Watching a 3D movie can more than double the concentration powers of children, new research claims.

A study by visual technology firm RealD suggests children aged between seven and 14 experienced twice the cognitive processing speed and performed better in testing after watching 20 minutes of a 3D film.

This is despite suggestions that attention spans in children have shortened in the last decade due to unlimited access to TV, gaming and social media.

A 2015 study claimed that watching 3D content had a similar effect to brain-training exercises.

Consumer psychologist Patrick Fagan said the increased stimulation found in watching something in 3D 'exercised' the brain and improved performance in the short term.

“3D films can play the role of brain-training games and help to make children smarter in the short term,” he said.

“The shortening of response times after watching 3D was almost three times as big as that gained from watching 2D; in other words, 3D helps children process aspects of their environment more quickly.

“This is likely to be because 3D is a mentally stimulating experience which 'gets the brain's juices flowing'.”

The experiment saw children given a range of reading tests before watching 20 minutes of a movie in either 2D or 3D and being tested again.

The results showed those who saw the 3D content reacted faster and performed better in the second round of testing.