"Playing video games can make you a better driver." That statement probably brings to mind games like Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsports. Sure, these games can teach players the mechanics of driving, especially when using steering wheels and pedal controls, but are they the best at improving driving skills?

Ironically, studies have shown that first-person shooters, similar Telephone call of Duty, actually provide more benefits for drivers than driving games practise.

I of the virtually apparent and nearly cited positive furnishings of playing video games is improved eye-to-hand coordination. Information technology has almost become a cliché in debates over the positive and negative effects of playing video games and is nevertheless hotly debated, despite information technology seeming like common sense.

With the right budget, you could create a realistic driving simulator.

Gaming has come a long way from the unmarried-joystick, single-button days of the Atari 2600. Now players have to contend with gamepads featuring dual joysticks and 12 or more buttons.

Growing up through the evolution of controllers, some players likely find using mod devices effortless considering they have been using these complicated input mechanisms all their lives. Their eye-to-manus coordination is already conditioned. But is that directly related to playing games or simply an ecology factor?

According to a 2022 study by the University of Toronto, playing action-intense video games like Call of Duty or Assassin'south Creed did non reliably enhance sensorimotor command (center-to-paw coordination). However, it did improve sensorimotor learning, meaning gamers were better than not-gamers at performing tasks with a "consistent and anticipated construction."

The researchers tested this by having the ii groups keep a cursor within a white square equally it moved around a computer screen. At first, both groups performed equally. As the participants continued to practice, the gamers showed far better and quicker improvement in keeping the cursor in the square than not-gamers.

It might non seem like keeping a cursor within a square on a computer screen translates well into making one a better driver, only it actually does. It'south not about the action that is taking place on the screen, but what is going on in the brain. The cognitive functions and visual vigil are what matters. Realizing the square has changed directions and then altering the course of the cursor before information technology leaves its confines relates directly to situations where a commuter must brand a dissever-second determination to avoid an blow.

The 2022 Toronto report is non the only prove to bear witness that Call of Duty and similar games can improve skills used in driving. Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Daphne Bavelier at the University of Rochester has spent nearly of her time studying the cognitive effects of gaming and has some interesting insights into how playing action video games affect players.

In a 2022 TEDx Talk (watch beneath), Dr. Bavelier debunked a long-held myth that playing video games damage a player's eyesight. It might be intuitive to remember that excessive time in front end of the screen would harm your vision, but Bavelier says this is simply not true. She and her team have measured eyesight in the lab of gamers and not-gamers, and the one-time consistently had better vision than the latter -- fifty-fifty those who played up to xv hours per week tested amend than twenty/20 vision.

Non only do game players have better visual vigil, but they too have a sharper perception of different shades of gray. Dr. Bavelier analogizes this with an example of driving in a fog.

"The other style that gamers are ameliorate is actually being able to resolve different levels of gray," Bavelier said. "Imagine yous're driving in the fog. That makes the difference between seeing the automobile in front of you and fugitive the accident or getting into an accident."

Another myth that runs contrary to her findings is that games atomic number 82 to attention issues and greater distractibility. Scientists have studied attending for decades, and there are plenty of standard tests to measure it in a quantifiable mode.

Bavelier found that people who play Call of Duty have far better attention than non-players. A simple test they used was to show test subjects colored words and ask them to state the ink color of each word equally they announced. Some words introduced a cognitive disharmonize. For case, the discussion blue appearing in red ink. Results showed that the gamers were far quicker at resolving those conflicts than those that did not play.

Another attention test involves tracking multiple moving targets. The average person can keep tabs on almost 3 or four objects at once. Action video game players have a span of around half dozen to seven. These results are relatively predictable considering what it takes to play activeness games like Call of Duty, especially in hectic multiplayer matches. It's a good thing too, since we need to keep that many browser tabs open just to take a shot at scoring a new graphics carte these days.

Attention is a critical aspect when driving. Just call up of all the things you take to pay attention to at the aforementioned time when driving -- the cars in front, backside, and beside you; the children playing well-nigh the street upward ahead; the colour of the traffic signal; your speed; the speed of cantankerous traffic when approaching a green light. There are many things you lot take to maintain focus on when driving. And lab tests show activity gamers are very good at this.

Bavelier'southward enquiry further confirms the practical testing results with brain imaging. There are three areas of the brain that regulate attending. The parietal lobe controls the orientation of attention. The frontal lobe sustains attending. Lastly, the anterior cingulate controls how we classify concentration and resolve disharmonize.

"Now, when we exercise brain imaging, we find that all three of these networks are really much more efficient in people that play action games," Bavelier said.

Still, nosotros again fall back to the argument of whether these results were directly related to playing games or only common environmental factors. Fortunately, Bavelier considered causality, also, which is easy to test in the lab.

Bavelier and her team performed a controlled training study to establish causality. What they did was have participants take cognitive tests at the commencement. And so subjects would play 10 hours of action games over two weeks in 40-minute sessions. Subjects so took the same cerebral tests, and the results found that not only did they perform better, but the improvements were nonetheless present five months after the training.

Tracking the brain activity of video game players is a big part of most studies. Paradigm: Josh Cassidy

The preparation tests show ii things. First, they testify the causality between visual and cerebral improvements when playing video games like Call of Duty. The positive effects are non acquired by environmental weather common to gamers. 2nd, it shows that grooming your encephalon on these games has lasting furnishings.

Indeed, another report out of Shanghai in 2022 showed that playing high-activity titles physically rewires the brain, so the benefits are at least semi-permanent. The researchers wanted to know if playing video games improved applied driving skills. They also wanted to observe out whether the blazon of game mattered.

They tested participants using a driving simulator. One grouping played activeness games for 5 to 10 hours, and the other played slower-paced games. The study institute that the activity players performed markedly improve in subsequent simulator testing than the non-action players.

"Our enquiry shows that playing easily accessible action video games for every bit petty equally 5 hours can be a cost-constructive tool to help people improve essential visuomotor-command skills used for driving," said researcher and co-writer of the paper Li Li of New York Academy Shanghai.

Researchers used Mario Kart and Rollercoaster Tycoon for action and not-activeness training, respectively. The driving simulator was ready to have participants drive a motorcar downward a lane while compensating for crosswinds that affected the car'due south beliefs.

"Experienced activeness gamers showed much greater precision in keeping to their lane and showed less difference from the eye in the face up of increasing headwinds when compared to the participants with little to no action video game feel," said Li.

The studies from the Universities of Toronto, Rochester, and New York University Shanghai provide stiff evidence that video games strengthen skills and cerebral functions vital to driving. They have found that things like object tracking, visual acuity, optical conflict resolution, attending, and reaction time are all positively influenced by gaming in moderation. However, not all games have these positive benefits. Slower-paced games seem to have no consequence at all.

Ironically, the enquiry shows that racing games have a more negligible effect on these attributes than first-person shooters -- games where you lot spend most of your time on human foot. That is not to say that racing titles have no benefits for drivers. The Shanghai report showed that Mario Kart improved reaction fourth dimension better than playing Rollercoaster Tycoon.

One can also argue that racing games, specially simulators like Assetto Corsa, can impart the mechanical skills of driving a machine. While we don't spend our time in our daily drivers striking a bend at 100 mph, racing games tin can requite players an idea of when to brake or correct a skid, specially when using racing wheels and pedals.