The influence of video games on executive functions in college students. by Buelow, Okdie, & Cooper (2015)

The present study investigated the effects of video game play on executive functions in both male and female undergraduate students. The authors refer to executive functions as "higher-order cognitive abilities tied to the frontal lobes of the brain, and encompass such abilities as planning, organization, set shifting, problem solving, working memory, and decision making" (p. 228).

Participants were placed in two groups: 137 in the control group and 91 in the video game group. "Participants in the video game group first completed a series of questionnaires assessing various personality and other characteristics, then were randomly assigned to play one of five video games (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Dead Island, LittleBigPlanet, NBA2K12, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit) as part of a larger study of psychophysiological responses to video games" (p. 230).

"Scores on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), and Wisconsin
Card Sorting Task (WCST) were then compared. Following active video game play, participants
decided more advantageously on the IGT, and made fewer errors and completed more categories on
the WCST. No group differences emerged on the BART, and gender did not impact any dependent variables. It appears that active video game play may have positive effects on some executive functions with implications for real-world behavior" (p. 228).

The thing that I like in the study is that it is a recent real experiment, in that participants in the video game group engaged in playing these games. I recommend those who are interested in video games to read this study.

Reference

Buelow, M. T., Okdie, B. M., & Cooper, A. B. (2015). The influence of video games on executive functions in college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 228-234.