Researchers from the University of Rochester published a recent study that indicates playing video games may help improve decision-making skills in the real world.
The research study discovered gamers that play action games like first-person shooters are more likely to have faster reaction times than non-FPS gamers. Even so, it's still possible gamers may have faster reactions -- but those reactions may not necessarily be more accurate than non-gamers.
"Our brains constantly perform probabilistic inferences — as you drive along and detect some unexpected moving object on the right side of the road, say a motorcycle, your brain will compute how likely it is that you are on a collision path with that motorcycle, and then infer from this probability whether you need to steer left or not," said Daphne Bavelier, University of Rochester cognitive neuroscientist, in the interview with LiveScience. "This kind of inference is used each time we make a decision."
Even though some game critics say excessive game use leads to obesity and social disorders, research has found that more genres of video games have their rightful place. For example, recent research reveals some gamers may turn out to be even better surgeons -- and video games could increase eye-hand coordination and vision.
I'm curious to see what additional studies reveal about gamers -- social and health factors included -- because the long-term health of gamers has become a major interest among university researchers. Military recruiters are using video games to lure new recruits, while military researchers also study the benefits gaming has on a wide range of everyday tasks.
