Video Game Play Any Association with Preteens' Cognitive Ability Test Performance?

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the video gaming experience of 160 urban public-school preteen-age students as well as theassociation between video game play and students performance on a standardized cognitive ability test (CogAT), which includes verbal,quantitative, and nonverbal/spatial batteries. Overall, neither duration of play nor video game genres played had significant correlations withthe CogAT measures. Similarly, when using an extreme-groups approach to examine relations with playing a subset of games previouslylinked with certain enhancements in cognitive skill (i.e., action video games), no significant effects were observed. These results are thusinconsistent with theories that predict diminished cognitive performance in children who play a great deal of video games, but they are alsoinconsistent with previous work suggesting possible enhancements in those who play certain types of games. The potential contribution of thisnull finding and an alternative explanation are discussed.