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Video games help focus on fine detail From: The Australian February 13, 2007 12:00AM Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Facebook Add to Kwoff Add to Myspace Add to Newsvine What are these? PLAYING video games that involve high levels of visual action on a daily basis can improve your ability to see fine detail, a study shows. Researchers at the University of Rochester in the US have found that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month sharpened their ability to identify letters by about 20 per cent. "Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information," says Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the university. "After just 30 hours, players showed a substantial increase in the spatial resolution of their vision, meaning they could see figures like those on an eye chart more clearly, even when other symbols crowded in."

PLAYING video games that involve high levels of visual action on a daily basis can improve your ability to see fine detail, a study shows. Researchers at the University of Rochester in the US have found that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month sharpened their ability to identify letters by about 20 per cent. "Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information," says Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the university.

These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," she says. "That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life."

The benefits of being socially aware are endless. Everything from becoming an informed voter to donating to a needy cause is influenced by one's consciousness of current affairs

Joseph Miceli, a high school religion teacher, says that discussing current events within the standard school curriculum is "a very practical and effective way of making learning more interesting and real." Although many teachers do an excellent job of making current events relevant in the classroom, Miceli questions whether or not it is consistently used within all subject areas.