Everyone has heard the familiar parents’ admonishment about video games—they’ll rot your brain. But the scientific community is emerging with a very different view: Certain games can actually deliver substantial cognitive, intellectual and emotional benefits.
“If you take people who’ve never played video games before and have them play for four weeks,” says Isabela Granic, behavioral science professor at Radboud University, “you will see improvement in spatial skills, which is directly related to performance in STEM coursework and ability.” Granic would know—she recently led a major research project that looked at dozens of scientific studies analyzing games and their real-world benefits and came to the conclusion that the cognitive perks are both specific and long-lasting.
Still, all games are not created equal when it comes to improving cognitive IQ. So If you’re looking to get more of a cerebral advantage while you’re playing games at home or work or in between, here are some games that have been shown to boost cognitive skills in five key areas.
TO IMPROVE SOCIAL SKILLS…
PLAY: World of Warcraft
Massive, multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) aren’t just hack-and-slash experiences. They’re also social microcosms with players forced to interact and coordinate with other gamers in order to achieve their objectives. Sure enough, measurements of social skills (via Bryant and Trower’s Social Situations Questionnaire) improved among players of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, one of the most popular online games in the world.
TO IMPROVE ATTENTION…
PLAY: Counter-Strike
“Selective attention” is the psychological process of tuning out irrelevant information and focusing on what’s important during a task. A recent study published by the National Center of Biotechnology Information put gamers playing Counter-Strike and other high-energy action titles into an MRI system and compared them to non-gamers. The results showed that these games let players “allocate attentional resources more automatically, possibly allowing more efficient early filtering of irrelevant information.”
TO IMPROVE CREATIVITY…
PLAY: The Sims 4
Creativity isn’t just an abstract idea. It can actually be measured through the use of the Torrance Test. A major study of youth gamers published in the journal, Computers in Human Behavior, showed that almost any kind of video game—with the sole exception of racing or driving games—was strongly correlated with increased creativity across all measures of the trait. So-called “interpersonal games” like the Sims series had the strongest positive effect on creative skills.
TO IMPROVE MEMORY…
PLAY: Call of Duty
One would assume that intricate role-playing games where players have to be able to remember dozens or hundreds of spells, potions and locations, would aid memory. But in reality, playing action games like the Call of Duty franchise have been shown by researchers to improve “working memory performance,” while non-action titles didn’t.
TO IMPROVE ANXIETY…
PLAY: Bejeweled 3
Not every game that improves cognition requires machine guns or laser pistols. Puzzle-based video games, such as Bejeweled 3, that have simple interfaces, are easy to learn, and involve only a few minutes of play at a time have been shown to reduce stress. A decrease in cortisol can in turn improve mood and even reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and depression.
This story is part of our World of Gaming series where we spotlight cutting-edge technologies, innovations, and designs for the latest games—best enjoyed on the new generation of PCs that feature the souped-up 6th Gen Intel® Core™ processors.
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