Positive Effects of Video Gaming on Human Behavior

The enormous rise in the popularity of video games can be accounted for, at least in part, by their engaging and enjoyable nature. Interestingly, from the perspective of psychological science, the same basic mechanics that give rise to these motivating and pleasure-provoking attributes also make games powerful environments for inducing behavioral change. Indeed, it is easy to identify mechanics in video games that are known to facilitate learning (e.g. feedback, reinforcement, adaptive difficulty). It is therefore unsurprising that video game play has been linked with differences in a host of core psychological processes. Research has included several types of converging methods. This includes correlational methodology, where individuals who play certain types of video games are contrasted against individuals who do not play those types of games; longitudinal methodology, in which players are followed over an extended period of time; and true experiments, in which individuals are randomly assigned to be trained on certain video games. Reported game-related improvements range from heightened visual perception to increased pro-social behaviors to enhanced ability to perform surgery. Although these effects are wide-ranging, it must be emphasized that not all games are equal with respect to the psychological changes they induce. Instead the observed changes are clearly linked to the dynamics, mechanics, and content inherent in individual games. Future work treating video games as rich learning environments will improve our understanding of the interplay between humans and designed dynamic environments.