Today's Nerd Could Be Tomorrow's G.I.

By Janice M. Horowitz

A study in last week's Nature suggests--sorry, parents--that Grand Theft Auto III, left, Counter-Strike and other video games that require players to shoot bad guys and slay monsters may improve the kind of visual skills needed for, say, driving a car or even being a soldier. In the study, men 18 to 23 were tested for their ability to identify flashing cues, switch their attention rapidly and count objects approaching from many directions. The result: gamers performed up to 50% better than nonplayers, a finding that researchers suspect applies to younger kids as well. To rule out the possibility that the visually adept are simply drawn to video games, researchers also trained neophytes and compared them with nonplayers. The results were similar. But don't expect your child's mastery of Grand Theft Auto to secure him admission to Yale. "These are not skills required to do well at school," says Daphne Bavelier, a brain-and cognitive-sciences professor at the University of Rochester and the study's lead author. "Kids still have to do their homework." --By Janice M. Horowitz