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Violent video games are learning tool |
NEW YORK: You're at the front lines
shooting Nazis before they shoot you. Or you're a futuristic gladiator in a
death match with robots. Either way, you're playing a videogame — and you
may be improving your vision and other brain functions, according to research
presented at a New York University conference on games as a learning
tool.
"People that play these fast-paced games have better vision,
better attention and better cognition," said Daphne Bavelier of the University
of Rochester. Bavelier was a presenter at Games for Learning, a daylong
symposium on the educational uses of videogames and computer
games.
The event, the first of its kind, was an indication that
electronic games are gaining legitimacy in the classroom.
Sigmund Tobias of
the State University of New York at Albany said an Israeli air force study found
that students who played the game "Space Fortress" had better rankings in their
pilot training than students who did not. He added that students who played
"pro-social" games that promote cooperation were more likely than others to help
out in real-life situations like intervening when someone is being harassed.
Bavelier's research has focused on so-called first-person shooter
games like 'Unreal Tournament' and 'Medal of Honor'.
Bavelier said
playing the kill-or-be-killed games can improve peripheral vision and the
ability to see objects at dusk, and the games can even be used to treat
amblyopia, or lazy eye, a disorder characterized by indistinct vision in one
eye. She said she believes the games can improve math performance and other
brain tasks.
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