World of Warcraft Improves Scientific Thinking

MSNBC has published an article claiming that games like World of Warcraft help improve scientific thinking and can even make surgeons better at their craft.

The edge went to gamer surgeons, they found, even after taking into account differences in age, years of medical training and the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed. In laparoscopic procedures, surgeons use small incisions, thin surgical tools and video cameras to see inside the body.

One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn’t.

Advanced video game skills also were a good way to predict suturing abilities, according to their study, which was published in the Archives of Surgery in 2007.

Research Gentile and Rosser conducted for a second as yet unpublished study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons found those who played video games requiring spacial skills and hand dexterity performed better at those skills when tested later compared to surgeons who didn’t play games, Gentile said.

That’s… unexpected.