Video game players may spend a lot of time on the couch, but when they're ready to go out they can find their keys quicker than the rest of us, a study suggests.
Researchers found that gamers who devote much of their free time to Grand Theft Auto and Super Mario may be able to scan their environment and spot the target of their search more quickly than non-gamers can.
In experiments with college students who were either hard-core video game players or novices, the researchers found that players were quicker to detect target objects on a busy computer screen than their peers were.
Yay! This means all those years playing Mario years ago and all those hours playing Grand Theft Auto for the past 2 months were helping me! 
Nooo... DUH!
I don't get it. Are they going to follow up this experiment with real world data or are they going to stay content knowing that gamers perform better than nongamers at game-like reality key-finding simulations? 
was this research or "research"? lol
well, all I got out of playing games was a pair of glasses..
well, all I got out of playing games was a pair of glasses..
parents will not want to tell their kids this.
I agree with professor andy, and am wondering the same question...is it 'research'? It doesn't really make much sense, converting 2-d role-playing alertness to observations in the 3-d reality. Question: Wouldn't living in the real world, where your keys are actually located, increase your brain's familiarity with it and better prepare it for searches?
Also, what does it mean, when the study implies that the gamers' brains execute searches faster? HOW? More eye movement, increase in random searching....
It is funny though, I guess after all those years of Super Mario I can find coins and turtle shells faster .
Also, what does it mean, when the study implies that the gamers' brains execute searches faster? HOW? More eye movement, increase in random searching....
It is funny though, I guess after all those years of Super Mario I can find coins and turtle shells faster
.
That was already proven, scientists did a research on 1500 succesful business men, a majority of them we're video gamers. They said that playing video games makes you take better decisions, especially in risky situations. Also reaction time is better and you can quickly analyze a situation and react accordingly just as if it was a reflex. So I laugh at all of you who says that video games make you dumb, cause you're the ones that are getting dumber and dumber for every second I play video games. So I guess these past 17 years of gaming haven't been a waste. 
SWEET!!
SWEET!!
Yes, but they are all going to go blind from 'spankin it' cause they are not out playing with girls.
Whatever that study was, (the one with the 'successful' business men, please supply a link), I still disbelieve that analysing problems and solutions in risky situations when playing videogames will have any effect on real-life decision making and one's ability to ratiocinate. I mean, how risky can a situation in a videogame get? One definitely has a lower drive to do the right thing or be critical of one's decisions, because there's always that 'restart' button on the box.
Maybe an ability to analyse problematic situations progresses with increased playing time, and maybe there's a quicker response time to certain 'key' observations, (hehe) but to assume that decision-making and the ability to predict cause and effect in the real world are also increased and ameliorated...no.
Maybe an ability to analyse problematic situations progresses with increased playing time, and maybe there's a quicker response time to certain 'key' observations, (hehe) but to assume that decision-making and the ability to predict cause and effect in the real world are also increased and ameliorated...no.
or one could say: 
Video games are simple training simulators like any other military or otherwise
but with information your not likely to need often or in the same context.
The point about reflexes and reaction time still remain, like practicing any task.
Not to forget the amount of thinking envolved with most games, it could even benefit the elderly to invoke brain stimulation.
Knowledge is everywhere, including some video games....
Video games are simple training simulators like any other military or otherwise
but with information your not likely to need often or in the same context.
The point about reflexes and reaction time still remain, like practicing any task.
Not to forget the amount of thinking envolved with most games, it could even benefit the elderly to invoke brain stimulation.
Knowledge is everywhere, including some video games....
I've been playing games for 25 years and I lose my keys constantly. I've actually purchased one of those key beeper things and *still* lost them.
I must be sub-par.
I'm so sad. *cry
I must be sub-par.
I'm so sad. *cry
Hello Guest_ptk,
I agree with your succinct version of what I said, I guess sometimes I just ramble on...(It is summer, my brain misses essays.
) Interesting point about stimulating senior citizens' minds with virtual reality, never though about it. I guess the 'thinking' part would be better left to strategy games though... hehe, grand-ma playing Civilization 3.
I agree with your succinct version of what I said, I guess sometimes I just ramble on...(It is summer, my brain misses essays.
) Interesting point about stimulating senior citizens' minds with virtual reality, never though about it. I guess the 'thinking' part would be better left to strategy games though... hehe, grand-ma playing Civilization 3. 
on a similar note....
Im hoping that with the release of
"Gran Turismo 5" on "PS3"
in the near future. (Rumor has it that GT5 will contain 'realistic damage'.
If correct as proclaimed this means based on actual specs of the real vehicle.
This has major fun & entertainment implications).
