Video Games Can Be Good

A nice change from the usual "video games bad" press, this AP article on MSNBC reports on action game players having improved visual skills. Game players are generally better at keeping track of multiple objects at the same time, and can process visual information more efficiently.

In the Rochester study, 16 males between the ages of 18 and 23 took a series of tests that measured their ability to locate the position of a blinking object, count the number of simultaneous objects on a screen and pick out the color of an alphabet letter. Those who played video games for the past six months performed better in all those tests than those who didn't. In a separate test, a group of 17 who never played video games were trained to play the military game "Medal of Honor" and the puzzle game "Tetris." After playing for 10 days, those who learned "Medal of Honor" scored better on the performance tests than those who didn't.