Surgeons with Video Game Skillz

12 Surgeons, 21 surgical residents.

--Where video gaming is a direct correlation with how well these people preform surgical operations.

A doctor of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and colleagues asked 33 surgeons about their video game playing habits, then assessed their performance at the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program, a one-and-a-half day course that scores surgeons on time and errors during simulated surgery drills. During the study, conducted from May through June, 2009, the surgeons also played three video games for 25 minutes while the researchers assessed their gaming skills.

Of the surgeons who participated in the study, 15 reported never playing video games, nine reported playing zero to three hours per week, and nine reported playing more than three hours per week at the height of their video game playing. "Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, were 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better overall than surgeons who never played video games. Current video game players made 32 percent fewer errors, were 24 percent faster and scored 26 percent better overall than their non-player colleagues," the authors write. Those in the top one-third of video gaming skill made 47 percent fewer errors, performed 39 percent faster and scored 41 percent better on the overall Top Gun score than those in the bottom one-third.

Though I am not sure of the validity of this experiment, it makes for one to think twice about how video games affect ones behaviors and actions.

Another recent article was done to determine if video gaming is producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis in addition to whether gamers visual skills have improved.

According to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.

This is HARDLY believable. Observing the zombie apocalypse which has come to pass in Left for Dead, to me, creates the exact opposite image. From the little information I know about the game, the vast majority of the population have turned into mindless, ravenous undead hordes. A handful of humans remain immune to the zombie virus, and the players play as a small group of them. Up to four players are allowed in the game and must battle their way to a series of safe houses that ultimately lead to a rescue point. While reaching the end the players are faced with certain obstacles in addition to blowing the heads(or whatever parts) off of zombies, boomers and tanks(ugly) and other additional bad things that run at you(and quite frankly scare the hell out of me). The players lose health and ammo and are forced to protect themselves by scrounging new materials in various areas in the game. Point being, this game is far from the idea that video games decrease critical thinking as well as the imagination. Strategy is required for all players to remain safe and reach their desired areas. Granted, the game has been created by beautiful graphics as opposed to books where reading is necessary to engage one's imagination, I believe enough imagination goes into someone who basically encapsulates the character on the screen to the point that anger is exposed and the desire to make it to the end of the game is almost completely embodied.

Whether the skills and imagination is used in the medical field or simply on-screen, it is okay for one to assume that video gaming is not weakening on the creative mind. Understood, my argument is weak and has barely any supporting evidence...I will try to find more articles. I like the research done for this topic.

Jenn