Essay Example on Do video games lead to violence?

A Meta analytic Review Violence in video games isn't anything new as it has been a controversial topic for the past 2 decades or so where laws back then where much stricter These days with more lenient laws in place it seems that the demand for violent video games are at an all time high where the number of gamers have skyrocketed especially amongst the young adults With this in mind there are concerns that such games may increase the acts of aggression in players But it is often that we ignore the positive effects it may have on an individual especially relating visuospatial cognition The article examines multiple studies that have been conducted on both aggressive behavior as well as visuospatial cognition so as to better understand the full scope of such games may have on us while removing and correcting any publication biases that were observed which were proven to be quite problematic Once corrected the article concluded there was not enough evidence to support the hypothesis that playing violent video games is directly linked to aggressive behavior Interestingly the article further tells the reader to note that playing violent video games often resulted in higher visuospatial cognition In addition the author recommended to reframe the whole violent games debate by also looking at the potential benefits of such medium Ferguson 2007 https link springer com article 10 1007 s11126 007 9056 9 citeas Digital Game Based Learning 

However there was a noticeable difference on the test scores when they took a look at the student's age Interestingly students aged 40 years or younger seemed to have gained the most since their score were a lot greater than those who were older http rickblunt com wordpress wp content uploads 2013 04 blunt_game_studies pdf Can video games help in treating learning disabilities Another aspect where certain video games can potentially be useful is when treating children with dyslexia i e those who have a difficulty in reading which affects 10 of children In a study published by the Journal of Vision 2014 they demonstrate that by playing 20 hours of action video games can hugely improve early visual and auditory predictors of future reading abilities in pre reading children who are at risk of dyslexia where they test quick naming letter recognition auditory phonological skills and visuo attentional abilities Pre Readers were divide into groups of three who were at cognitive risk of developing dyslexia and were tested before and after they played action non action video games and or no treatment for 60 minutes for the next 20 days 

 The study compared the IGDS values of game addicts with those of non addicts in terms of their mental physical social emotional health using self report and survey methods Results indicated males are more prone to becoming addicts while female addicts tended to have more somatic problems and sleeping issues Addicts generally had poorer mental health exhibit ADHD symptoms and also have emotional difficulties including but not limited to depression anxiety and isolation Moreover they had a much lower impulse control and therefore were much more likely to view pornographic material on the internet They concluded that those who met the IGDS criteria displayed poorer emotional physical mental as well as social health adding to the growing evidence that video game addiction is a cause for concern although note that this study used self reported values and the sample used were undergraduate students https www sciencedirect com science article