It is a common thing to like videogames at point in your life. There has been a lot of research that proves playing videogames can have a positive effect on the brain. It has been said that it helps the brain with its connections. It can also help with our attention span, and it can even make us not like junk food. A new study now shows that videogames can enhance the way we merge memories.
The Journal of Neuroscience published a study of researchers from the University of California stating that playing 3D video games, like "Super Mario 3D World," has more effect on the memory than playing 2D games like "Angry Birds."
Gregory Clemenson who co-authored the study and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Irvine said in a press release that there are things you can find in 3D games which 2D games don't have. 3D games have a lot of spatial information to explore, and although it is more complicated than other games, we can get and learn a lot of information from it. And we know that this is the kind of learning our hippocampus requires in stimulating our memory.
Clemenson, alongside Craig Stark, a professor of neurobiology and behavior, gathered a group of 39 self-proclaimed gamers and 29 non-gamers to assess the effect of both 3D and 2D video games on their memory. Before they started playing the games, the participants answered a questionnaire where they were asked how often they played video games, what games they usually play, how well they played them, and how competitive they were while they played.
After completing the questionnaires, they were given two memory tests: in the first test, they were asked to determine the number or lines and dots that they saw on the screen, while the second test had them study pictures of everyday objects. After that, the same pictures were shown to them. Some new ones and other pictures that were slightly changed, they were then asked to categorize the pictures.
Each test was aimed at stimulating the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is responsible for complex learning and memory.
After the tests, the participants played one of both kinds of games every day for 30 minutes during a 10 day period. Then, they were given the same list of memory tests again. The researchers did not see any difference between the two groups during the dots and lines tests. However, those who played the 3D games had a 12% increase in memory performance compared to those who played 2D games when they did took the object recognition tests.
