he tried this free game "I had to leave after a short while, because I couldn't survive it." Yes!! I think it was Facebook's #1 game a couple of years ago. I wasn't even intending to play online, being something of a Luddite, and was just looking for a clock app. But when I looked at the game out of curiosity, I found that while I was in that cyberworld, so very nicely done, my frequent brain seizures stopped. So I stayed very long hours there, and eventually noticed that I was almost always first or second place (if certain known masters didn't show up). That was back when the player universe was maybe 10,000's, now it's up to millions, and it's tougher, but if I'm feeling good and loosened up, I can still do it. I became a world class online player due to a brain injury. Funny world. I recommend scanning all the posts in the main link, because valuable parts are scattered. Further links provided by posters are here. Two short articles, and a worthwhile TED talk by a 30-something game designer: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Talk Video | TED.com Memory Care - Alzheimer's & Dementia Care Video game improves critical cognitive skills in older adults | Alzheimer's Reading Room Also included is this post: "... you sound kind of similar to me. I ended up playing so much due to inner ear damage that made doing regular things impossible. (Major balance issues)I do seem to be recovering now though which means a bit less uberstrike and more real life. It did for a time help me forget I had tons of vertigo and get through a rather difficult time in my life." Amen. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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