How Video Games Can Help You Study
If you would like to listen to the contents of this article rather than read it, you can watch my YouTube video on how video games can help you study below:
Education is important for improving job prospects and helping people to escape poverty (Department for Education, 2018; McCarron & Inkelas, 2006; Forrest-Bank et al., 2015). As an educator and someone who enjoys studying, I have spent many years refining my study techniques and sharing them with my students. After growing up with video games, you’d be surprised how much of my studying mindset and learning strategies come from my experiences with video games.
As I am passionate about helping people to learn, I would like to share evidence-based strategies on studying and learning that can be linked back to gaming. If followed correctly, these strategies should hopefully improve your test performance, keep you well-rested, and most importantly of all, leave you with more time to play video games. As usual, there will be a summary at the bottom if you do not wish to read everything.
Before I begin, I would like to state that I will be recommending things such as apps and playlists to help you study. I would like to emphasise that I am not being paid, encouraged or incentivised in any way to recommend you anything. If I am recommending you something, it’s because I personally use it and it personally transformed my study experience. It wouldn’t be fair to jeopardise your learning experience with something I don’t wholeheartedly believe in.
With that disclaimer, let’s begin.
Contents
The Elephant in the Library
I would like to begin with some bad news: it’s likely that how you choose to study isn’t actually an effective method of studying. When researching the most common study methods, it was found that up to 80% of students studied by highlighting and re-reading their notes (Hartwig & Dunlosky, 2011; Karpicke et al., 2009). It is also common for this studying to take place the night before an exam (Hartwig et al.; Weinstein et al., 2013).
When exploring the effectiveness of this studying technique, multiple studies support the idea that simply highlighting and re-reading notes doesn’t help you to remember material and is less effective than other study techniques (Dunlosky et al., 2013; Putnam et al., 2016; Callender & McDaniel, 2009; Wong et al., 2002).
So we know that the most common method of studying is ineffective, so where do we go from here? In this article, I’d like to focus on two study methods in particular and what video games can teach us about these methods. I will then use these study methods, combined with other study tips, to create an evidence-based study plan for you that will keep you refreshed and give you more time to play video games.
Practice Makes Perfect
Thanks to places like Twitch, YouTube and social media, it is easier than ever to know someone who is amazing at a video game. If you were to ask someone who is good at a game how they became so good, you could probably predict what they’re going to say – “practice”. We have a societal understanding that ‘practice makes perfect’, yet the most common study method used by students is night-before cramming.
Is it possible to ‘practice’ studying? The answer is yes.
Our first study method, Distributed Practice, refers to spreading out your studying over time and practicing your learning. After reviewing 254 studies on the effectiveness of Distributed Practice, Cepeda et al. (2006) concluded that spacing out your studying leads to more information retention than crammed studying. Distributed Practice is so beneficial to learning that it is used to help people with brain injuries, amnesia, and language impairment (Goverover et al., 2009; Cermak et al., 1996; Riches et al., 2005).
You might think that Distributed Practice works because you simply spend more time studying, but that isn’t the case. In a study conducted by Bloom and Shuell (1981), two groups of students were told to learn a set of French words in 30 minutes. While one group had one session of 30 minutes to study, one group studied for three consecutive days for 10 minutes each. Despite studying for the same amount of time, the group who spread out their studying performed better when tested afterwards.
So what makes Distributed Practice so much better than cramming? It is argued that sleep plays a key role in the effectiveness of Distributed Practice. When we sleep, something called memory consolidation takes place (Wilhelm et al., 2008). In basic terms, memory consolidation means that what you learned during the day becomes stored and organised in your brain. Memory consolidation is particularly important for what we call declarative memories (Wilhelm et al.). Declarative memories are memories that we need to make a conscious effort to recall, such as dates, facts and definitions. If your studying relies heavily on these, sleep is your best friend.
Unfortunately, college students represent one of the most sleep-deprived populations (Buboltz et al., 2001). Despite sleep being so important for memory consolidation, students are instead choosing to stay up late to cram (Hartwig et al.; Weinstein et al.). However, if they spread out their studying and snuggled up into a comfy bed at a healthy hour, they’d be surprised just how much help it would be to their studying.
You’re the Teacher Now
James Paul Gee is a Literary Studies professor that has written a book on the topic of video games and learning. In this book, he talks about how impressed he is by video game guides. These highly organised and detailed guides are a valuable resource that have been written by a self-confessed expert on the game. These experts are able to write such comprehensive guides because they understand so much about the game.
