• Question: Can games make you smarter?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Bramwell-Dicks

      Anna Bramwell-Dicks answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Well, that rather depends on what you mean by smarter!

      Some very clever scientists did an experiment and discovered that playing Starcraft increased your “cognitive flexibility” – which basically means your ability to take some knowledge and look at it in different ways – now, does that mean you are smarter? Perhaps.

    • Photo: Elaine Cloutman-Green

      Elaine Cloutman-Green answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      There’s quite a lot of work with older people that shows that if they continue to use their minds by doing things like playing computer games it means they maintain brain function until they much older. So not increasing intelligence but keeping what you ahve for longer.

    • Photo: Zhiming Darren Tan

      Zhiming Darren Tan answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Yes for some games, no for some games. Let me know which game you are considering.

    • Photo: Kevin O'Dell

      Kevin O'Dell answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Anything that makes you keep your brain active is likely to be a good thing, as it’ll mean the 1 billion neurons in your brain make more connections. However, in part this will depend on the type of game, as the more active your brain is, the better it is for your brain. So active (thinking problem-solving) games are good, but passive (no thinking) games are not.

      However, that doesn’t really answer your question, as it probably doesn’t really make you smarter, it’s just a reasonable way of keeping your brain healthy. Which from a smartness point of view is a good thing.

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