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Ben Radkins
Professor Everhart
Writing Seminar
02/04/13
Video Games: Brain Food, Junk Food, or No Food at All
If there’s one thing that history has taught us it’s that new technologies often time create
nearly as many problems as they solve. With nearly every major advancement made, the human
race must learn to adapt to the new phenomenon, alter their life styles accordingly, or wrestle
with the moral implications of utilizing the new devices. For every man, woman, and child who
accepts whatever new idea that has been brought into the world, there exists someone to
challenge that new thing and push back as stubbornly as the former pushes forward. The rise of
video games has not evaded this long-held tradition, either, incurring a hearty amount of
suspicion, scrutiny, and, at times, wrath from those who do not consider them to be anything
greater than a mild distraction or a dangerous force of corruption. In light of the several recent
shooting tragedies that have befallen the United States and the subsequent leveling of blame on
the gaming industry, I’d like to examine further what effect electronic entertainment has on
people. Do video games really breed violent tendencies? Do they stimulate the human mind? If
so, to what extent are the gamers affected?
Over the years, there have been numerous studies to ascertain what happens to the mind
of someone who frequents video games, if anything even does happen. With so much
information available to the general public, much of it contradictory, the answer is no clearer
than it was twenty years ago. To make matters more confusing, when people ask if video games
are harmful, no singular entity of “video games” exists in the way that they think that it does. As
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the article “Brain of Video Games” says “One can no more say what the effects of video games
are, than one can say what the effects of food are. There are millions of individual games,
hundreds of distinct genres and subgenres, and they can be played on computers, consoles, handheld devices and cell phones” (Bavelier, Daphne et al, 763). Saying that video games are
detrimental or beneficial is so general that the statement is too vague to be of any value. Just as
the question is too broad and general, so too will the answer be of little use to anyone.
However, some truth can be gleaned through the haze of facts, opinions, and supposition
to construct a reasonable if simplified answer to the question “do video games affect people
mentally”. The article compiles the research of six experts and discusses their findings on just
how and to what extent video games alter the minds of those that play them. Baveleir and Green,
two of the researchers who authored the paper, noted what may be a surprising discovery to
some: “playing this type of game [“action” games] results in a wide range of behavioral benefits,
including enhancements in low-level vision, visual attention, speed of processing and statistical
inference, among others” (Bavelier, Daphne et al, 763). Not only does repeatedly playing video
games not “rot” a person’s brain like some would believe but actually can lead to an admittedly
small but nonetheless tangible improvement in several key areas of brain function.
Other research not only supports Bavelier and Green’s assertion but also offers different
ways interactive entertainment can improve a person’s mind. The article “Video Games and
Spatial Cognition” notes several correlations between playing action (and more specifically First
Person Shooter [FPS]) games and improvements in a person’s spatial awareness, coordination,
and memory. In studying several groups of people playing several types of games (in addition to
control groups), researchers observed that “action video games seem to have a unique advantage
in improving low-level functions such as spatial selective attention (Feng et al., 2007; Green &
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Bavelier, 2003), spatial perceptual resolution (Green & Bavelier, 2007), and contrast sensitivity
(Li et al., 2009), in addition to more complex spatial skills such as mental rotation” (Spence and
Feng 95). In addition, the article went into detail about the evidence that suggests that video
games improve the player’s “visuomotor coordination and speed” (“visuomotor” referring to the
connection between a person’s sight and motor function) by constantly assailing the participant
with tasks and required inputs while more often than not under a continuous barrage of audio and
visual distractions. The player must carry out these tasks while still preforming the normal
functions of moving, shooting, and other mundane actions. Finally, the paper talks about how
playing games can improve a person’s memory. Spence and Feng tell us that:
Playing some genres of video game requires an above-average ability to
manipulate items in working memory. ... Making the choice rapidly and
accurately is essential for survival in the game. Visual working memory and
spatial attention are closely interrelated and, given that several studies have
demonstrated improvements in spatial attention as a result of playing action
games. (Spence and Feng 97)
In addition to the possible mental stimulation that can occur with extended playing, video
games could possibly represent an entirely new avenue of psychological examination and
treatment, especially among children. The article "Video Games In Psychotherapy" correlated
studies on how “video games”, or as the study defined them “a game that employs electronics to
create an interactive system that includes a user interface to generate a visual feedback on a
video device” (Ceranoglu, 142), could be used to help treat, examine, or just understand children
in need of psychological treatment. The psychiatrists used several video games, both
commercially available and specifically designed for psychological uses, to bridge the gap and
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establish a connection between themselves and the adolescent subject. According to the article
“Use of video games in psychotherapy helped young patients become more cooperative and
enthusiastic about treatment in the therapist’s office” (Ceranoglu, 143). While, unfortunately,
video games may not be used to cure schizophrenia any time soon, it has been established that
they can at least present new opportunities to frustrated therapists who have been met with little
success in reaching their patents. Though it should not be ignored that all of the studies included
were small in scale and there exists a lack of large-scale, long-term evidence, the article notes
that “Using video games as a tool in psychotherapy of an adolescent with conduct disorder could
facilitate the needed engagement in treatment that is difficult to achieve through traditional
approaches” (Ceranoglu, 143).
