Broadcast Flag Supporters Begin Operation Obfuscation

Video Gamers Still Have Better Visual Scanning Abilities

from the ok,-ok,-we-get-it... dept

Tue, Jul 5th 2005 2:43am — Mike Masnick

We've had plenty of stories pointing out ways that video games can be beneficial in some way or another, including improved visual skills. So, it should come as no surprise that yet another study is pointing out the exact same thing, saying that video game players are better at scanning the world around them quickly. That makes sense, given the fact that video games often train people to scan the environment around them as quickly as possible. The researcher in charge of this project even points out that the improved scanning speed could help someone avoid a car accident -- but that it takes an awful lot of gaming to improve visual scanning speed by any useful amount. Of course, as if going out of his way to avoid giving any more fodder for Steven Johnson's treatise, the researcher makes it clear that this shouldn't be seen as meaning that video games are somehow "good" for you, but just that it can, in certain situations, speed up your ability to scan the environment.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

5 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

dorpus, 5 Jul 2005 @ 7:23am

Hell Yeah
I was playing "Elite Forces: Vietnam" all night long, spending hours crawling around the jungle on a photo-realistic high-end graphics card, so the next day when I drove into a parking lot, a baby jumped out, I stopped. Most people would have let their guard down then, but because I'd been in the jungle all night before, I was mentally prepared for the idea that the danger wasn't over -- sure enough, the mother jumped out too, and the baby made a U-turn in front of me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Permanent4, 5 Jul 2005 @ 9:59am

Two words...
Johan Santana. ;^)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Greg W, 5 Jul 2005 @ 7:52pm

I dont know about driving
I find after 10+ years of computer use since 14 that I am very good at quickly scanning an environment and finding what I am looking for. I often find it frustrating watching other people use their computer because they take 10+ seconds for them to find something, where as it is almost instantaneous for myself.

Though, for me, that doesn't really translate to driving.

I guess the difference I would say is that on the computer I am actively looking for soemthing. Some thing specific. Where as on the road it is more passive unless it is a dangerous situation like driving past a school or around lots of people.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 2 May 2007 @ 9:45am

cool
[ link to this | view in thread ]
4353er, 23 May 2009 @ 12:48am

er3
China printing industry developed this years, who can tell us? China based plastic injection molding services with low costs and supeior quality Steel and aluminum scaffolding for construction is a very useful tool.
[ link to this | view in thread ]