8 Reasons Why Educational Video Games For Kids Can Offer Cognitive Benefits

Guest postsGuest postUpdated 30 October 20262 min read

The table pairs the cognitive gains most often credited to video games with the published research behind each one, from creativity tests on 12-year-olds to an attention game cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Most of these findings come from correlational studies or small trials, so they point to links between play and skills rather than proof that gaming alone produces them.

Benefit	Study and year	Who was tested	What researchers reported
Faster decisions	Bavelier, Pouget and Green, Current Biology, 2010	Adults aged 18 to 25 who did not normally play games	After 50 hours of Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament, players decided up to 25% faster than a group given The Sims 2, with equal accuracy
Working memory	Chaarani et al., JAMA Network Open, 2022	2,217 children aged 9 to 10 from the ABCD brain study	Children gaming three or more hours a day scored higher on the n-back memory task than children who never played
Impulse control	Chaarani et al., JAMA Network Open, 2022	Same ABCD sample, scanned with fMRI	Gamers did better on the stop-signal task and showed stronger activity in parts of the precuneus
Problem solving	Adachi and Willoughby, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2013	1,492 adolescents followed through four years of high school	More strategy and role-playing play predicted higher self-rated problem solving, which in turn was tied to better grades
Sustained attention	EndeavorRx by Akili, FDA de novo clearance, June 2020	Children aged 8 to 12 with ADHD; five trials with more than 600 children	Playing 25 minutes a day, five days a week for four weeks lifted TOVA attention scores versus an educational-game control
Creativity	Jackson et al., Computers in Human Behavior, 2011	491 middle-school pupils, about 12 years old	Only game playing, not phone, internet or other computer use, went with higher scores on the Torrance figural creativity test
Spatial thinking	2013 meta-analysis cited by Granic, Lobel and Engels, American Psychologist	Pooled results of earlier experiments	Shooter games improved three-dimensional spatial reasoning about as much as academic courses; puzzle and role-playing titles did not
Hand-eye coordination	Rosser et al., Archives of Surgery, 2007	33 surgeons and residents at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York	Those who had once played over three hours a week made 37% fewer errors and worked 27% faster in laparoscopic drills
Cooperation	2011 study cited by Granic, Lobel and Engels	Players of the same games in two modes	People who played cooperatively, even in violent games, were more willing to help others than those who played competitively
Health learning	Re-Mission trial, 2008, 34 medical centres	Children with cancer	Players of Re-Mission showed better adherence to treatment and greater knowledge of cancer

Sources: News-Medical (University of Rochester), PsyPost, Office of Justice Programs, BioSpace, ScienceDaily, EurekAlert (American Psychological Association).