This research shows that video games can make you smarter, but not all of them. The ones that do may surprise you!
Many off-the-shelf games were not shown to improve smarts, with brain training games often touted as cognitive enhancement tools coming up particularly short.
What did work? Action games, including first-person shooters, led the pack! They were especially effective if they included focus on a well-specified target skill, provided repeated practice, gave immediate feedback, maintained increasing levels of challenge, had varying contexts for exercising the skill, and, most importantly, were fun.
Video games missing the engagement factor and sense of play just did not provide nearly the same results. So I guess it’s extra Pistol Whip for me tonight!
Source: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/video-game-intelligence
