Video games and soaps - a dumbing down
or a neuro-learning revolution?

Just how much cognitive work do you have to do to make sense of popular culture. Our world is getting more complex. Just think of the technology available today in the average family home. These technological advances are all cultural forms that require problem solving, detecting long term patterns and keeping track of complicated networks. Even television story telling has revolutionised into multiple interleaved narratives often flowing through many scenes simultaneously - think of Hill Street Blues. Games and interactive media such as the Sims - which is the most popular game of all, involves considerable mental challenge to get to the end (the cheat-sheet is 53,000 words long!)

In contrast reading a novel is the decision making of another mind. Take Pride and Prejudice by Jane Eyre. It can be a valuable intellectual exercise, offer great psychological depth, great understanding of cause and effect, narrative trajectories and richness of language you might not otherwise hear. However, it does not require quick and accurate evaluation and decision making, you don't have to soak up information on the fly, figure out a best strategy and tactically try and reach a goal by the best means. There are no rules to the game you must decipher, learn and abide by, or a world view you need to grasp, understand it's workings, internalise, and critique in order to interact with it.

Then there are interfaces. Proliferating networks (www) have patterns and procedures as much they have information. These must be mastered, manipulated and understood to give us economic competitiveness without reading the manual! Combine this with games and interactive consoles and eye hand co-ordination, fine motor skills and manual dexterity speed up. You have enhancement of pattern recognition, problem solving, visual intelligence, and many forms of thinking that sharpen the mind.

Whilst it is limited in its social interactiveness and emotional intelligence, there is plenty of discussion provoked by these explorations. The nature of these games 'keeps the brain on the edge…not too difficult, not too easy'. This then becomes rewarding. In brain terms your dopamine reward system moderates motivation - not quite rewarded enough you will seek more, this drives your desire to explore your environment further. Pushing the boundaries is about risk taking, creativity and reward….. fundamentals to learning!

Perhaps the real attraction to games is the wonderful complex mix of exploration and reward they offer.