In other studies, researchers have shown that boys who have access to video game systems at
home are frequently distracted from their homework. The research showed that the boys’ reading and
writing scores suffered as a result. It’s also possible that playing video games, which involves
multitasking (doing more than one thing at a time) has more impact on the brain than distractions such
as watching TV. In one study, boys aged 12 to 14 spent an hour every other night playing video games
after they finished their homework. On the other evenings, they spent an hour watching a movie on TV.
The researchers found that on nights when the boys watched TV, they slept better than when they
played video games. The video games also had a negative impact on the boys’ ability to remember
vocabulary, even words that they were already familiar with.