Spacial Ability, Gender, Video Games
Ian Spence tested people’s ability to spot unusual objects that appear in their field of vision. Success at spatial tasks like this often differs between the sexes (men are better at remembering and locating general landmarks; women are better at remembering and locating food). The test asked people to identify an “odd man out” object in a briefly displayed field of 24 otherwise identical objects. Men had a 68% success rate. Women had a 55% success rate.
Spence then asked some of the volunteers to spend 10 hours playing an action-packed, shoot-’em-up video game, called “Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault.” Other volunteers were asked to play a decidedly non-action-packed puzzle game, called “Ballance,” for a similar time. Both sets then re-took the odd-man-out test.
Among the Ballancers, there was no change in ability. Among those who had played “Medal of Honour,” both sexes improved their performances.
The women’s improvement was greater than the men’s — so much so that there was no longer a significant difference between the two. When the volunteers were tested again after 5 months, the improvement remained.
Apparently, playing violent computer games can have beneficial effects. They might provide a way of rapidly improving spatial ability in people.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Fascinating! And, spatial ability is core to IQ testing. A Flynn Effect main explanation confirmation here.
You have a terrific blog that I’m definitely going to keep reading. (I’m very surprised there are so few comments around here.)
I found you through googling “IQ correlations,” and found exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!