Video games can make kids smarter

Many video games require a lot of gamer brains. A study has now come to the conclusion that the consumption of games even increases IQ.

Video game consumption can increase measurable intelligence in children. This was the conclusion reached in the USA conducted studywhich analyzed the media consumption of 9,000 girls and boys.

At the age of nine or ten, the participating children underwent a series of psychological tests to measure their general cognitive abilities. The children and their parents were also asked how much time the offspring spends on television and videos, video games and social media.

After two years, 5,000 children had a follow-up examination, in which their intelligence was checked again. In this way, the researchers were able to find out what changes in intelligence occurred depending on media consumption.

Genetic differences that could affect intelligence were also taken into account. The same applies to differences that may be related to the level of education and income of the parents.

On average 2.5 IQ points

On average, the participating children spent 2.5 hours a day in front of the television, half an hour on social media and an hour playing video games. During the evaluation, differences in the development of intelligence were found depending on the weighting of the activities.

Those who played more games than average were able to increase their intelligence by an average of 2.5 IQ points more than average. At the same time, no significant positive or negative effect was found in TV or social media consumption.

However, the results do not mean that video games or media consumption in general have a positive or non-negative impact on children’s development. Researchers acknowledged that the effects of screen behavior on physical activity, sleep, well-being, or academic performance were not studied.

“But our results support the claim that screen time does not generally impair children’s cognitive abilities, and that playing video games may even boost intelligence.” This is consistent with several experimental studies on video game playing,” said Torkel Klingberg, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.

The study should be viewed with caution, especially with regard to school performance, since intelligence has less of an impact on school success (apart from learning disabilities). Rather, skills such as self-regulation and delayed gratification are required.

Also, no distinction was made in relation to the different types of video games. So a sophisticated and complicated project in “Minecraft” or a session in “The Witness” will probably have a different effect on intelligence than a round of “Moorhuhn”.

Another limitation is that the study only examined US children and the result cannot be extrapolated to children in other countries as they may have different consumption and gaming habits. Also, there is a risk of reporting error since screen time and habits have been self-assessed by the children and their parents.

Other studies:

Ultimately, the researchers have not yet finished their investigations. The aim is to continue to find out which environmental factors have an influence on the measurable intelligence of a person. “We will now examine the effects of other environmental factors and examine how the cognitive effects are related to the development of the child’s brain,” says Torkel Klingberg.

More news about the study.

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