Can video games change your brain?

“Video games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist C. Shawn Green. Online gaming and the general trend among children for playing games has increased dramatically over the years. Since the mushrooming of computers, laptops and advanced gaming consoles, it is simply irresistible for children to avoid games.

However, there are concerns among psychologists and parents that playing video games led to violence and aggression in children. There was a research carried out by Anderson and Dill (2000). The study was based on the premise that playing violent video games led to increases in aggressive behaviour. Undergraduates from Iowa state university were given a chance to opt for either a violent or a non-violent game. During their experimental session, participants played a competitive game with an opponent. The players deliver blasts of white noise through the earphones of the opponent.

Anderson and Dill created the experimental manipulation in a way that they had the participants in Group A play the violent game and the participants in Group B play the nonviolent game respectively. Then they compared the dependent variable (the white noise blasts) between the two groups, finding that the students who had viewed the violent video game gave significantly longer noise blasts than did the students who had played the nonviolent game.

This research signifies that playing violent games induces violent behaviour. However, my contention is that positive impacts of playing non-violent games must not be ignored. Playing games must be a part of children’s daily routine. Playing games boosts cognitive abilities, strategizing, decisiveness, pattern recognition, simulations problem-solving skills and so playing games also serves as a healthy activity for children.

A study involving over 3,000 children between ages six and eleven assessed the relation between the amount of time spent on playing video games and its effects on children's mental health, cognitive and social skills.

"Video game playing is often a collaborative leisure time activity for school-aged children. These results indicate that children who frequently play video games may be socially cohesive with peers and integrated into the school community," said one of the researchers Katherine Keyes, assistant professor at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, US.
Keyes.K, Video games have positive impacts on young kids Retrieved from http://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/video-games-may-have-positive-effects-on-young-kids-says-study-811616
Stangor,C. (Nov.2010) Introduction to Psychology, NY: Flatworldknowledge, Inc