Playing High-Action Video Games May Speed Up Learning, Studies Say

Education Week:

Contrary to the popular stereotype of a distracted teenager lost in Halo or Call of Duty video games, new evidence suggests playing such high-action video games may help students learn and react faster—but not more impulsively.

The new findings run counter to recent studies that have linked extensive video game playing to attention-deficit and impulsiveness disorders, stoking concerns that playing highly stimulating video games reduces students’ ability to pay attention in less-stimulating academic settings.

“Certainly, there’s a sense that action video games have been a disruptive technology in terms of capturing the attention of students,” said Daphne Bavelier, the director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging, in Rochester, N.Y., in a symposium this month at the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society meeting here.

Read the whole story: Education Week