[HN Gopher] Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive... ___________________________________________________________________ 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-10-26 23:00 UTC)