Playing video games linked to troubling memories, says study

A study revealed that playing video games after a day after reactivating the intrusive memories that you want to get rid of may reduce their occurrence over time.

To prove this, the researchers conducted two experiments. They examined the participants by allowing them to view films that contained scenes of traumatic content (for example, footage highlighting the dangers of drunk driving) as a way of experimentally inducing intrusive memories. After 24 hours that are asked to return to the lab.

In the first experiment, half of the participants had their memories of the film reactivated by viewing selected stills from the film footage, followed by a 10-minute filler task, and then 12 minutes of playing the computer game Tetris. The other participants completed only the filler task and then sat quietly for 12 minutes.

The researchers concluded that participants who had their memories reactivated and played Tetris experienced significantly fewer intrusive memories in a diary over the next week than the participants who came to the lab and simply sat quietly for the equivalent period of time.

The results were published in the journal Psychological Science.

By Lizitha