Do Video Games Improve Memory and Cognitive skills?

Written By Rohit Mathur

Video Games today are seen as a standard method of spending your leisure time; in most cases, it is often portrayed by the media as fun, engaging, and not to be taken seriously. However, studies conducted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) have found that playing video games during your childhood can improve your working memory as well as your cognitive skills years later. As shocking as it may sound, video games, after all, are not just a waste of time. 

Keywords associated with this Study

To understand the depth of this study, we need to know a few key words associated with it. To start off with, we have our working memory. Working memory can be defined like a cognitive system that can store information temporarily. The next component of this study includes our cognitive skills. Cognitive skills can be defined as one of the main functions that our brain controls, it includes our problem-solving skills, language skills and even our thinking capabilities. Both working memory and cognitive skills are directly connected, and in fact is what really defines us as human beings. 

Now, The study by UOC involved 27 people, of which all of them were between the ages of 18 - 40, meaning most of them have crossed their period of childhood. An important fact associated with the participants is that it consisted of both those who were avid gamers in their youth and those who were not. As said by Dr. Marc Palaus himself, “People who were avid gamers before adolescence, despite no longer playing, performed better with the working memory tasks, which require mentally holding and manipulating information to get a result.” 

Additionally, the study used video games to determine the answer to the dominant question, Do Video Games Improve Memory and Cognitive skills? To start with, The video game associated with this study was Super Mario 64, a 3D game. 

3D Video Games 

So why the use of a 3D Game?

The extensive use of Super Mario 64, is due to the sole fact that the game is a 3D game. 3D games have always been more complicated due to the abundant exploration space presented by the video game. Unlike 2D games, 3D games have also been proven to provide a greater visual understanding, which therefore ties in with one of the components of the study which is cognitive learning and skills. Additionally, 3D games utilize a vast memory component, for example as in the case of Super Mario 64, we see the rescue of another character via different obstacle courses, a memory component is used to identify and track these obstacle courses. 

The study involving Super Mario 64 consisted of 3 stages; before the video game training, at the end of the training, and fifteen days after the training. In a time span of a month, Super Mario 64, was used to examine working memory and cognitive skills during these 3 stages. An interesting development made was the fact that, the hippocampus, which is the structure of the brain responsible for our memory as well as the occipito parietal regions, which is the part of the brain that has our visual cortex; both of these regions and structures in fact increased in size with the introduction of the video game. This increase in size is what tells us the increase of memory and cognitive skills gamers obtain. 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. 

The study also further tested transcranial magnetic stimulation, But first let's understand how exactly this stimulation works. During the process of this stimulation, magnetic impulses are used to change neural activity by being applied to the surface of the skull. It also has to be recorded that this stimulation is non-invasive and only briefly changes brain activity. Researchers used the combination of this stimulation and video games like Super Mario 64 to find out whether working memory and cognitive skills improved with these factors. However, researchers failed to get the results they wanted with the additional combination of the stimulation, given the very complex and unpredictable nature of this specific stimulation. 

From all the studies and research findings, we can deduce that the sole introduction of Super Mario 64 had a greater impact on our cognitive skills and working memory rather than the combination of TMS and the video game.

All in all, this exciting but extraordinary study by Dr. Marc. Palaus from UOC, we see a drastic improvement in both cognitive and memory skills with the introduction of video games in the childhood and lives of many. However anything in excess can be addictive and therefore using one’s own judgement is important in making your own conclusions.

Rohit Mathur
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