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Study: Video Games Improve Hand-Eye Coordination

Aired May 28, 2003 - 15:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday we sent producer Dave Santucci (ph) with a fistful of quarters to an arcade to do a fact- finding mission. The question he posed to those people there who are so good with the joysticks -- is there any thing good that comes out of this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certain games, like, help me with my visual acuity, hand-eye coordination. Just certain ones, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving, actually. I'm better at shooting guns. Accuracy is better. Hand-eye coordination is better. I wanted to join the military. So that might actually help in that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. So there's the anecdotal statements there on that fact-finding mission. We're certain that Dave Santucci did not waste any time playing any games there, except in the name of research.

Now joining us, Joe Von Kanel, senior writer here at CNN, whose son is a most excellent gamer, Charles, 18-years-old. They've been playing a game called "Half Life," which Charles describes as just your basic shoot 'em up type of game.

Now you've had a chance to play this for about an hour or so. And as this borne out your theory, Joe, which is your son...

JOE VON KANEL, CNN SENIOR WRITER & HOPELESS GAMER: Is much better than I am. And that's very true. I'm not sure I've killed him yet. But I've gotten killed a lot and I can almost run in a straight line now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now Charles, let me ask you this: do you think your ability with games here -- and you're good at it -- and he's not even taking his eye off as he's talking to me. Do you think this helps you in other ways, like driving for example? Or whatever?

CHARLES VON KANEL, AVID GAMER: Maybe not driving, but it might help a little with the whole hand-eye coordination and just getting that good.

O'BRIEN: Hand-eye coordination. All right. It just so happens a pair of researchers at the University of Rochester -- by the way, who is winning? Or do we even need to go there?

J. VON KANEL: You don't need to ask that.

O'BRIEN: All right. University of Rochester just out with a study. And they studied a group of University of Rochester students, most of them males. They could only find one female gamer on the campus.

And I'm going to show you this chart. I'm going to try to walk you through this chart. On the left-hand side here, this is an indication of an easy -- an easy task over on the left-hand side, OK? Now on the right-hand side, these are hard tasks.

Notice what happens as the lines go on. The red line is the -- are the people that are good gamers. As the task gets harder, there is a huge split. Their ability goes up compared to the nongamers. Not much of a surprise to you, I suppose.

Now let me show you the kind of tests that they ran on them. If you look at this right here. Blank screen. OK. Look at this. How many squares did you see? That's the kind of thing. These good gamers were able to count those things.

Now here's another thing they were able to do -- was they were able to determine how, when things got harder, the nongamers, versus the gamers, once again, the red line being the gamers, were much more precise and able to pick up visual items quickly, decide what to do with them, aim a gun, whatever the case may be.

What's also most interesting is they took some nongamers, told them to play a game for an hour each day for 10 days and they had tremendous improvement. They say -- they say this is actually a good way to train people to go to war for example. Do you buy that?

J. VON KANEL: Actually, I've heard that before from -- I have another son who is in the military. They say, you know, it's sort of like video games.

O'BRIEN: What do you think, Charles? Do you think there's something to all of this.

C. VON KANEL: I'm not sure about war, but -- you know, because I've never really had that experience, but there might be.

O'BRIEN: All right. The Von Kanels, thank you very much. You're not going to tell us the score. Suffice it to say, young Charles...

J. VON KANEL: I might have gotten him once.

O'BRIEN: All right.

J. VON KANEL: Not killed him, just hit him.

O'BRIEN: All right. Once again, the red line proves to be the case here and our own private study bearing out what folks at the University of Rochester found out. That in fact, there is a kernel of good inside all of this, Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I hope my husband is not watching.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 28, 2003 - 15:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday we sent producer Dave Santucci (ph) with a fistful of quarters to an arcade to do a fact- finding mission. The question he posed to those people there who are so good with the joysticks -- is there any thing good that comes out of this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certain games, like, help me with my visual acuity, hand-eye coordination. Just certain ones, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving, actually. I'm better at shooting guns. Accuracy is better. Hand-eye coordination is better. I wanted to join the military. So that might actually help in that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. So there's the anecdotal statements there on that fact-finding mission. We're certain that Dave Santucci did not waste any time playing any games there, except in the name of research.

Now joining us, Joe Von Kanel, senior writer here at CNN, whose son is a most excellent gamer, Charles, 18-years-old. They've been playing a game called "Half Life," which Charles describes as just your basic shoot 'em up type of game.

Now you've had a chance to play this for about an hour or so. And as this borne out your theory, Joe, which is your son...

JOE VON KANEL, CNN SENIOR WRITER & HOPELESS GAMER: Is much better than I am. And that's very true. I'm not sure I've killed him yet. But I've gotten killed a lot and I can almost run in a straight line now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now Charles, let me ask you this: do you think your ability with games here -- and you're good at it -- and he's not even taking his eye off as he's talking to me. Do you think this helps you in other ways, like driving for example? Or whatever?

CHARLES VON KANEL, AVID GAMER: Maybe not driving, but it might help a little with the whole hand-eye coordination and just getting that good.

O'BRIEN: Hand-eye coordination. All right. It just so happens a pair of researchers at the University of Rochester -- by the way, who is winning? Or do we even need to go there?

J. VON KANEL: You don't need to ask that.

O'BRIEN: All right. University of Rochester just out with a study. And they studied a group of University of Rochester students, most of them males. They could only find one female gamer on the campus.

And I'm going to show you this chart. I'm going to try to walk you through this chart. On the left-hand side here, this is an indication of an easy -- an easy task over on the left-hand side, OK? Now on the right-hand side, these are hard tasks.

Notice what happens as the lines go on. The red line is the -- are the people that are good gamers. As the task gets harder, there is a huge split. Their ability goes up compared to the nongamers. Not much of a surprise to you, I suppose.

Now let me show you the kind of tests that they ran on them. If you look at this right here. Blank screen. OK. Look at this. How many squares did you see? That's the kind of thing. These good gamers were able to count those things.

Now here's another thing they were able to do -- was they were able to determine how, when things got harder, the nongamers, versus the gamers, once again, the red line being the gamers, were much more precise and able to pick up visual items quickly, decide what to do with them, aim a gun, whatever the case may be.

What's also most interesting is they took some nongamers, told them to play a game for an hour each day for 10 days and they had tremendous improvement. They say -- they say this is actually a good way to train people to go to war for example. Do you buy that?

J. VON KANEL: Actually, I've heard that before from -- I have another son who is in the military. They say, you know, it's sort of like video games.

O'BRIEN: What do you think, Charles? Do you think there's something to all of this.

C. VON KANEL: I'm not sure about war, but -- you know, because I've never really had that experience, but there might be.

O'BRIEN: All right. The Von Kanels, thank you very much. You're not going to tell us the score. Suffice it to say, young Charles...

J. VON KANEL: I might have gotten him once.

O'BRIEN: All right.

J. VON KANEL: Not killed him, just hit him.

O'BRIEN: All right. Once again, the red line proves to be the case here and our own private study bearing out what folks at the University of Rochester found out. That in fact, there is a kernel of good inside all of this, Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I hope my husband is not watching.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com