LaparoStarfighter -- the next videogame craze?

An interesting article entitled Research shows video game playing may help surgeons is making its way around CNN, Yahoo, and other news sites, with the following lead:

All those years on the couch playing Nintendo and PlayStation appear to be paying off for surgeons.

Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games.

The story goes on to talk about a surgeon-researcher who is developing a videogame for laparoscopic surgeons to use as a 'warmup' before they go into surgery.

It's easy to see why this kind of study would generate media interest. The processes underlying knowledge/skill transfer between computer-based environments and real-world tasks is a fascinating area of study, and one that is growing in importance every year. [In fact, almost 10 years ago, I became so interested in this area that I made it my career :) ]. Plus, with all the media attention paid to research on the negative effects of videogames, I'm glad to see more balanced coverage that includes research into the positive aspects of this new medium.

Unfortunately, the articles in CNN and elsewhere do not include links to the actual study's results, and in my opinion do not do a good job of accurately representing the findings -- it's easy to walk away from the article thinking, "If a surgeon starts playing video games for at least three hours a week, he or she will become a better laparoscopic surgeon", which is not a valid conclusion from the study.

I found a presentation of the study's results on one of the researcher's WWW sites -- if this kind of research interests you, you might want to take a look at it.