Consider yourself for a second. There is a very high likelihood that you have given advice on a video game at some point in your life. Maybe it was your sibling, your friend, or even an internet stranger, but you took time from your day to impart wisdom.
You were able to impart this wisdom and answer the person’s question because you understood what you were talking about.
This is where we reach our second study method – Elaborative Interrogation. Instead of passively re-reading our highlighted notes, Elaborative Interrogation involves testing ourselves on the material and explaining why something may be true.
The benefits of Elaborative Interrogation were demonstrated in a study by Smith et al. (2010). In this study, two sets of biology students were required to read a section of their textbook. While one set were asked to explain the material they had just read, one set simply read the section twice. When quizzed on the material later, those who had to elaborate on the material performed better in the test.
Elaborative Interrogation techniques such as practice quizzes and answering questions about a topic are consistently found to be excellent study techniques (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Richland et al., 2009). So what makes it better than passively reading material? There are two main arguments.
Firstly, Elaborative Interrogation helps you integrate new knowledge with old knowledge (Willoughby & Wood, 1994). When trying to explain something new, we may do it in the context of something we already know that helps us to understand. For example, you may explain to someone who is new to World of Warcraft that while strength boosts their Warrior’s physical attacks, intelligence boosts magic attacks. Secondly, elaborating on information and answering questions simply makes us focus on the material more and encourages us to forge a deeper understanding of what we’re trying to learn (Wong, 1985).
Elaborative Interrogation shows that when studying, it would be beneficial if we were to act like we are writing a video game guide or giving someone advice on a game. By acting like the teacher of material rather than someone who’s passively consuming it, we come to understand more about what we are trying to learn. Trying to explain material may also help us identify gaps in our knowledge if we can’t sufficiently explain something (Butler & Roediger, 2008). I will speak more on how and why these gaps should be filled in later on.
Setting the Scene
I’m always impressed by how video games can make us feel the right thing at the right time. This is partially achieved by the video game’s soundtrack, elegantly informing us of when we should feel relaxed in a save room and when we should feel tense during a boss battle.
Regarding music and studying, the research findings can be less positive. Willingham (2010) describes music as a ‘distraction’ to studying, and listening to music has been related to memorising fewer words in a list (Perham & Vizard, 2011). When speculating why, the researchers argued that the lyrics in the music acted as a distraction. As someone who gets distracted by lyrics in music, I understood this argument. However, it didn’t deter me from listening to music while studying.
Instead, I took advantage of the wonder that is relaxing video game music. Courtesy of the Relaxin’ with SD playlist, I listened to hundreds of video game songs almost completely devoid of lyrics. These songs, originally developed to soothe and relax in the game, were keeping me relaxed outside of the intended context. However, there was also another outcome.
After spending quality time with the playlist, I began to recognise that once I pressed play, it was time to get down to business. I didn’t care what was happening on social media or in the outside world, I was in the study zone.
If you have an interest in psychology, you may be familiar with one of the most popular psychological theories – Classical Conditioning (Pavlov, 1897). To keep it very simple, Classical Conditioning argues that we can pair a stimulus with an outcome. For example, the jingle of an ice cream van means nothing to us in a vacuum, but through repeatedly hearing the song and seeing an ice cream van, we begin to associate the jingle with the ice cream van and delicious ice cream.
This is what happened with the playlist. Through repeatedly listening to this playlist while studying, my brain began to associate video game music with getting down to business and studying hard. In a world full of temptations and distractions, video game music can be used to set the scene and mentally prepare you for a study session.
Learning from Failure
I know that mentioning Dark Souls in a gaming piece has become a cardinal sin, but please bear with me. When a friend of mine was playing the game for the first time, he angrily messaged me about losing 30,000 souls. He told me what he died to and later described his satisfying revenge after realising where he went wrong, to which I replied “You didn’t lose your souls then, you exchanged them for knowledge”.
Another thing I love about video games is their elegant ability to teach players through defeat and to learn from failure. Unfortunately, this elegance doesn’t always translate well to academia. Through high school, university and even teaching high school, I frequently saw the same routine: receive the marked test or essay, look at the mark, then cram it in your bag. This can especially happen with low marks, with the feedback being almost too painful to read.
