As if the evidence that playing video games has helped our military fight wars weren't enough good news for the video game industry and ammo against its critics, a new study shows that video games also help surgeons hone their hand-eye coordination in ways that make them more efficient:
Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a study said on Monday.
There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon's capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.
If you doubt any of these studies, just play a game like Gears of War where strong hand-eye coordination and thought are requried to get anywhere in the game. A lot of games out there today are much more demanding in these areas than anything most of the anti-video game crusaders are used to, like the games from the 16-bit era of gaming. So take that, Jack Thompson, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton.
The falacy in this argument is: the more likely you are a master at video gaming, the less likely you will become a surgeon skilled at using a laporascope.
TIme spend gaming = time away from other pursuits. Medical students already give up sleep to learn their basic skill sets. If they have a lot of time for games, they are probably not the kind of doctor you want cutting you open.
The flaw in your counterargument is that they were not testing medical students. Your argument is a given because that's when they're starting to learn their trade, but once they've established it, that is a different story. They have at least forty hours a week to practice their skills in a real setting, which reinforces their education. I can see how playing video games on the side would help them if that were their choice of entertainment.
The counter-counter argument is that students who spend too much time playing games (enough to demonstrate that they are more superior at it than your average 12-year old) don't even get into medical school.
They hang sheet rock instead.
games aren't something mature adults pick up for the first time. Those who do, don't try to justify it (much) with tall tales about how much it will help them in their careers.
Now that I think about it, I have heard this argument before.
At the advent of the desktop PC in government offices, the biggest time waster (pre-internet) was by far Solitare (windows). GOvt employees justified their hundreds of hours of gameplay on company time as "helping develope computer skills that they needed in their job", i.e. using a mouse.
I think the surgery bit is an interestig example. With the increasing use of surgical robots, which are essentially controlled in a similar manner as video games, it is conceivable that doctors might someday be able to get "EA Sports Brain Surgery 2012" for the Playstation or Xbox and actually practice their trade at home. For fun.
Brain Surgery: it's in the game.
You mean like the Cerebral Bore? Heh. I'm not sure I want them getting any ideas for work ;)
Good point about the robots, though. Intuitive Surgical is making a killing off of that market right now.
I know. I bought ISRG at about $25 and sold in the low '90's. Not quite a home run, but I'll take a triple any day. ;)