Video Games with Shooting May Improve Eyesight

anthemaniac writes "Playing video games that involve firing guns (Gears of War, Halo, take your pick) can improve eyesight, according to a new study. From the article: 'People who started out as non-gamers and then received 30 hours of training on first-person action video games showed a substantial increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, compared to non-gamers given the same test.' The games push the brain to the limit, the thinking goes, and it adapts by developing better spatial resolution. The effect was not duplicated in more sedate games like Tetris."

Comments

Jeez

[Aladrin]

I've already read this before, and the same comments apply: Eyesight != visual ability

Sure, they can pick things out better... But they can't actually SEE better. It's not like they needed glasses before and now they don't. This is merely human pattern-recognition training.

As a competitive Counter-Strike player

[oskard]

I often notice many increased sensory abilities that others (family and friends) are just incapable of handling. For example, peripheral vision while driving. Reaction time in sports (frisbees, baseballs, tennis balls, etc). Sound and location of objects based on sound. Lastly is problem solving. Believe it or not, the tactical requirements and logical deductions in a high level of competition can be related to many different puzzles (just like in chess).

Tetris? Sedate?

[MeanderingMind]

These people are obviously not the masters of our russian past-time.

Tetris benefits

[HTH NE1]

Improvements from playing Tetris include the ability to jockey for the best position at the next red light.