[HN Gopher] Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive...
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Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in
children
Author : gmays
Score : 70 points
Date : 2022-10-26 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (nida.nih.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (nida.nih.gov)
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| Huh, my immediate assumption was income played a huge role but
| the video game cohort had poorer parents.
|
| The gender difference is huge though, the nongaming cohort had
| 288 males and 840 females while the gaming cohort had 372 males
| and 307 females.
|
| Also, I'm a bit confused why they just dumped anyone with between
| one and three hours of videogame playing a day.
| notch656a wrote:
| Video games are like the cheapest way to keep a kid busy for
| low income working parents. I guess they could send the kids
| outside but people nowadays start asking questions if a kid is
| caught outside while single mom is working for 3 hours or
| something.
|
| Given infinite money I think many of those parents would send
| the kid with nanny if needed or whatever to organized sports,
| piano classes, etc.
| imran-iq wrote:
| > Video games are like the cheapest way to keep a kid busy
| for low income working parents
|
| Source on that? Video games (console or pc) is very expensive
| and not something low income folks can generally afford for
| their kids.
| etiam wrote:
| Discarding all the moderate users seems like a design flaw. A
| possible effect on cognition is a fairly natural question for
| regression.
|
| Maybe you saw it in the text but, "This threshold was selected
| as it exceeds the American Academy of Pediatrics screen time
| guidelines, which recommend that videogaming time be limited to
| one to two hours per day for older children."
|
| The thought process I can sort of imagine is that the tests are
| fairly costly and the hypothesis they're testing is that more
| play than the official recommended limit should decidedly give
| detectable impairments to cognition. (Seems they could have
| rejected that, if they'd had comparable groups in the first
| place. Now I'm not sure what it says)
| darkteflon wrote:
| My son started playing games (with me) at 4 yo (partly because we
| were all locked indoors for months on end).
|
| Anecdotally - and providing you use some discretion as to choice
| of game - I've found it absolutely fascinating to watch both the
| pace of development of problem-solving skills, and some of the
| frankly astounding leaps of logic and intuition young kids are
| capable of. I vividly remember one rock-moving puzzle in Breath
| of the Wild that had me stumped until he piped up with a proposal
| that turned out to be the correct solution. Fascinating stuff.
| andrewmutz wrote:
| What games do you recommend for kids of that age?
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| As mentioned, Zelda Breath of the Wild is a great game for
| kids, even as young as 4-5. My kid is 6 and had an amazing
| time with it, as did I.
| cloudking wrote:
| Minecraft
| etiam wrote:
| Careful now. Self-assortment into those who don't play at all and
| those who play at least three hours per day? There's good reasons
| to think those weren't otherwise equivalent populations in the
| first place. I'm buying "associated" but any sort of claims about
| effects from the games are going to have to come from elsewhere.
| rednerrus wrote:
| Would you assume the same thing about playing a musical
| instrument or playing a sport? What is playing video games
| except practicing cognitive performance? It works spatial
| reasoning, logic, dexterity, problem solving, reactions, etc.
| m463 wrote:
| could be kids who have access to a console and have several
| hours a day free might be in a different socioeconomic
| environment?
|
| but with cheap phone games, maybe not. hmmm...
| colinmhayes wrote:
| Yes, but for different reasons. Playing an instrument or
| sport means you're more likely to have a non-poor family with
| parents who have time to spend with you.
| etiam wrote:
| How is the alternative not?
| slt2021 wrote:
| only competitive gaming develops brain and teamwork (for team
| play games).
|
| leisure/casual gaming is no better than browsing TikTok.
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| Not all games are the same.
|
| Maxis and older Blizzard games were probably the best.
| kahon65 wrote:
| Which games are mentionned please?
| ransom1538 wrote:
| My son (6) is allowed to only play one game.
| https://play0ad.com/. It has been a surreal experience. He is
| able to gather resources, launch campaigns, build cities, he now
| creates complex strategies to defeat the enemy (me). The game has
| great LAN game play so we can take on each other was well (its
| open source). The next step, he wants to know "how do we change
| this?" Code.
|
| Compare this to watching tiktok?
| [deleted]
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| Of course. Most video games force you to make decisions at a
| fairly rapid pace with ever changing information. It's like chess
| on steroids.
| CharlieDigital wrote:
| I remember reading a paper that there's a strong association
| between spatial reasoning and performance in math.
|
| This made intuitive sense to me given that there is some overlap
| between manipulating objects in a 2D or 3D space and visualizing
| a math problem whether numeric or geometric.
|
| I find it hard to believe that typical video game puzzles can
| help increase cognitive performance, but plausible that training
| spatial recognition might help train the same regions of the
| brain we use for math.
|
| Even the basic mechanics: teaching math to my kids when they were
| young was purely a visual exercise of moving groups of things
| (coins, Cheerios, M&M's) around.
| dymk wrote:
| Ask yourself: are you a shape rotator or a wordcel?
