Educational and Cognitive Potential of Video Games – rts.ch

Video games, a time-consuming futility? Certainly not, responds Daphne Bevelier, an expert in cognition, professor at the University of Geneva. Gaming can (possibly) improve our concentration and our ability to learn.

Daphne Bevelier explains that scientific research is working to understand the complex neurological mechanisms that are activated when playing behind a screen. They can be negative – excessive gaming is recognized as an addiction by the WHO – or positive.

One example out of many: Shooting games can train our ability to learn. On this topic, Daphne Bevalier revealed the results of the CQFD on Fridaya recent publication From his research group in the journal Nature.

In one experiment, 69 subjects were divided into two groups, one of whom played a shooting game, the other was placed in a control force, which played a more peaceful video game. “We assess the ability of games to enhance brain plasticity and the ability to learn, including new tasks,” the researcher describes. For 45 hours spread over several weeks, participants play in small doses.

fast learning

“What we see has an effect on the faculties of learning”, indicates Daphne Bevelier. Participants who have played shooting games will learn new actions faster. For example, the ability to see details in Scene View. So it can be of interest to professional life. “If you are a watchmaker and you are asked to do very precise work, and you need to see all the little details of the watch very well, you will learn more quickly to see all these little details” , refers to the professor.

>> Details in CQFD:

Video games teach how to learn / CQFD / 7 min. / Friday 10:06

attentive flexibility

Another area where shooting sports are beneficial: concentration, “You have to consistently have a very tight attention distribution,” explains Daphne Bevelier in the Micro Sciences podcast. “That is, you both have to take the entire field of view – make sure there are enemies, pick up health packages from locations – and at the same time focus your attention on a point capable of achieving a shooting accuracy. The perfect one, To be able to survive.”

The researcher says, “Therefore there is a constant need to redefine the way we pay attention. These two modes of attention, called split and focused, are not in the same part of the brain.” “They have to work together. There’s a certain cognitive flexibility to this, which means deploying your attention quickly, at the right level and at the right time, in order to perform as well as possible.”

even in surgery

Children and teenagers can benefit from gaming for their attentional agility. “We realized that, when they were tested on this task, the young players were very, very good,” says Daphne Bevelier.

But older people are also affected. In fact, spending a little time playing helps people who study surgery learn operating protocols more quickly, without making more mistakes.

>> Effect of Games on the Concentration of Surgeons (But Not Only) in Microbiology:

Why am I playing games on my phone? / Microscience / 23 min. / October 4, 2021

Interviewed by Stephen Deltroz ​​and Huma Kamiso

Web Processing: Antoine Michel

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