Every Christmas, my family follows the same script: a stack of board games hits the table, and a spirited debate breaks out over what we should play. But as the holidays draw closer and my work brain powers down, I started wondering whether games could be more than a way to pass the time. Is it possible to find a game that’s genuinely fun and gives my sluggish brain a workout?
To find out, I asked experts which games do the most to sharpen your mind.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” says Dr. Fernand Gobet, cognitive scientist and author of Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games, “but the answer is none.”
“Not even chess?” I ask. “There is a moderate correlation between chess skill and different kinds of intelligence,” says Gobet, “but this seems to be explained by the fact that more intelligent individuals tend to be more attracted to activities such as chess.”
That doesn’t mean games are useless for the brain. Rather, Gobet explains, most games teach “domain-specific skills,” or specialized knowledge. For example, if you want to boost your mathematical or business knowledge, choose Monopoly.
Many classic games—chess, Go, checkers—encourage players to think before acting, says Gobet. This is a core component of executive function, the mental skills that help us solve problems, make decisions, and navigate complex situations.
And games also foster social intelligence, such as respecting opponents and losing gracefully, he adds.
Video games might do more for your brain
A recent study suggests that while playing games in general is good for your brain, video games may have a stronger effect than board games. One reason may be that video games require players to process multiple streams of information at once and adapt strategies in real time.
“Constantly getting new challenges and having to figure out even entirely new systems is good for the brain,” says Dr. Kurt Dean Squire, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, whose research focuses on game-based learning. “You are having to think laterally about ideas, exploring problems from new angles.”
“Different games help build different types of intelligence,” says Dr. Nathan Carroll, a board-certified psychiatrist and author of Internet Gaming Disorder.
Games that emphasize cooperation, such as Animal Crossing, Minecraft, and many MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), benefit social intelligence—provided they’re played collaboratively, Carroll says.
Role-playing games, which let you control characters in fictional worlds and tend to feature dense, descriptive text, can enhance linguistic intelligence. “In fact, I personally learned to read while playing RPGs on the Sega Master System in the 1980s,” Carroll says. “To engage with them, I needed to learn the words on the screen.”
Games where the goal is to construct and manage some form of base or empire, like Minecraft, Valheim, and 4X games, encourage logical and spatial intelligence, Carroll says.
“Augmented- and virtual-reality games offer many opportunities to develop kinesthetic (bodily/movement) intelligence,” says Carroll. “Great games for this include Beat Saber and Fruit Ninja.”
Never too old—or too young—to play
For children, games can be a powerful teaching tool. “Children in particular might be more motivated to learn if they engage in activities that are fun,” says Gobet.
A large study involving more than 500 primary-school students found that children who played modern board games in class got better at “updating”—the brain’s ability to swap out old information for new, useful facts—and they also had better reading and math skills compared to students taught using regular classes.
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The cognitive benefits of games aren’t limited to children. Among older adults, “trying new things, solving problems, any sort of mental stimulation has shown to lead to big gains in staving off cognitive decline,” says Squire. “Games that are social are even better.”
Multiple studies have shown that older adults who regularly played games like Go and Ska (a traditional board game in Thailand) experienced improvements in attention, memory, and executive function (the mental skills used to plan, solve problems, and adapt to new situations).
Age appropriateness matters, Gobet cautions. Games that are too easy bore older players, while overly complex games can frustrate younger ones. “This being said, children can learn complex games such as chess at a surprisingly young age,” says Gobet. “For example, an Indian child was recently in the news for having acquired a chess rating of nearly 1600 Elo—the rating of an average amateur level—at the age of 3.”
Bottom line
Games don’t make you smarter, but they can support your brain, regardless of your age. Different games sharpen different skills—and video games may have an edge over traditional board games by demanding faster, more flexible thinking.
Perhaps it’s time to update our Christmas game stash with a video game or two.
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