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Neuropsychologists of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum let video gamers compete against non-gamers in a learning
competition. During the test, the video gamers performed significantly better and showed an increased brain activity in
the brain areas that are relevant for learning. Prof Dr Boris Suchan, Sabrina Schenk and Robert Lech report their findings
in the journal Behavioural Brain Research.
The weather prediction task
The research team studied 17 volunteers who – according to their own statement – played action-based games on the
computer or a console for more than 15 hours a week. The control group consisted of 17 volunteers who didn’t play
video games on a regular basis. Both teams did the so-called weather prediction task, a well-established test to
investigate the learning of probabilities. The researchers simultaneously recorded the brain activity of the participants via
magnetic resonance imaging.

Gamers Have an … 1 Sabrina Schenk and Boris Suchan tested how well video gamers learn.

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The participants were shown a combination of three cue cards with different symbols. They should estimate whether the
card combination predicted sun or rain and got a feedback if their choice was right or wrong right away. The volunteers
gradually learned, on the basis of the feedback, which card combination stands for which weather prediction. The
combinations were thereby linked to higher or lower probabilities for sun and rain. After completing the task, the study
participants filled out a questionnaire to sample their acquired knowledge about the cue card combinations.
Video gamers better with high uncertainties

Middle Age Fattens You… The gamers were notably better in combining the cue cards with the weather predictions than the control group. They
fared even better with cue card combinations that had a high uncertainty such as a combination that predicted 60 percent
rain and 40 percent sunshine.
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The analysis of the questionnaire revealed that the gamers had acquired more knowledge about the meaning of the card

http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/09/gamers-have-advantage-in-learning.html#!/2017/09/gamers-have-advantage-in-learning.html[10/3/2017 8:19:54 PM]

Gamers Have an Advantage in Learning | Ideas, Inventions And Innovations
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http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/09/gamers-have-advantage-in-learning.html#!/2017/09/gamers-have-advantage-in-learning.html[10/3/2017 8:19:54 PM]
combinations than the control group. “Our study shows that gamers are better in analysing a situation quickly, to
generate new knowledge and to categorise facts – especially in situations with high uncertainties,” says first author
Sabrina Schenk.
This kind of learning is linked to an increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that plays a key role in learning
and memory. “We think that playing video games trains certain brain regions like the hippocampus”, says Schenk. “That
is not only important for young people, but also for older people; this is because changes in the hippocampus can lead to
a decrease in memory performance. Maybe we can treat that with video games in the future.”
Funding
The study was conceived as part of Collaborative Research Centre 874 [http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sfb874/] , which
has been funded since 2010 by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) to
investigate memory formation and sensory processing.
Original publication
Contacts and sources:
Prof Dr Boris Suchan
Department of Clinical Neuropsychology
Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience
Faculty of Psychology
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Citation: Sabrina Schenk, Robert K. Lech, Boris Suchan: Games people play: How video games improve probabilistic
learning, in: Behavioral Brain Research, 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.08.027
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016643281730390X?via%3Dihub]
Posted 3 days ago by Alton Parrish
Labels: Life
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