While this routine is common, feedback is incredibly valuable when it comes to learning. If you are lucky, you will have a teacher or professor that tells you where your strengths lie, but also where you have room for improvement. If you aren’t so lucky, even seeing where you have been marked wrong shows you what you may need to spend time working on. Back in my article on rage quitting, I shared research on something known as Productive Failure (Kapur, 2010; 2012). Students who fail and learn from their mistakes perform better than students who are simply told how to answer correctly (Kapur, 2014). It is beneficial for us to take note of feedback and the limitations of our knowledge.
I understand that when it comes to our education and our future, poor marks can be scary and hurtful. But if we treat these marks with the same “I’ll get you next time” attitude as video games and try to learn from our mistakes, it only makes us stronger.
Preparing for the Final Boss
Most of us can recall a time when we have prepared for the final boss of a game. Perhaps we grinded, switched to our strongest party members or stocked up on supplies. We recognised that the journey ahead would be challenging and wanted to be thoroughly prepared.
Your study notes should be no different.
I would like to return to James Paul Gee, the professor who praised gamers for their comprehensive video game guides. In the same chapter that he lavishes this praise, he also criticises student textbooks for using language that is needlessly complicated for the intended audience. Here is an example he uses from a high school textbook:
The destruction of a land surface by the combined effects of abrasion and removal of weathered material by transporting agents is called erosion…The production of rock waste by mechanical processes and chemical changes is called weathering.
– Gee, 2008
As experts in a field, it can be challenging to create content that is understandable to a non-expert audience. As difficult as this can be, it is also their job to do so, and it is either fully or partially what they are paid to do.
Back in my teaching days, I would emphasise to my students that I receive my paycheque to make sure that they understand the material. If they leave my classroom not understanding something, they are basically giving me free money. This quickly turned my classroom into a place where students felt comfortable asking questions.
If you do not have this mindset when it comes to understanding your notes, you may be hindering yourself not only in that lesson, but also in future lessons. A theory for why Elaborative Interrogation is so effective is its ability to contextualise information in terms of what we already know. There is a high likelihood that your subject’s curriculum has been designed with this in mind.
A prominent theory in Educational Psychology is the idea of scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978). Scaffolding is a process whereby students are carefully guided and supported into higher levels of understanding in a topic. It is likely that your subject’s curriculum has been developed and designed with scaffolding in mind as earlier lessons will not only build your confidence, but teach you key definitions and concepts that you may need later on.
Think back to the high school textbook example. Erosion is partly defined as ‘the…effects of abrasion’. If the student doesn’t know what abrasion is, that limits their understanding of erosion. Not understanding one part of the curriculum limits their understanding of other parts.
If you wish to emphasise to your teacher or lecturer that you do not understand something, feel free to use what you’ve learned here to tell them that you feel that you haven’t been properly scaffolded. Please take advantage of time after class, email addresses or open office hours to ask them about what you don’t understand – it’s what they’re paid for. This will ensure that you understand all of your study notes and have been properly scaffolded for the entire topic.
Putting Evidence into Practice
Now that I have gushed endlessly about how to optimise your studying and learning, it’s time to put this evidence into practice and show you an efficient method of studying. I will be sharing my favourite method of studying that combines the big two, Distributed Practice and Elaborative Interrogation.
One of the oldest study techniques in the book is flashcards. However, in the technology age where an increasing number of people are becoming paperless, it’s difficult to imagine people carrying a large wad of flashcards wherever they go.
But in the technology age, it is possible to do this.
Meet Anki. Anki is a free and powerful flashcard programme that can be used on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (Note: Free on iOS here), and Android. It is highly customisable and can be used to create flashcard decks tailored to your specific learning style. If you are a visual learner, you can attach images and diagrams. If you are an auditory learner, you can record audio for your card. All of your cards will be synced to your account, meaning that you can access your flashcards on your desktop and portable devices.
Anki is designed in the traditional flashcard format of having a front and a back side. It is programmed so that you are shown the front, then see the back when you press ‘Show Answer’, challenging you to answer the question correctly before seeing the answer. This is where Elaborative Interrogation comes in. Instead of just passively re-reading your highlighted notes, you can convert this highlighted section into a question and answer. ‘Classical conditioning pairs a neutral stimulus with another stimulus that produces a response’ becomes ‘What is classical conditioning?’, Answer: ‘The pairing of a neutral stimulus with another stimulus that produces a response’.
Distributed Practice is a major advantage of Anki. Phones have a bad reputation for reducing productivity, but if you’re walking somewhere or waiting for the bus, you have quick access to your study notes written in a format that is effective at helping you remember them. Having quick access to these notes at any time also encourages you to test yourself throughout the day. The evidence discussed earlier demonstrates that practicing your learning, combined with a nice comfy sleep, is an excellent way to retain information.
