It’s well known that the shooters at Columbine were avid players of the computer video game Doom. That the first-person shooter game enhanced their feelings of aggression has been proposed as one of the reasons for the attack by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold upon their fellow students.

German psychologists have completed some research that leads them to believe that virtual racing games may also increase aggression and risk-taking in real-life driving situations.

Researchers at Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Allianz Center for Technology found that of 198 men and women, those who play more virtual car-racing games were more likely to report that they drive aggressively and get in accidents. Less frequent virtual racing was associated with more cautious driving.

When 83 men were assigned to play either virtual racing games or neutral games, those that played the racing games reported a higher accessibility to thoughts about risk-taking. The researchers state that this could lead to high-risk behavior on the road.

Because children also play these games, the concern is that they will be conditioned to higher rates of risk-taking when it is their turn to get behind the wheel.

American Psychological Association

Research has shown that playing video games sharpens vision. New studies done in Tel Aviv now indicate that playing specific types of computer games can sharpen your mind.

MindFit computer software was specifically designed to take advantage of the plasticity of the brain and using cognitive training, improve mental abilities such as short-term memory, auditory short term memory, location memory, spatial orientation, planning, speed of reaction and hand-eye coordination.

The studies conducted at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center of Tel- Aviv University in Israel, involved two groups of subjects age 50 and older who were assigned to spend 30 minutes, three times a week, playing either the MindFit software or sophisticated computer games.

All the participants benefited from playing the computer games but those using the MindFit software made greater gains in cognitive performance.

The research proves that seniors and boomers can significantly boost cognitive ability and preserve mental function through the use of cognitive training. Because those with lower baseline cognitive performance made greater gains than those with normal cognition, it could also prove to be a defense against age-related decline.