Video game playing causes no harm to young children's cognitive
abilities, study finds
Research also saw no measurable benefits from video games that claim to
help kids' development

Date:
February 7, 2023
Source:
University of Houston
Summary:
Despite old fears that bad effects follow excessive video game
playing or questionable game choices, researchers found those
factors mattered little, if any, in children's brain health. The
bad news? Video games assumed to be effective learning tools showed
no meaningful effects, either.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Parents: It might be time to rethink your family's video-gaming rules.


==========================================================================
New research findings challenge the fears parents have been hearing
for years that children who spend hour after hour playing video games,
or choose games of certain genres, would manifest unhealthy results in
their cognitive ability.

"Our studies turned up no such links, regardless of how long the children played and what types of games they chose," said Jie Zhang, associate
professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Houston
College of Education and a member of the research team. The work is
published in the Journal of Media Psychology.

In reaching the conclusions, researchers examined the video gaming
habits of 160 diverse urban public-school preteen students (70% from
lower income households), which represents an age group less studied in previous research.

Participating students reported playing video games an average of 2.5
hours daily, with the group's heaviest gamers putting in as much as 4.5
hours each day.

The team looked for association between the students' video game play and
their performance on the standardized Cognitive Ability Test 7, known
as CogAT, which evaluates verbal, quantitative and nonverbal/spatial
skills. CogAT was chosen as a standard measure, in contrast to the teacher-reported grades or self- reported learning assessments that
previous research projects have relied on.

"Overall, neither duration of play nor choice of video game genres had significant correlations with the CogAT measures. That result shows no
direct linkage between video game playing and cognitive performance,
despite what had been assumed," said May Jadalla, professor in the School
of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University and the study's
principal investigator.

But the study revealed another side of the issue, too. Certain types
of games described as helping children build healthy cognitive skills
also presented no measurable effects, in spite of the games' marketing messages.

"The current study found results that are consistent with previous
research showing that types of gameplay that seem to augment cognitive functions in young adults don't have the same impact in much younger
children," said C.

Shawn Green, professor in the Department of Psychology at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison.

Does this mean the world can play on? Maybe, the research suggests. But
the experts also caution that gaming time took the heaviest players' away
from other, more productive activities -- homework, to be specific --
in a process psychologists call displacement. But even in those cases,
the differences were slight between those participants and their peers'
CogAT measures of cognitive abilities.

"The study results show parents probably don't have to worry so much about cognitive setbacks among video game-loving children, up to fifth grade.

Reasonable amounts of video gaming should be OK, which will be delightful
news for the kids. Just keep an eye out for obsessive behavior," said
Zhang. "When it comes to video games, finding common ground between
parents and young kids is tricky enough. At least now we understand that finding balance in childhood development is the key, and there's no need
for us to over-worry about video gaming." The study was funded by the
National Science Foundation.

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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Houston. Original
written by Sally Strong.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. May Jadallah, C. Shawn Green, Jie Zhang. Video Game Play. Journal of
Media Psychology, 2022; DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000364 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230207191554.htm

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