Education

Researchers Cite Merits of Youths’ Video Games

By Judy Foreman — June 01, 1983 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Video games do not exert the negative influence on young people that many adults have assumed, researchers generally agreed last week at a three-day conference at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Speakers at the conference, which was funded in part by a $40,000 grant from the Atari Institute for Educational Action Research, said that many video games are too violent. But they said the games also have many positive effects.

B. David Brooks, an instructor at the University of Southern Califor-nia, said he was amazed at the degree of misunderstanding about video games. Arcades, he said, “do not present a danger to youths.”

Mr. Brooks, who interviewed 973 children between the ages of 10 and 18 in the Los Angeles area, said the children he talked with do not miss classes despite playing video games for an average of eight hours per week.

Mr. Brooks said that 80 percent of the youths he interviewed spent less than $5 on video games per week, and only 6 percent say they or their friends stay out of school to play the games.

The arcades do not appear to con-tribute to drug or alcohol problems among young people, he said.

Added Edna Mitchell, chairman of the department of education at Mills College in Oakland, Calif.: “Video games are not taking over American families.” Ms. Mitchell said a survey of 20 families had found that families tended to spend more time together if they played video games and that discipline was rarely a problem connected with the games.

Spatial Deficiencies

In general, Ms. Mitchell said, boys are more attracted than girls to video games. She said there is evidence that, with practice, girls could “recover” from possible deficiencies in spatial abilities, which are central to video games, by playing frequently.

The games could even have a positive effect on the academic performance of children, speakers said.

A student’s performance on the games appears to be related to his or her performance on standardized tests, said Daniel Anderson, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The children who do well on video games tend to be brighter and more ready for school than those who do poorly, he said.

Forty percent of the families interviewed by Ms. Mitchell said that the games had improved their children’s school performance.

Mr. Anderson said that video games apparently do not have a relationship to the amount of television a child watches.

William Lynch, the director of the brain-injury rehabilitation unit of the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., said that games have modestly improved the motivation and attention spans of his patients.

Video games appear to have a “modest positive effect” on the teaching of hand-eye coordination, Mr. Lynch said.

Atari, the conference sponsor, is the producer of many video games, including “Pac-Man.”

A version of this article appeared in the June 01, 1983 edition of Education Week as Researchers Cite Merits of Youths’ Video Games

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read