Play Young, Practice Later

Writing research papers is something we can all say we have done at some point in our educational upbringing. I know that I have written a fair share in my career so far. To me, finding research references is the hardest feat to accomplish. Video games have always interested me so when I came across an article online it just nailed down the topic. I also really enjoyed the idea of shedding a positive light on video games rather than the nagative view the media shows.

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The article "Video Gaming Enchances Psychomotor Skills but NOt Viduospatial and Perceptual Abilities in Surgical trainees" was published in the Journal of Surgical Education in 2011 by notable doctors. The fact that medical professionals are publishing a study in a medical journal gives a lot of credibility to the words and I would have to labe it as a 'scholarly' source.

Psychomotor performance can be defined as: the degree of skill demonstrated by an operator in the completion of a task. This particular article describes a study done that measured surgeons for their psychomotor skill, visuospatial and perceptual abilities in surgical tests. The undergrad medical students that were considered to play video games, played seven hours or more a week. The groups compared were those that played and those that did not. Overall the article describes that the group that played video games had better psychomotor performance.

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Although it didn’t enhance visuospatial and perceptual abilities, it still proves that video games are good for improving performance in one way. What is your opinion on video games in general? Do you agree with the media’s perception that they merely cause kids to be violent, or do you think that they can be used for good?