Im hoping that this will be done right so not only will people finally get a real idea of the damage likely to be incured in
different accidents and possibly drive more responsibly, and we will get an idea of which cars are really safe and this
may pressure/encourage manufacturers to increase the base standard.
it started breif
my 2c worth 
I play first-person shooters online. After 3 years of playing I became so good that I was often accused of cheating. However the experience was of significant benefit for my alertness in traffic : I am a pedestrian and my brain has become wired to see every car as a potential threat (thanks to videogames). Anyhow, my main point is this :
While walking, I saved my identical twin brother from two potentially fatal accidents ! Also, on 7 other occasions I was able to spot a misbehaving car long before my brother did.
He does not play video games. We are identical in every other way, even down to our choice of physics degrees and tastes. He is essentially my clone.
As a physicist, I can assure you that these car incidents are not a coincidence.
As for the detrimental effects of videogames, I see none : I have no problems with my social life. I get straight 'A's in all my courses, including several rather advanced graduate quantum mechanics courses. I play less than 1 hour per day, and not every day. By spreading out the 'reflex training' in games my brain can better assimilate the game-knowledge when it 're-wires' its short term memory during sleep. Make sure you get the full 8-hours of sleep, as many students will tell you, this is an essential ingredient for achieving high marks in your studies and for retaining the knowledge over the many years required in a University degree. Otherwise many learned facts eventually 'evaporate' from your brain.
John Talbot
Physics Dept.
University of Ottawa
Canada
http://laserstars.org
While walking, I saved my identical twin brother from two potentially fatal accidents ! Also, on 7 other occasions I was able to spot a misbehaving car long before my brother did.
He does not play video games. We are identical in every other way, even down to our choice of physics degrees and tastes. He is essentially my clone.
As a physicist, I can assure you that these car incidents are not a coincidence.
As for the detrimental effects of videogames, I see none : I have no problems with my social life. I get straight 'A's in all my courses, including several rather advanced graduate quantum mechanics courses. I play less than 1 hour per day, and not every day. By spreading out the 'reflex training' in games my brain can better assimilate the game-knowledge when it 're-wires' its short term memory during sleep. Make sure you get the full 8-hours of sleep, as many students will tell you, this is an essential ingredient for achieving high marks in your studies and for retaining the knowledge over the many years required in a University degree. Otherwise many learned facts eventually 'evaporate' from your brain.
John Talbot
Physics Dept.
University of Ottawa
Canada
http://laserstars.org
Hello John Talbot,
I see your encounters with dangerous motorists demonstrate clear examples that videogames (probably) may increase alertness and stimulate quick, 'reflex-like' reactions to dangerous situations which parallel the videogames one plays. When I referred to risky situations, specifically, I was trying to exemplify scenarios in which many 'branches' of possibilities are possible, and solutions are found by more rational means than a do-or-die situation. Such as, your co-worker plagiarizes a student’s thesis and exploits it, he is working with you on a recent controversial theory…Do you: Help the student or help yourself and co-worker…etc.
I agree that the negative effects supposedly accompanying playing videogames are slight, and even more so, harm is only done when the person is vulnerable to slander. A resilient gamer is more likely to 'have a life'.
As for your website, I like the fact that I finally hear a contrasting theory to the common, 'quasars must be the brightest objects in the universe' bosh. Nice going, really interesting! I have just browsed through it so far, but about the distances both in space and time from ourselves, how does the theory construe this data?
I see your encounters with dangerous motorists demonstrate clear examples that videogames (probably) may increase alertness and stimulate quick, 'reflex-like' reactions to dangerous situations which parallel the videogames one plays. When I referred to risky situations, specifically, I was trying to exemplify scenarios in which many 'branches' of possibilities are possible, and solutions are found by more rational means than a do-or-die situation. Such as, your co-worker plagiarizes a student’s thesis and exploits it, he is working with you on a recent controversial theory…Do you: Help the student or help yourself and co-worker…etc.
I agree that the negative effects supposedly accompanying playing videogames are slight, and even more so, harm is only done when the person is vulnerable to slander. A resilient gamer is more likely to 'have a life'.
As for your website, I like the fact that I finally hear a contrasting theory to the common, 'quasars must be the brightest objects in the universe' bosh. Nice going, really interesting! I have just browsed through it so far, but about the distances both in space and time from ourselves, how does the theory construe this data?
The distances of quasars are erroneously determined by redshift. However we have shown that there is no quasar redshift, its an empty number without physical significance. Our group has determined the distances to quasars using standard stellar techniques such as proper motions measurements : several quasars have extremely high proper motions, i.e the motion all the nearby stars inside our galaxy projected on the sky (stars have motions about the center of our Milky-Way galaxy plus a random velocity). If you are deluded enough to use the incorrect comological distance, this motion would tranlate to 1100 times the speed of light. Clearly quasars are nearby laser stars within a few kiloparsecs (very close to us, well within our local spiral arm of our Milky way galaxy)
John Talbot
Please re-direct further questions to the laserstars webmaster at :
http://laserstars.org
John Talbot
Please re-direct further questions to the laserstars webmaster at :
http://laserstars.org