Video games may not boost cognition

Researchers say that previous studies that claim video game players have higher cognition than non gamers are flawed. U.S. researchers say several influential studies showing action gamers' skills are superior to those of non-gamers suffer from a host of methodological flaws.

Walter Boot, an assistant professor at Florida State University, and Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois, and colleagues say many of the studies compared the cognitive skills of frequent gamers to non-gamers and found gamers to be superior.

However, Boot and co-authors point out that this doesn't necessarily mean game experience caused better perceptual and cognitive abilities -- it could be that individuals who have the abilities required to be successful gamers are simply drawn to gaming. Boot says. "But we found no benefits of video game training."

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

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What Can’t you Live Without?

Facebook is more important than having a flushing toilet. That’s the finding of a survey by London’s Science Museum. It asked 3,000 adults what they couldn't live without. Facebook came in 5^th while a toilet ranked 9^th. The winner was sunshine, followed by being on the internet, clean drinking water and a refrigerator.

The tools of the digital made a strong showing. Email was 8^th and possessing a mobile phone 10th. Google came in at 22, Ipods at 37, Computer spell-checks claimed the 41st spot and the last position went to Twitter. The Wii and Xbox made the list as well.

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