Critical Review of the Article “Genre may impact cognitive training using video games”
A study conducted by Ray, O’Connell, Nashiro, Smith, Qin, and Basak (2017)
investigates learning on action and strategy video games to evaluate if they were functionally
different (IOS Press, 2017). The research discovered that processing speed and white matter
connectivity in a memory-associated brain region were related to strategy game learning, while
action game learning was connected to an area of the brain associated with mood. This online
article on ScienceDaily (October 3, 2017) claimed that learning to play both action and strategy
games would produce improved results on tasks associated with working memory. In addition,
it also claimed that better performance on processing speed would be observed with strategy
game learning.
It is assumed in this article that effects from learning a video game are long-term effects
that would last, and game learning could be use as a cognitive tool to improve performance
and memory in the long run. Another assumption is that the improvement made on trained
games could be transferred to improve cognition in untrained tasks, and thus it would lead to
better performance on other tasks that deal with working memory.
One strength of the claims made in this article is that age is a control variable, and the
sample used by the researchers covered the adult lifespan, involving both younger and older
adults (Ray, et al., 2017). The younger adult group has a mean age of 25.84, while the older
adult group has a mean age of 65.84. Participants were also surveyed on their gaming
tendencies during the past year, as the researchers exclusively recruited participants with little
to no gaming experience, since game learning is being evaluated in the study. Older adults
recruited in this study stated less than an hour of gaming per week, and reported that they never
play action and strategy games. The younger adult participants specified an average of one to
three hours of video games per week, and stated that they play action and strategy games with
seldom frequency (Ray, et al., 2017). This research also controlled other variables such that all
subjects were right-handed, very competent in the English language, successful in colour
perception test, had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and were of normal cognitive
functioning (Ray, et al., 2017). The participants went through MRI scan and were subsequently
told to play two different types of casual online games; Tank Attack 3D, which is an action
game, and Sushi-Go-Round, a strategy game. Researchers assessed complex skill learning in
both video games for 1.5 hours in each of the game.
On the other hand, this research is a correlational study. One big drawback of
correlational studies is that even though it could suggest a connection between variables, in
this case, the brain, game learning, and improved cognitive function, it could not prove that
changes in a variable would cause adjustments in another variable, and thus correlational study
