Researcher Discovers Playing More Girl Games Online Leads to Higher Test ACT/SAT Test Results
Parents are often telling their children that they need to spend less time online and more time studying, but a recent study conducted by Trinity Community College out of Idaho may suggest something different.
(prHWY.com) January 22, 2013 - Seattle, WA -- Parents are often telling their children that they need to spend less time online and more time studying, but a recent study conducted by Trinity Community College out of Idaho may suggest something different. The study looked at the correlation between young girls playing online games target to their gender and test scores.
"What we wanted to see was if there was a connection between the
number of girl games online that are played and the test results for ACT/SAT", said John Moore, manager in charge of the research project. "Some of students suggested that they thought there could be a connection, but we wanted to see if there really was a connection."
The research project took a group of 100 young girls and split them up into two control groups. The one group would be required to play a minimum of 6 hours a week of girl games online, while the other was only given access to 2 hours a week.
The researchers would follow up with the girls at the 2, 4 and 6 year period mark. They would then request that all the girls take the ACT/SAT tests and see what the test results showed.
"It was amazing", said Moore. "It appears as if the girls who spent more time playing girl games online had higher test results for both the ACT and SAT tests. The ones that only played 2 hours a week had average test results, but they were less than the ones in the other study group."
The researchers believe that the connection between the test results and the games could be as simple as brain development. The researchers believe that the extra 4 hours of game playing time could help the brain develop faster and better.
"We aren't really sure what the connection could be, but we know one is there", said Moore. "We now have enough evidence to go further with more tests of this nature. I think with these results we could get federal funding, as it could help our nation's youth."
The next step for this research project is to actually conduct CAT scans of the children's brains. The CAT scans would allow researchers to see if there is any difference in brain development, and if that is related to the game playing or not.
"We are moving forward", said Moore. "Who knows in a few years we could be requiring all our young girls to be playing online games for hours a week just so they can succeed later in life."
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