Anki can also be paired with other miscellaneous study advice I have provided in this video:
- To mentally prepare yourself for an Anki study session, you can listen to relaxing video game music. If you’re studying on the go, you can create a Spotify playlist as there is a surprising amount of video game music on the service. I’m personally enjoying listening to the Hollow Knight soundtrack when working and studying.
- Anki is great at helping you learn from failure. If you don’t know the answer to a card, you can press ‘Again’ to denote that you didn’t know the answer. This card will repeat itself until you press ‘Good’, showing that you remember the answer. This repetition helps you to memorise facts or definitions that you are struggling with.
- Making flashcards with Anki is best when you are using notes that you understand. However, if you receive clarification from a teacher or a student about something, it is easy to edit your cards with this new information. This might be messy and/or time consuming on a physical flashcard, but easy to do with a digital one.
- In general, Anki can be used to ‘gamify’ studying. When highlighting and re-reading notes, it is difficult to track your progress and how well you understand the material. Anki provides statistics that break down your study sessions, showing you how often you answer a card first-time, how many cards you needed a refresher on, and more. It is possible for you to challenge yourself to memorise more cards and beat your previous high score.
In the beginning, I said that following this advice would leave you with more time for video games. From my own personal experience, I found that following study techniques such as Anki helped me retain information like never before while also increasing my leisure time. I remember standing outside exam halls looking at exhausted faces doing last-minute cramming. In comparison, I was fresh-faced, relaxed and well-rested. I felt confident that I wasn’t going to experience a nightmare scenario such as going blank in the exam – the information was deeply ingrained in my brain due to lots of practice and sleep.
In the academic year that I conquered this study method, I received my best grades while getting a higher amount of sleep and playing a higher amount of video games. I hope it works for you too!
Summary
- Research indicates that the most common study method for students is highlighting and re-reading notes, especially the night before an exam. However, research also indicates that this method of studying is ineffective at helping people to retain information.
- Many of us recognise that getting good at a game takes practice, yet it’s common for studying to take place in last-minute panic chunks. It is beneficial for us to practice studying using the Distributed Practice method of spacing out studying over time. For example, studying for 10 minutes per day for three days has been found to be more effective than one 30 minute session. It is argued that this is due to sleep consolidating and storing our practiced studying. So practice your learning and have more comfy naps!
- Academics have praised gamers for writing comprehensive and easy-to-understand video game guides. Rather than passively re-reading notes, Elaborative Interrogation involves trying to explain the material that we are trying to learn. It would be beneficial for our studying and learning if we were to act like we were giving advice on a game or writing a video game guide while studying for a test.
- If you’re stressed, try listening to relaxing video game music to keep you calm while studying. Listening to relaxing video game music can also have additional benefits while studying. Through something known as Classical Conditioning, if we keep listening to such music while studying, it reinforces the idea that we need to study and places you firmly in the study zone.
- Feedback and critique can be painful to receive in academia, yet failure is often accepted as a learning device when trying to improve at a game. It would be beneficial for you to be as open to critique as you are to deaths in a game; critique shows you the limits of your knowledge and what you need to improve on.
- While academics praise gamers for easy-to-understand guides, they have critiqued their fellow academics for writing textbooks that are challenging to read. Just as you would prepare for a final boss, you need to prepare for your final exams and ensure that you understand the material. If you don’t, please take advantage of time after class, email addresses, and open office hours to fully prepare for your academic final boss – it’s what your teachers and lecturers are paid for.
- To combine the optimal study methods recommended in this article, I recommend studying with Anki. Anki is a free and powerful flashcard app that can be used on PC and mobile devices, allowing you to study anywhere (Distributed Practice) with material that is written in a question-answer format (Elaborative Interrogation). Anki is also beneficial for helping you to learn from failure as cards will be repeated until answered correctly. Anki can gamify studying by showing you stats and graphs of your study sessions, challenging you to beat your previous high score.
Thank you all very much for reading! This hard work would not be possible without the support of my wonderful Patrons. I would particularly like to thank my Platinum Patrons: Matt Demers, Albert S Calderon, Kyle T, redKheld, DigitalPsyche, Brent Halen, Dimelo ‘Derp’ Waterson, Hagbard Celine, Aprou, Nathan, Austin Enright, Dr. Shane Tilton, SK120, NotGac, ——– and Shaemus. Thank you!
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