University of Michigan psychology professor Susanne M. Jaeggi was quoted today in an L.A. Times article about research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that explored the possibility of certain video games improving the reasoning and working memory ability of children who play them.
According to the researchers, the children have to want to play the games and not be pushed into doing them, and there has to be what Jaeggi calls a "delicate balance between too much or too little" in order for the games to be effective.
Read more about the research here.