If you are a gamer then this is some good news. If you are not, well its time you begin. A study released today by Current Biology has indicated that brain training help you to prepare for familiar tasks while some could actually help general improvements. Games tend to train a brain into performing a task and some types of games that are based on decision making and tracking multiple objects actually help the gamer’s brain train to decide faster and more accurate over time.
The study says that all the tasks that are typically performed involve probability where complete information is unavailable. Gaming increases this efficiency of making judgements based on incomplete information. Two sets of subjects were tested to prove this, gamers and non-gamers where they were shown a screen that had a set of randomly moving dots and were asked determine if the the dots were heading in a single direction even when they seemed to be randomly moving around. Both sets had to decide when it was enough motion to determine that the dots were moving in a set direction.
Researchers found that both groups performed equally and the gamers gave the results more quickly than the non-gamers. However researchers did note that the video game players could be individuals who were born with a better ability to decide faster. The researchers gave about 50 hours of training and practice on action games to the non-gamers. After the training the non-gamers displayed enhanced decision time.
Bottom line, play more games! You can read more of the study here.
That is funny … I think that is really possible – unless you use to play chess or something like that! ;o)