Parents need not worry too much about cognitive impairment in children who enjoy video games, according to a newly published paper. Image source: pixabay

It used to be believed that children who played video games for hours had adverse cognitive consequences. But a new study puts to rest parents' worries for years.

"Our study did not find such an association, regardless of how much time children played and what type of games they chose," said Jie Zhang, associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Houston School of Education. The research has been published in the Journal of Media Psychology.

Researchers examined the video game habits of 160 public school students (70 percent from low-income families) in different urban areas during their preschool years. This is an age group that has been less covered in previous studies. Students who participated in the survey reported playing video games an average of 2.5 hours a day, with the top gamers playing 4.5 hours a day.

The research team analyzed the link between the students' video game play and their performance on a standardized cognitive ability test, known as the CogAT, which assesses verbal, quantitative and nonverbal/spatial skills. The CogAT is more objective and accurate than previous research projects that relied on teacher-reported grades or self-reported learning assessments.

"Overall, neither game duration nor choice of video game type was significantly associated with CogAT measures. The findings suggest that there is no direct link between video game playing and cognitive performance." Professor, Illinois State University College of Teaching, May Jadalla, principal investigator of the study, said.

But the study also revealed another problem. Certain games that are marketed as helping children build healthy cognitive skills have shown no measurable effect.

Shawn Green, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: "The current findings are consistent with previous research showing that the types of play that appear to enhance cognitive function in young adults do not have the same effect on younger children. Influence."

Playing video games distracts children from other, more productive activities, specifically homework, a process psychologists call "displacement," experts have warned. But even in this case, the differences between the participants and their peers on the CogAT cognitive performance test were small.

"The research results show that parents don't have to worry too much about the cognitive impairment of children who like video games. A moderate amount of games should be fine, as long as they pay attention to their compulsive behavior." Zhang Jie said, "When it comes to video games, there is a difference between parents and children. Finding common ground is tricky enough. At least now we understand that finding balance in children’s development is key and there’s no need to worry too much about video games.”

Related paper information: http://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000364

(Original title "Playing video games without damaging children's cognition")