Video Games & Motor Skills

Written by Crystal Ruizmun

While we know that the rise in video games has dramatically increased in the past 5 years, do we know the true benefits of that? In the past, there have been rapid debates on if video games make more violent youth and how children shouldn’t be allowed to play certain video games. It has been proven that video games do not induce violent tendencies or increase outbursts of rage, but it has been shown to increase motor skills and refine cognition.

One study was conducted to analyze the effects of active video games (AVGs) on motor skills development and physical fitness in healthy children. A few of the findings were how AVGs are effective for improving certain physical fitness components, like balance, in healthy children as well as the effects on children's object control and locomotor skill development. It was found that the studies were inconsistent and required further investigation. This study provided results that required an improved session quality to better study the growth of the subjects which also included better research designs with additional assessments[1].

While this study didn’t prove or disprove the theory of video games refining motor controls, additional studies by different researchers were made to do so. Another study analyzed the relationship between regular video game participation and motor skills. They found that there were positive effects when the subjects regularly played video games. They studied over 100 adolescents and found that it has positive effects on attention, memory, motor control, and executive function. Because of this study, it was stated that instead of discouraging video game participation, but to support the use of productivity. This study has essentially found that there were more positive effects on the regular use of video games in relation to the well-being of the youth[3].

Because of these studies, it was found that there were slightly opposing findings but ultimately studied the same thing. They found that even through slight participation in video games, there would be a “refinement” of motor skills and function. We can therefore assume that video games have more positive effects on cognition than not participating in video games, disproving that video games are more harmful than not.

References

Liu, W., Zeng, N., McDonough, D. J., & Gao, Z. (2020). Effect of Active Video Games on Healthy Children's Fundamental Motor Skills and Physical Fitness: A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(21), 8264. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218264

Gianferrara, P. G., Betts, S., & Anderson, J. R. (2021). Cognitive & motor skill transfer across speeds: A video game study. PloS one, 16(10), e0258242. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258242

Ahn, H., & Won, J. (2023). The Effects of Adolescents' Participation in Video Games on Cognitive Function and Motor Control Skills. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 11(20), 2740. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11202740

Written by Crystal Ruizmun from MEDILOQUY