|
Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition
Jing Feng, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT—We demonstrate a previously unknown gender difference in the distribution of spatial attention, a basic capacity that supports higher-level spatial cognition. More remarkably, we found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate this gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity
in mental rotation ability, a higher-level process in spatial cognition. After only 10 hr of training with an action video game, subjects realized substantial gains in both spatial attention and mental rotation, with women benefiting more than men. Control subjects who played a nonaction game showed no improvement. Given that superior spatial skills are important in the mathematical and engineering sciences, these findings have practical implications for attracting men and women to these fields.
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~spence/Feng, Spence, & Pratt (in press).pdf
|
This is pretty interesting. It's already been established that each gender has measurably different cognitive activity, so I'm curious how this will be applied to realistic scenarios in the future. Hopefully the results of this study will be shown to be reliable and valid through future replications of this study.
I like the design type; it's good that they're using a between-subjects research design so that other extenuating circumstances (the subjects' focus of study, their history playing games, etc.) are taken into account.
Thanks for sharing.
|
yes mnm, we know you are a genius.
|
I'm kind of hungover now, so this means that guys and girls gain opposite gender qualities while gaming? I'm confused.
|
Charlie, men and women have measurable cognitive differences, which means that men and women perceive and understand information in different ways. This study's result show that specific types of cognitive stimulation can actually make them better at cognition, with each gender having separate gains (it says that females benefited more than males).
|
|
|
|