However, to the Yin must come the Yang and if interactive entertainment can positively
stimulate the minds of players then perhaps there is some credibility to the concern that violent
video games can beget violent people. If the question of what effect electronic entertainment has
on people is a mountain of uncertainties and contradictions, then the question of how violence
factors in represents the pinnacle. As the correlation between violent video games, the
complexities of people that play them, and the influence of the wider American culture is
prodigious enough to warrant a hundred papers, the question “do violent video games cause
violence” can only be answered in general. Despite this, though, one can still establish an
adequate answer from the research and not have to write an extra ten pages. So is this true: do
video games create ticking time-bombs of aggression and malice or are they just harmless
distractions like movies or cable news?
An article, fittingly named “Are Violent Video Games Harmful”, asks that very question
and discovers some telling facts about violence, aggression, and the interactive medium. The
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paper uses many different types and genres of games in an effort to examine just how video
games may lead to violent outbursts in adolescents and young adults. Surprisingly, there may in
fact be some correlation between violent video games and an increase in aggression. In studying
young children as they played violent games, the article recorded that an “increased incidence of
physical fights in children who played violent video games remained statistically significant even
when controlling for trait hostility. Furthermore,” it went on to say, “ low trait-hostility children
who played more violent video games were more likely to get into physical fights than high traithostility children who played less violent games” (Porter, Guy, and Starcevic, 423). While these
findings may seem like the proverbial nail in the coffin regarding the question that has been
plaguing electronic entertainment for nearly as long as video games themselves have existed, that
answer is not as definitive as one might hope or fear.
The human mind is a veritable Rubik’s Cube to scientists and ascertaining how and why
violence is triggered in a person is even more complicated than most other aspects of
psychology. To make matters even more convoluted, as no one exists in a vacuum wherein only
one specific type of entertainment media reaches him or her, it is still impossible to really know
with certainty to what extent one specific factor is affecting a person. The researchers make note
of this problem, saying “However, participants in this study were also exposed to other forms of
media violence, which is the obvious methodological limitation. Therefore, the effect from
violent video game exposure alone was uncertain” (Porter, Guy, and Starcevic, 424). Though the
research does establish that there is, in fact, a valid connection, however minute, between playing
violent video games and increased aggression and decreased empathy, it does not prove (nor
does it even hypothesize) that electronic entertainment is a direct cause of the plague of
shootings that have dominated the United States in recent years. While video games may very
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well increase aggression in participants, examinations into the extent of these effects reveal that
gaming “may only facilitate the expression of the pre-existing propensity towards aggressive
behaviour. Indeed, if the classical evolutionary theory that aggression is both innate and adaptive
is upheld, any individual could manifest aggressive behaviour given the correct environmental
stimuli” (Porter, Guy, and Starcevic, 424). What video games do not do is corrupt children into
remorseless, miniature versions of the Terminator as most mainstream media would have others
believe. As the average age of a gamer is thirty, even the notion that children are the ones
receiving the brunt of the “assault” of violent content is not accurate.
The same principle applies to the positive aspects of extended playing. Though playing
certain games will increase certain abilities like situational cognizance or hand-eye coordination,
even markedly if the gamer plays long enough and is receptive enough, it will not revolutionize
human mental development to a point unrecognizable of that forty years ago. Just as “Violent
video games alone are unlikely to turn a child with no other risk factors into a maniacal killer”
(Bavelier, Daphne et al, 764), so too has it been found that the positive mental stimulation that
electronic entertainment can offer is usually minute. Doug Han and Perry Renshaw, two
researchers who contributed to the article “Brains on Video Games” even produced evidence
contradicting what the others had found; specifically that “the recruitment of non-gamers and
that provide game experience have not generally shown that gaming enhances performance on
higher level reasoning and problem solving tasks” (Bavelier, Daphne et al, 763). However, it
should be noted that both Han and Renshaw also recorded success using video games to treat
mental ailments like dementia and autism.
So do video games actually alter the minds of those that play them? Like most answers to
history’s timeless, bitterly disputed questions, the answer is a resounding “yes and no”. It has, in
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fact, been proven that video games can stimulate the human mind and increase perception and
reflexes. However, these effects are minimal and still uncertain as there is still so much of the
human mind to be explored. In addition, violent video games do lead to an increase in aggressive
behavior, though they do not breed dangerous sociopaths, despite whatever the baseless,
panicked squawkings of network television news may say. Video games can help develop the
mind of a person, but this is merely a side effect of delving into a new art form designed for
experiencing immersion, fun, catharsis, and emotion in a way that only electronic interactive
entertainment can deliver. In short, when I boot up my copy of Mass Effect, I will do so with the
reassuring knowledge that, though I will not be rendered unrecognizably different in any way, I
will leave just a little more responsive and aware of my surroundings.
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Bavelier, Daphne, et al. "Brains on Video Games." Nature Reviews.Neuroscience 12.12 (2011):
763-8. ProQuest Psychology Journals. Web. 29 Jan. 2013.
Ceranoglu, T. Atilla. "Video Games In Psychotherapy." Review Of General Psychology 14.2
(2010): 141-146. PsycARTICLES. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.
Porter, Guy, and Vladan Starcevic. "Are Violent Video Games Harmful?." Australasian
Psychiatry 15.5 (2007): 422-426. Academic Search Elite. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.
Spence, Ian, and Jing Feng. "Video Games And Spatial Cognition." Review Of General
Psychology 14.2 (2010): 92-104. PsycARTICLES. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.