Is computer gaming associated with cognitive abilities? A population study among German adolescents

- Cognitive abilities and the time spent on computer games were examined.
- A representative sample of 12,459 German adolescents aged 14-15 years participated.
- Gamers obtained higher scores on reasoning and receptive vocabulary than non-gamers
- Linear and quadratic effects of gamers' time played were modest.
- Overall, the gaming-cognition link was weak to nonexistent.

Playing commercial computer games supposedly trains cognitive abilities. The present study investigated linear and nonlinear associations between the time spent on computer and video games each day and cognitive abilities in a representative sample of N = 12,459 German adolescents (51% girls). Piecewise polynomial regression analyses revealed that computer gamers scored higher on standardized tests of reasoning and receptive vocabulary than non-gamers, but the difference was small in size. Among gamers, the time spent on computer games exhibited very modest associations with the cognitive scores: Reasoning and receptive vocabulary showed a slight (non)linear increase, whereas perceptual and reading speed were largely unrelated to gaming times. Analyses that did not account for the gender of the respondents created spurious effects that might wrongly indicate associations of gaming times with cognitive abilities. This is the first large-scale assessment showing that linear as well as nonlinear associations between playing commercial computer games and different cognitive abilities are weak to nonexistent.