What Is The Relationship Between Intelligence And Video Games?

There is no doubt that video games have meant a huge change in the way we use our free time. They are the protagonists in the meetings of friends, in solitary moments, and constitute a market that moves billions of dollars. We’ve all played games at some point, and we usually relate them to fun situations that we don’t want to think about too much. But what if our favorite video game was benefiting our brain?  Is there a relationship between intelligence and video games?

Next, we’ll look at the change we’ve gone through in the way we see the world thanks to video games, and we’ll see how not all of them have the same cognitive effect.

What is gamification?

This term derives from the English game , and refers to the use of games of various types (digital or analogue, new or old) so that, applied to a specific exercise, they influence the development of an activity. It is usually used in didactics to refer to games in the classroom, always with the aim of improving students’ learning and cognitive development.

We can gamify almost any activity. For that, we can use simple, dynamic and analog games. However, it is becoming easier and easier to access content on the Internet in the classroom. In this way, video games are present. They can be an activity or a complement that students do at home. For this reason, many parents express their grievances; games of this type are not yet accepted as a source of knowledge.

The relationship between intelligence and video games

There are several reasons why we consider video games and cognitive development to be linked. In fact, since 2005, the study by Shaffer, Squire, Halverson and Gee has established a relationship between learning and video games. It is not the first time that games and intelligence are related: it is common knowledge that chess (which is even a sport discipline) affects logical thinking very positively.

This is what happens with games like League of Legends or Battlefield 3: both contribute positively to different areas of the brain and, ultimately, support cognitive development. In the first game, just like chess, in order to excel, the player needs to develop a good strategy. For the second game, perfect coordination between eyes and hands is essential, as speed offers a multitude of advantages.

This could be a valid division when it comes to talking about cognitive advantages. Video games require different physical or mental skills that we can have, for example, depending on the type of intelligence we develop. A player with good spatial intelligence will excel in strategy games, while if ours is linguistic-verbal intelligence, no one will beat us in Words With Friends.

Not all video games make us smarter

The next question will probably be, “Does this mean any video game can make me smarter?” The answer is no. We should look for those games that increase our ability to process information and our problem solving skills.

Another important aspect to consider is the minimum recommended age to play a given video game. Failure to respect this age restriction may affect potential benefits. Letting children play violent games can affect their social perception, making them uninterested in the people around them. Despite this, it is true that this does not happen in all cases, since the presence of other variables, such as an aggressive personality, personality disorder or conflicting upbringing, is necessary for disinterest in the real world to develop.

This does not mean that violent games are not suitable for stimulating our intelligence, as several studies confirm this hypothesis. However, it is necessary to understand that this happens in the adult population. It is important that we are in adult cognitive age so that we are perfectly able to discern between reality and fiction.

In short, video games are, in essence, positive and even necessary. That doesn’t mean there isn’t an analog equivalent (any ball sport improves coordination the same way a video game like Battlefield does). However, we cannot ignore the benefits offered by these new sources of knowledge.