Improving reading skills through action video games

Date:
January 17, 2022
Source:
Universite' de Gene`ve
Summary:
What if video games, instead of being an obstacle to literacy, could
actually help children improve their reading abilities? Scientists
have tested an action video game for children, aimed to enhance
reading skills. The results demonstrate improved reading abilities
after just twelve hours of training. Notably, these gains persist
over time, to the point that language school grades are seen to
improve more than a year after the end of training.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Decoding letters into sound is a key point in learning to read but is
not enough to master it. "Reading calls upon several other essential
mechanisms that we don't necessarily think about, such as knowing how
to move our eyes on the page or how to use our working memory to link
words together in a coherent sentence," points out Daphne' Bavelier,
a professor in the Psychology Section of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE) at the UNIGE.

"These other skills, such as vision, the deployment of attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, are known to be improved by action
video games," explains Angela Pasqualotto, first author of this study,
which is based on her PhD thesis at the Department of Psychology and
Cognitive Science of the University of Trento under the direction of
Professors Venuti and De Angeli.


==========================================================================
A child-friendly action video game to support learning With this in mind,
a video game was designed that combines action video games with mini
games that train different executive functions, such as working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility, functions that are called upon
during reading. "The universe of this game is an alternative world in
which the child, accompanied by his Raku, a flying creature, must carry
out different missions to save planets and progress in the game," Angela Pasqualotto adds.

The idea is to reproduce the components of an action game, without incorporating violence, so that it is suitable for young children. "For example, the Raku flies through a meteor shower, moving around to avoid
those or aiming at them to weaken their impact, while collecting useful resources for the rest of the game, a bit like what you find in action
video games." The scientists then worked with 150 Italian schoolchildren
aged 8 to 12, divided into two groups: the first one played the video
game developed by the team, and the second one played Scratch, a game
that teaches children how to code. Both games require attentional control
and executive functions, but in different manners. The action video game requires children to perform tasks within a time limit such as remembering
a sequence of symbols or responding only when the Raku makes a specific
sound while increasing the difficulty of these tasks according to the
child's performance. Scratch, the control game, requires planning,
reasoning and problem solving. Children must manipulate objects and
logical structures to establish the desired programming sequence.

"First, we tested the children's ability to read words, non-words and paragraphs, and also we conducted an attention test that measures the
child's attentional control, a capacity we know is trained by action
video games," explains Daphne Bavelier. The children then followed
the training with either the action video game or the control game,
for six weeks, two hours a week under supervision at school. Children
were tested at school by clinicians of the Laboratory of Observation
Diagnosis and Education (UNITN).

Long-term improvement in reading skills Shortly after the end of
the training, the scientists repeated the tests on both groups of
children. "We found a 7-fold improvement in attentional control in the
children who played the action video game compared to the control group,"
says Angela Pasqualotto. Even more remarkably, the research team observed
a clear enhancement in reading, not only in terms of reading speed, but
also in accuracy, whereas no improvement was noted for the control group.

This improvement in literacy occurs even though the action video game
does not require any reading activity.

"What is particularly interesting about this study is that we carried
out three further assessment tests at 6 months, 12 months and 18 months
after training.

On each occasion, the trained children performed better than the control
group, which proves that these improvements were sustained," Angela
Pasqualotto says.

Moreover, the grades in Italian of the trained children became
significantly better over time, showing a virtuous improvement in
learning ability. "The effects are thus long-term, in line with the
action video game strengthening the ability to learn how to learn,"
says Daphne Bavelier.

Within the framework of the NCCR Evolving Language and in collaboration
with Irene Altarelli (co-author of the article and researcher at LaPsyDE, University of Paris), the game will be adapted into German, French and
English. "When reading, decoding is more or less difficult depending
on the language. Italian, for example, is very transparent -- each
letter is pronounced -- whereas French and English are quite opaque,
resulting in rather different learning challenges. Reading in opaque
languages requires the ability to learn exceptions, to learn how a
variety of contexts impacts pronunciation and demands greater reliance
on memorization," comments Irene Altarelli. Will the benefits of action
video games on reading acquisition extend to such complex learning
environments as reading in French or English? This is the question
that this study will help answer. In addition, the video game will be
available entirely at home, remotely, as will the administration of
reading and attention tests, in order to complement school lessons,
rather than taking time out of school hours.

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get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> landing.newscientist.com/what-is-new-scientist-sd/ ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Universite'_de_Gene`ve. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Pasqualotto, A., Altarelli, I., De Angeli, A. et al. Enhancing
reading
skills through a video game mixing action mechanics and cognitive
training. Nat Hum Behav, 2022 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01254-x ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220117115113.htm

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