| renewiltord wrote:
| Was it the urge to hold your inventory full until the game ends?
| Haha
|
| But seriously, the thing that's interesting is if you could
| challenge a child's spatial intelligence more in a VR or game
| universe than in our limited gravity enabled world. Curious
| indeed.
|
| Can't say it overwhelms my fear of screen time but it's a thing.
| jjice wrote:
| Complete anecdote, but my dad and I would play games like Zelda
| growing up (fond memories). Not sure if that's why I like puzzles
| now, but it definitely fits with the problem solving involved in
| software engineering. Or the two are completely unrelated.
| pgt wrote:
| If you're playing video games competitively, you're probably not
| drinking to excess.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| I don't think many 9-10 year olds are alcoholics.
| Broken_Hippo wrote:
| These were children - 9 and 10 years old. It is doubtful that
| any of them were playing competitively or drinking to excess.
|
| Even in older folks, 3 hours a day isn't really playing
| competitively nor does it mean you aren't drinking. We used to
| spend many hours getting drunk and high and playing games. It
| was great fun, and still is from time to time.
| armatav wrote:
| Problem is avoiding them being used as a coping mechanism for
| stress
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Why? Assuming it doesn't become overwhelming I don't see the
| issue with that, same as any other stress relief.
| educaysean wrote:
| I grew up in South Korea where kids are placed under immense
| academic stress and gaming is an established mainstream
| culture. In the last two decades or so, the instances of kids
| and adults suffering from severe gaming addiction have become
| increasingly common.
|
| The issue is exacerbated by the fact that more gaming
| companies are embracing loot boxes, pay-to-win schemes, and
| other parlor tricks to not only keep the players addicted but
| to also extract as much cash as possible from its captive
| audience. When hearing the stories of people whose lives were
| ruined by video games, it's hard not to draw the similarities
| with gambling addicts who poured their entire life savings
| into casinos. Except the casinos now exist in the pockets of
| 14 year olds, accessible at all times.
|
| I'm a long time gamer and a hobby game dev myself. I very
| much dislike the tendency for media to overstate the harms of
| gaming, but the reality is that gaming in its current form
| can be a very dangerous thing to become addicted to.
| DelightOne wrote:
| Its too addicting.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I feel like I have the opposites of an addictive
| personality. I enjoy playing games but I struggle to stay
| interested in any game for more than 10 hours and then I
| need a few months to reset and play it again. The only
| thing I have become addicted to is Hacker News and reddit.
| Arguably worse for you than games, for reddit at least.
| falcolas wrote:
| No more addicting than TV or movies. More engaging, on the
| other hand...
| ketzo wrote:
| If it's more engaging, how could it _not_ be more
| addictive?
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I don't know, I think a great number of previous video game
| players have grown up and become functional humans given
| the majority of children in the last few generations will
| have played videos games for entertainment in one fashion
| or another. There's always outliers who will have problems
| of course, but that doesn't mean it's bad for the rest.
| dtdynasty wrote:
| From personal experience I do agree that video games can be
| used as a form of distraction and escapism. but I think
| teaching mental awareness and moderation could change it from
| distraction to relaxation.
| formerkrogemp wrote:
| Hey, you can your relaxation with a side helping of micro
| transactions and loot boxes.
| rubyist5eva wrote:
| Videogames as a coping mechanism for stress stopped me from
| committing suicide. It's not so simple, nothing ever is.
| TapWaterBandit wrote:
| Yea, video games can definitely end up being an unhealthy
| coping mechanism used to avoid addressing your real life
| issues. That said they are probably on balance a better coping
| mechanism than some of the other popular ones out there
| (Alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling) but definitely worth keeping
| an eye on. Especially because video games aren't restricted for
| children like all those others things are (at least in theory).
| notch656a wrote:
| Gambling is roughly described as gaming with higher stakes,
| IMO. My totally unqualified, unsubstantiated guess would be
| the average gambler has higher cognitive performance than the
| average video game player. A dumb gambler goes broke sooner
| or later, which doesn't make them all quit but it does make
| some of them quit, which I would _wager_ causes a selective
| effect towards the smarter ones.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Have you been to a casino? 95% of Blackjack players aren't
| even playing basic strategy, something that takes a single
| day to learn. Instead, mid-rank players in popular online
| games like Valorant and Overwatch 2 are quite formidable
| multi-level thinkers.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I think you're envisioning gambling as a poker shark, when
| it could be someone betting on horses, playing slot
| machines, or buying scratch cards.
| notch656a wrote:
| Having 3 hours PER DAY to do _anything_ for leisure, even if it
| 's a form of escape from terrible circumstances, is quite the
| luxury. I would guess at the population level circumstances that
| allow 3 hours a day of non-essential activities like this to be
| associated with circumstances that allow better cognitive
| performance than those without 3 hours a day of time to do
| something for personal interest.
| recursive wrote:
| In 10 year olds? I would think most 10 year olds have more time
| than they know what to do with.
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