Can Video Games Make Me Super Smart?

For decades video games have endured a brain rotting stigma. However the latest research from Brown University has revealed that gamers could actually enjoy increased brain activity and intelligence. Put simply, video games could very well make you smarter! It may seem like a crazy concept so to clear up any confusion we’ve put together an overview of the findings.

Brown gets brainy

The study was carried out by a team of researchers studying at Rhode Island’s Brown University. Drawing on data from a group of 18 participants, the study found that gaming augments the ability to master new tasks. The cognitive scientists have even suggested that gamers could fall into the ‘expert’ category of problem solving.

To gather results researchers opposed nine regular gamers against a control group of nine individuals who rarely played. Over two days they took part in a series of visual task learning exercises. The task involved subjects being shown digital ‘textures’ of vertical or horizontal lines, peppered with anomalous dashes. Participants were then asked to quickly point out the offending texture. In the realm of visual processing research this experiment is standard protocol referred to by scientists as the ‘texture discrimination task.’ Studies have shown that training can improve performance, but only if participants don’t move on to another task too soon. The Brown University researchers wanted to determine whether or not gamers were better at overcoming interference. The final data proved their theory correct, with gamers demonstrating improvement on both tasks, while non-gamers improved on the second task but not the first. On average gamers boasted a 15% speed and accuracy improvement on the second task and an 11% improvement on the second. In comparison non-gamers improved by 15% on the second task yet worsened by 5% on the first.  

Dr Yuka Sasaki, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University explains, “When we study perceptual learning we usually exclude people who have tons of video game playing time because they seem to have different visual processing. They are quicker and more accurate.”

Potential hurdles

Like any scientific study there is still speculation. Researchers have admitted that they are not 100% sure whether its gaming itself that makes people smarter, or simply the fact that people who are apt at skill learning are more likely to regularly play video games. “We sometimes see that an expert athlete can learn movements very quickly and accurately and a musician can play the piano at the very first sight of the notes very elegantly, so maybe the learning process is also different. Maybe they can learn more efficiently and quickly as a result of training” explains Sasaki.

The human brain is an incredible thing that can be trained and influenced by a myriad of different variables. While gaming may boost intelligence, drugs can also have an impact on cognitive functions.  ‘Therapeutic Monitoring of Antipsychotic Drugs’ explores how chlorpromazine, haloperidol and other ‘first generation’ drugs are gradually being replaced with ‘second generation’ or ‘atypical’ antipsychotics such as clozapine.