The simple trick that can improve your attention span by 5%: Playing a video game can boost brainpower (but you'll need to play for at least an hour)

While some view videogames as a waste of time, researchers have found that spending time in these virtual worlds can actually enhance your perception and attention skills. People who play between one and five hours a week are able to process visual information five percent more accurately than those who don't play at all, finds a new study. These findings suggest that those who play video games are faster and more efficient at processing rapidly-presented stimuli. People who play between 1 and 5 hours a week are able to process visual information 5% more accurately than those who don't play at all, finds a new study from psychologists at Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University asked 43 participants to perform observation tasks presented on a screen. The first asked participants to identify a white letter within the stream of black letters, and the other the letter'T' in one of four orientations, rotated by 0, 90, 180, and 270 and observers attempted to discriminate between these orientations The team found that video gamers were able to perform this dual task on average 5% more accurately than non-gamers, suggesting faster and more efficient processing of rapidly-presented stimuli.