Chaotic Action Games To Improve Vision
Researchers in Rochester, New York have discovered something shocking about video games: they might be useful in improving vision. It’s probably not good for your eyes to engage in marathon sessions where you’re staring relatively unblinking for hours, but for people with poor contrast sensitivity some gaming could help their condition, previously thought only treatable with glasses, contacts or surgery.
The researchers discovered that experienced gamers who played a lot of FPS games had a higher degree of contrast sensitivity than those who played other, less intense games. They then took a pool of non-gamer subjects and divided them into two groups. Over the course of eight to ten weeks all the participants played over fifty hours of video games. One group played The Sims 2, while the other played games like Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004. The group playing FPS games demonstrated a higher degree of contrast sensitivity than the Sims players when tested.
One of the biggest critiques of psychological studies is the ‘laboratory effect’ wherein certain results are achieved in the study that might not persist after the study is completed. This is a flaw in much media aggression research; people are more aggressive five to ten minutes after they play a game but after a little longer there are residual effects. The initial test of the subjects contrast sensitivity was conducted two days after they finished their ‘training’. Six months to two years later the subjects were all tested again (having been asked not to play video games in that time) and the improvement of contrast sensitivity was permanent.
In addition to treating amblyopia (lazy eye) researchers hope that this will enable them to create some sort of video game therapy program to keep the vision of the elderly from deteriorating. That’s right folks, soon you’ll have to watch your language on Xbox Live because your grandmother might be playing.