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Violent Video Games Can Improve Vision

Posted by kdawson on from the look-sharp dept.

Ponca City, We love you writes "According to a new study, people who played fighting games on their PCs became up to a 58 percent better at perceiving fine contrast differences, an important aspect of eyesight. The breakthrough is significant because it was previously thought that the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background could not be improved. Contrast sensitivity is the primary limiting factor in how well one sees. Volunteers in the study played intensively for 50 hours over nine weeks with either Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2, and the results were compared with another group who played The Sims 2, which is richly visual but does not require as much hand-eye coordination. The improvements lasted for months after game play stopped. The new finding suggests action video games could be used as training devices as a useful complement to eye-correction techniques, since gaming may teach the brain's visual cortex to make better use of the information it receives."

11 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Have to see by ShooterNeo · · Score: 5, Funny

    You've got to be able to see well to pwn enemies with headshots and get first post!

    1. Re:Have to see by Vectronic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed, but so would any game thats fast paced, requires acute visual discrepancies, and something is at risk, or is rewarded for the ability.

      But, in classic KDawson style... "Violent" games... may as well say "Stabbing people to death improves hand-eye coordination", when the articles starts with "Video games with lots of action, such as the shoot-'em-up variety, can improve your vision, a new study finds.

    2. Re:Have to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "

      You dropped this. I though you would want it back.

    3. Re:Have to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      t

      Hey dude, you dropped this while helping that other guy. I thought you might still want it.

    4. Re:Have to see by guyminuslife · · Score: 5, Funny

      You wouldn't happen to have seen my car keys by any chance, would you?

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
  2. Acecoolco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, so playing violent video games makes you a serial killer, and improves your eyesight thus making you superhuman?

    Just wait until they add laser beams on top of gamers heads!!!

    We are effing doomed!

  3. Violent? by Jangchub · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course I only read the summary, but why use the word violent? It sounds like this has nothing to do with violence but fast paced complex spatial reaction.

    1. Re:Violent? by j01123 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Of course I only read the summary, but why use the word violent? It sounds like this has nothing to do with violence but fast paced complex spatial reaction.

      Because /. has an ax to grind with people who make dubious claims about the harm caused by violence in video games. What better way to combat them than to implicitly make dubious claims about the benefits of violence in video games? (Though, to be fair, TFA is actually titled "Playing violent computer games 'can improve vision'".)

  4. In a related study... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...some interesting results were generated when the group that had been playing "Unreal Tournament 2004" and "Call of Duty 2" then started playing "The Sims 2". Remarked one researcher, "the carnage was truely remarkable".

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  5. Re:Net Benefit? by SwabTheDeck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have a serious problem with eye strain, even when using nice monitors. I'm not alone. Because of this, I have a hard time believing that there is a net benefit in terms of overall eye health. Doing visual-based puzzles or learning how to paint are probably far healthier ways to increase perception of fine contrast differences.

    The reason why FPS games help your contrast perception is rather simple. If you want to stay alive, you have to be able to see the guy moving around that is 3 shades of gray lighter than the dark corner he's hiding in. Because of the required reaction time to be successful (aka shooting him before he shoots you) the game trains you to closely watch for these contrast differences.

    In a visual-based puzzle game like Bejeweled (or any of the zillion color-matching games out there) all the game pieces are already high contrast. You see a field of 5 or 6 different colored pieces, not thousands or millions of colors, like most modern FPS games provide. Hence, the game doesn't train you to look for the small contrast differences. Painting may provide some benefit, but painting is a much slower process than fragging some n00b who's coming around the corner with a rocket launcher. You have as much time as you want to figure out if one color is different than the other. Taking an extra few miliseconds deciding on your next brush stroke for your still life painting isn't going to result in a grenade being lodged in your sphincter.

  6. It helped me by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can see all the Grues now.

    --
    Task Mangler