As a gamer, I know that all competitive gamers have great hand-eye coordination. But, I was confused about how does gaming helps hand-eye coordination? Is it something that we gamers inherit or develop over a period of time? So, to find out the answer and understand it well I have decided to do research for you and try to explain it all here in this article.
So, how does gaming helps hand-eye coordination? Gaming helps hand-eye coordination because the study shows that playing stealth games helps to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly which is the coordinated function of vision and hand movement. The study also shows that people who play first-person shooter games could make decisions 25% faster.
Isn’t it amazing? When we find out that we as gamers learn and develop skills that are used in surgical training programs. But what is this sensorimotor skill? or laparoscopic surgical skills? I will explain in detail these terms in the article below.
So, how does gaming helps hand-eye coordination?
There are many studies that show that video gaming helps to improve hand-eye coordination. These studies found that people who play video games develop a high level of hand-eye coordination than people who don’t play video games. Let’s find out what these studies have found out and what are the results.
Gaming and hand-eye coordination studies:
University of Toronto video game study conducted says “People who play action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed seem to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly than non-gamers do.” Learning a new sensorimotor skill is required to reach a higher level of degree of coordination between vision and motor movements.
A study at the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada suggests that video game playing confers no reliable benefit in sensorimotor control, but it does enhance sensorimotor learning, enabling superior performance in tasks with consistent and predictable structure.
There is another study by Kühn et al found that the Positive Association of Video Game Playing with Left Frontal Cortical Thickness in Adolescents. Video gamers perform better in perceptual decision-making is appealing because it provides a mechanism to explain why video game training improves participants’ performance in such seemingly different tasks as contrast detection, visual search, multiple object tracking, letter recognition with flankers, and decision-making
A study conducted by medical experts which are published on jamanetwork says that video game skill correlates with laparoscopic surgical skills.
Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery. Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons. The above study also found that players who played in excess of 3 hours per week correlated:
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Interesting Study Results:
| Results | Past video game players | Current video game players | Demonstrated video gaming skills |
| Errors | 37% fewer | 32% fewer | 47% fewer |
| Completion | 27% faster | 24% faster | 39% faster |
| Top Gun Score | 33% better | 26% better | 41% better |
Regression analysis also indicated that video game skills and past video game experience are significant predictors of demonstrated laparoscopic skills.
An article published in the Journal of the Society of Laparoscopic & Robotic Surgeons stated that surgeons who played video games prior to the Cobra Rope drill were significantly faster on their first attempt and across all 10 trials. The experimental and control groups were significantly different in their total suturing scores (t=2.28, df=288, P<.05). The overall Top Gun score showed that the experimental group performed marginally better overall.
Another article on WebMD shows that people who played fast-paced first-person shooter action games like Call of duty 2 could actually make decisions 25% faster than the controlled group with no loss of accuracy.
Also, one study in the research article says that people who played strategy games like starcraft 2 actually had better cognitive flexibility which will help you to keep you maintain at two different tasks.
What are the sensorimotor skills?
As per nspt website the definition goes as this “Sensorimotor skills involve the process of receiving sensory messages (sensory input) and producing a response (motor output). We receive sensory information from our bodies and the environment through our sensory systems (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, and proprioception).”
What are the laparoscopic surgical skills?
As per simulation based training curriculam the definition goes as “Laparoscopic Surgical Skills (LSS) is the answer to satisfy the needs of both the surgeons and the healthcare authorities. LSS is an initiative by the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) to provide a standard to (re)credential surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery effectively and safely.”
What scientific studies suggest about gaming and hand-eye coordination?
All the above studies suggest the following things and I think it is the way to put it in the perspective. All the studies have taken by selecting a group of people who play games for a certain period of time in a day. Then they ask these people to complete certain tasks that involve hand-eye coordination and they calculate the errors, completion rate, and speed accordingly.
- Playing video games allows us to learn new skills quicker in a low-stakes environment.
- Gaming enhances learning, enabling superior performance in tasks with a consistent and predictable structure.
- Video gaming improves contrast detection, visual search, multiple object tracking, letter recognition with flankers.
- Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.
- People who play FPS (first-person shooter) games could make decisions 25% faster.
- People who play RTS (real-time strategy) games have better cognitive flexibility.
All the games are played with skills that require hand and eye coordination to complete a task given the game. In video games, all gamers develop sensorimotor skill and laparoscopic surgical skills which plays are a key important role to decide whether you can outperform highly complex tasks in a given situation. That is why you need to understand how does gaming affects hand-eye coordination.
Games that improve hand-eye coordination
As per the studies mentioned above, I can tell you that there are two types of games you should play to improve your hand-eye coordination. The first type of game is FPS games which consist of fast-action-paced first-person shooting. The second type of game is RTS which are real-time strategy games. Make sure you check ESRB ratings on the game before you purchase any game for your kids. Although no studies were found about platform games and their effect on hand-eye coordination. We at our shop have some cool retro game consoles that you can check out.
Also read: How to Choose a Gaming PC? 9 Best Factors To Consider
Do first-person shooters help hand-eye coordination?
Studies mentioned games like Call of Duty which is one of the best first-person games out there in the market. Since there are so many other similar games like Call of Duty that you can play to improve your hand-eye coordination.
Best first-person shooter games to improve hand-eye coordination:
- Call of duty
- Doom
- Destiny
- Half-life
- Counter-Strike
- Halo
- Wolfenstein
- Titanfall
- Overwatch
- Battlefield
I can list down hundreds of first-person games but these above are the few best ones that you can start playing right away. My all-time favorite first-person shooter games are Halo: master chief collection, Counter-Strike, Far Cry, and also my recent favorites are Destiny 2, Borderlands, and Doom.
There are many other shooter games that you can try and get the benefit of hand-eye coordination and improving other skills that help you to learn new skills in your general life. Also game sound and response time also make you better if you have the best quality gaming headphones.
Does Fortnite improve hand-eye coordination?
Fortnite is a third-person shooter game that has similar characteristics to first-person shooter games. Studies show that playing the first-person shooter helps to learn new sensorimotor skills. Hence, playing Fortnite can improve hand-eye coordination as it does in first-person shooter games.
Real-time strategy games
Studies mentioned games like Starcraft which is one of the best real-time strategy games you can find there in the market. Since there are also many other similar games like starcraft that you can play to improve your hand-eye coordination.
Best real-time strategy games to improve hand-eye coordination:
- Starcraft
- Warcraft
- Age of empires
- Command & Conquer
- Total war
- Xcom
- Homeworld
I love playing real-time strategy games as it challenges me every time to get the best decisions and make my brain think to the next level. Some of my favorite real-time strategy games are Age of empires, Halo Wars also recent favorites are Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Mutant Year Zero. I hope this article answers the question of how does gaming helps hand-eye coordination. It would be great if you can share your feedback and suggestion in the comment box below.
