Computer games have this advantage for your brain
Those: Getty Images / La Bicicleta Vermella
Hours of rowing in front of the screen make you stupid and bad eyes, our parents used to tell us. Computer games also have a positive effect on our cognitive abilities.
WITHocken trains the ability to concentrate and trains working memory. Players often learn faster and better. The game “Super Mario” even encourages the growth of certain areas of the brain. Neuroscientists Joana Stäb and Uwe Ilg from the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen have now discovered another positive effect:
Video games train our so-called number sense so that we can better estimate quantities.
The rule is: the more the better. The effect is likely due to increased awareness of the brain, as researchers in a Press release to write. The ability to correctly estimate the number of objects at a glance is innate in us humans. For example, we do not have to count all the apples to see that there are three in the shopping cart.
Quelle: Getty Images / PhotoAlto / Isabelle Rozenbaum
The same applies to the sense of numbers as it does to our other senses: the smaller the difference between two stimuli, such as the size of a crowd or the tone of a tone, the more difficult it is for us to perceive it.
However, we can train our perception. Musicians, for example, perceive very subtle differences in volume. We were interested to know if the sense of numbers can also be trained.
For your study, let the magazine “Biology of addiction” published, the researchers tested a total of 66 test subjects. Half of them played on the computer for more than four hours a week, the other half did not even play one. During the experiments, the study participants looked at two circles on a screen with black dots on them. Subjects were asked to spontaneously indicate which had more.
The result: computer gamers made as many mistakes as non-gamers. There was only a minimal difference in the number of points, but they clearly had the upper hand and were superior. They could see the differences much better. Even more:
The more the players played during the week, the better their numerical perception.
Quelle: Getty Images / Andriy Onufriyenko
“In short: computer gamers can intuitively and without counting, better distinguish whether there are more apples or more oranges in the shopping cart,” explains Ilg the results of the study.
In fact, the ability to estimate quantities at a glance can be trained.
Scientists believe that computer games improve the brain’s ability to direct and control attention.
But with all the advantages that games have on our cognitive abilities, the researchers also warn: “Every coin has two sides: excessive computer games can result in addiction, this is officially recognized as a disease.” the computer always turns it off and puts the game console aside.
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