The Impact of Recreational Video Game Play on Children's and Adolescents' Cognition

Current empirical findings show linkages between recreational video game play and enhanced cognitive skills, primarily among young adults. However, consideration of this linkage among children and adolescents is sparse. Thus, discussions about facilitating transfer of cognitive skills from video game play to academic tasks among children and adolescents remains largely uninformed by research. To inform this discussion, we review available research concerning the cognitive benefits of video game play among children and adolescents and their impressions of video games as learning tools as these impressions may impact their application of cognitive skills used during game play to academic tasks.