In this TEDTalk, cognitive researcher Dr. Bavelier speaks about the impact that certain video games -especially the high action genre- have on our brains. Believe it or not, she believes that these types of video games can help us learn, focus and, multitask.

Dr. Bavelier uses multiple forms of learning principles to help her audience pay attention to her presentation and interact with her. The first thing you notice is her use of underlines and arrows. This demonstrates the signaling principle while making sure that you are paying attention by highlighting the keywords and images she wants you to see. Next, Dr. Bavelier utilizes the redundancy principle by combining the use of images and narration. By doing this she provides the audience with a more comfortable way to grasp the information. Another thing that you notice is that she puts most of her text and visuals physically close together. This is her once again utilizing another learning principle called the spatial contiguity principle.

Dr. Bavelier’s TEDtalk encourages you to make mental images that connect to the lesson she is teaching. This is called Dual coding theory. By making these mental images, this technique plants seeds into the learner’s brain which makes sure that they are able to recall the lesson being taught. By keeping her TEDTalk simple, our cognitive load wasn’t too heavy. This makes it so that the learner doesn’t have trouble recalling the events of the presentation.

Overall this was an insightful and powerful TEDTalk. One that everyone should give a watch if they are interested in how our brain is working when we do tasks, like playing video games for example.