Surgeons Who Play Games More Skilled

[Antoninus]

"Out of 33 surgeons from Beth Israel Medical Center in New York that participated in the study, the nine doctors who had at some point played video games at least three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills than the 15 surgeons who had never played video games before. "

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N2J303978.htm

[FarleySC]

Study is too small, and frankly a study that size can be made to show anything.

[Antoninus]

Study is too small, and frankly a study that size can be made to show anything.

Statistically speaking, the size is sufficent

[nerdmatic]

While surgeons may benefit from playing video games, the study did not give parents a pass if their children play the games for hours on end.

A 2004 survey by Gentile found 94 percent of U.S. adolescents play video games for an average of nine hours a week. Game-playing has been linked to aggressiveness, poor school grades and can become a substitute for exercise.

"Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day," Gentile said. "Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school."

[Purple Faerie]

Statistically speaking studying 33 surgeons is not sufficient. What percentage of all surgeons is that?

I'm not saying this makes the study wrong, in fact I believe this is very likely to be true, however I think that a study that small is inconclusive and I'd like to see more studies done on the subject.

[Antoninus]

Statistically speaking studying 33 surgeons is not sufficient. What percentage of all surgeons is that?

I'm not saying this makes the study wrong, in fact I believe this is very likely to be true, however I think that a study that small is inconclusive and I'd like to see more studies done on the subject.

Statistically speaking, the number of surgeons in the study is sufficent to draw a conclusion

[Psykiblue]

that's one study that supports a positive side of gaming. In order for there to be any support for the theory that gaming improves surgical skills there would have to be a lot more studies presented.

One is not sufficient in supporting that argument. Before you start lecturing me about statistics, hold your horses and remember I have a psych degree and I've done so much statistical courses I know what i'm talking about. I didnt read about it, I didnt casually studying, It was my major and by that I learned a helluva lot of ins and outs.

The size of the study is actually sufficient I wont argue that at all.

[apple_cat78]

Yup, I'm going to ask before I get my tonsils removed next month:

"Just what WAS your high score in Double Dragon?"

"Have you played Halo 2?"

"How many attempts did it take you to deliver the crack in Grand Theft Auto?"

"Have you ever tanked Firemaw?"

Then I'll decide if I really want to let the guy at me with a knife.

[Childe]

This study is not talking about game ADDICTS, it's talking about casual/hobby gamers. I wouldn't let a game addict anywhere near my body with surgical tools, because game addicts are disconnected from reality, often have violent tendencies, are known to have sleep disorders and other mental issues ... not to mention the fact that a game addict wouldn't have a hope in hell of making it through medical school.

[James24255]

Statistically speaking, from a guy who has actually completed some graduate coursework involving statistical analysis, N=33 is way too small to draw any conclusions that can be RELIABLY APPLIED TO THE REAL WORLD. With such a small study population there could be a number of other factors that could significantly bias the results.

That is the thing that irks me about "studies"...often times they are about as useful as "opinion polls" in how they are conducted.

Drug companies in particular tend to skew their research to present numbers that look good instead of numbers that can lead a better informed decision.

Example being:

Drug X when compared to placebo, cut the mortality rate by 20% when treated for 3 years. What they don't tell you is that the number of participants that required treatment in order to affect that 20%, or that the "20%" only equates to 1 person saved, and that the number needed to treat ends up resulting in millions and millions of dollars being spent just to save that 1 life, not to mention the loss of quality of life to all of those who aren't saved, due to the inevitable side effects that are so commonplace.

[Talhathier]

Statistically speaking, the size is not big enough for the kind of conclusion that test reaches.

33 is what percent of the total surgeons in the US? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Not even 1%.

[FarleySC]

Most studies allow for a percent error in their conclusions and findings. The margin for error in this study is unreal.

[Shikyo Keibatsu]

I'd say that there should be more to experiment and see what kind of results ya get then, however there are some games that are out where you ARE a surgeon. Kinda scary to think but they're out there.

[Dave]

Don't jump on me for this, but I would feel very uneasy if a surgeon about to operate on me had earned his degree from playing Manhunt 2.

[Ruya]

This makes sense; console games increase hand-eye coordination. Games that require skill need more attention to detail. Also, games like tetris help exercise logic.

Not ALL games are bad; some are actually good workouts for the brain.

[Childe]

The key here is that those games must be played in moderation. Yeah, tetris is good for logic and problem solving. But a person who plays 60 hours of tetris per week probably isn't very balanced.

[baileykruse]

I had say that there should be more to experiment and see what kind of results ya get then, however there's some games that are out where you ARE a surgeon. Kinda scary to think but they are out there.

[Chunev]

An article about game reward systems, and how it relates to praise given early on in life:
http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/awesome-by-proxy-addicted-to-fake.html

------------------
While a performance orientation (vs. mastery orientation) improves motivation for easy challenges, it drastically reduces it for difficult ones. And since most work worth doing is difficult, it is the mastery orientation that is correlated with academic and professional success, as well as self-esteem and long-term happiness.

In childhood, it is remarkably easy to instill one orientation or the other. It all comes down to the type of praise you receive. If you perform well on a task and are told, "Wow, you must be smart!" it teaches you to value your skill, and thus fosters a performance orientation. But if instead you are told, "Wow, you must have worked hard!" it teaches you to value your effort and thus fosters a mastery orientation.
------------------