A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences attempts to explain why certain types of games seem to improve learning abilities.

The effects of video games on the brain have been the subject of scientific study since the birth of the medium, and a slew of reports have shown benefits to reaction time, coordination, cognition, and so on. But the reason for these small benefits was largely unexplained.

Vikranth Bejjanki, a psychologist at Princeton University and one of the lead researchers in the study, said:

We’ve seen improvements in tasks like efficiently tracking a large number of objects, accurately rotating an object in your mind, and perceiving slight changes on a display. And the big question that sticks out at us now is ‘Why?’ What are the underlying mechanics that are allowing gamers to get better at such a broad range of tasks?

The explanation, according to the Bejjanki: “Action video games, to put it simply, seem to enhance your ability to learn how to learn.”

The study had gamers and non-gamers play a simple game. In the game, they attempted to identify the orientation of objects on a screen with various obstructions and blurring effects making the task more difficult.

Bejjanki explained that both groups had difficulty with the task in the beginning, but the experienced action gamers progressed much more rapidly than their non-gamer counterparts. They quickly picked up on the strategies required to do well.

Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain science at the University of Rochester and another researcher on the study, admitted that not all games provided the same benefits. Bavelier said: “I can show that playing the video game itself improves their performance. But all video games don’t lead to improvement.”

According Bavelier, slower paced games that did not require quick reactions or improved strategies did not elicit the same boost to learning ability. She also noted that although gaming might aid in learning, studies have shown that children who spend a significant amount of time on computers do no perform as well in school.

Bevelier said: “If you spend too much time on this new media, you spend less time on homework and you will do less well.”