New study claims StarCraft improves players' cognitive flexibility

Science is continuing to prove that games aren’t necessarily a waste of time. A new study has claimed that playing real-time strategy games such as StarCraft can improve higher-level competencies such as improved cognitive flexibility, which essentially means that players might be able to think faster.

The study was carried out by researchers at Queen Mary University and University College London. It was carried out using groups of non-gaming students who were tasked with playing either StarCraft or The Sims intensely over a period of two months. Along with this, they had to take a series of non-gaming tests.

How does anyone figure out what’s happening here without having a high capability for cognitive flexibility?!

As a result of this, subjects who played StarCraft turned out to be better performers when it comes to cognitive flexibility tasks than those who played The Sims. This can be chalked up to the fact that StarCraft is a much more intense game and requires fast-paced thinking and constant multitasking.

“Previous research has demonstrated that action video games, such as Halo, can speed up decision making,’” said researcher Dr. Brian Glass. “The current work finds that real-time strategy games can promote our ability to think on the fly and learn from past mistakes."

Until further studies are done on the same subjects, it is still best to take all of it with a grain of salt.

There have been a wide number of tests surrounding the idea that playing video games might help improve human beings’ brain functions. An earlier study stated that those who played fast-paced action games such as Call of Duty had better decision-making capabilities. An even earlier one stated that games in general help improve problem assessment and solving capabilities.