Using Video Games to Improve Capabilities in Decision Making and Cognitive Skill: A Literature Review

Abstract

Abstract Video games provide a means to improve a human’s cognitive skills. There are several genres of games that affect different cognitive subcategory. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether video games could really improve cognitive skills and decision-making; and which video games genre affect which cognitive skills. The authors assess previous experiments related to video games and cognitive skills. The paper reviewed 27 experimental and literature review studies. The results of the review proved that video games do improve cognitive skills and decision-making. Cognitive skills such as perception, attentional control, and decision-making improves when subjects were trained with video games. In relation to video games genre, Real-time strategy (RTS) players outperforms First-person shooter (FPS) players on cognitive flexibility while FPS players tend to have lower switching cost in work. People with profession such as nurses and doctors showed improved decision-making and risk assessment when trained with serious simulation games. High school and undergraduate students who played video games exhibit better result when given tasks related to cognitive abilities compared to students who do not played video games. We encourage further studies to conduct a much bigger experiment to correlate with our findings.