The effects of video game playing on academic task performance and brain wave activity

The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether playing video games affected children’s ability to perform certain cognitive functions. Thirty middle school students 10 to 14 years old who played video games in their leisure time participated in this controlled study. Restricted measures of math performance, memory, attention and planning, reading rate and comprehension, as well as beta and theta activity in the brain were collected as pre- and post-test measures. Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Participants in the experimental group played video games for one hour, while participants in the control group played card or board games for one hour. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) procedures were used to analyze pre- and post-test mean differences between groups for all variables. No significant differences were noted. When this sample of middle school aged children engaged in video game play with mildly rated (E for Everyone) recreational video games without blood, gore, and carnage for a limited time (60 minutes), brain wave activity and ability to perform certain academic tasks did not appear to be disrupted. Practical applications of the study are discussed.