Action video games and improved attentional control: Disentangling selection- and response-based processes

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that experience with action video games is associated with improvements in a host of cognitive tasks. Evidence from paradigms that assess aspects of attention has suggested that action video game players (AVGPs) possess greater control over the allocation of attentional resources than do non-video-game players (NVGPs). Using a compound search task that teased apart selectionand response-based processes (Duncan, 1985), we required participants to perform an oculomotor capture task in which they made saccades to a uniquely colored target (selectionbased process) and then produced a manual directional response based on information within the target (response-based process). We replicated the finding that AVGPs are less susceptible to attentional distraction and, critically, revealed that AVGPs outperform NVGPs on both selection-based and response-based processes. These results not only are consistent with the improved-attentional-control account of AVGP benefits, but they suggest that the benefit of action video game playing extends across the full breadth of attention-mediated stimulus-response processes that impact human performance.Keywords Eye movements . Visual attention . Attentional capture . Visual search . Cognitive and attentional control Over the past decade, researchers have taken an interest in the impact that action video game experience has on cognition. Since action video games are typically fast-paced, require players to accurately select relevant information and make split-second decisions in contexts that are visually complex, and are attentionally demanding, these games have been targeted as an ideal candidate to assess the effect of experience on cognition. Experience with action video games has been linked to a variety of visual and cognitive benefits, with much of this work emphasizing improvements in tasks that engage selective-attention processes (for reviews,

“Shall We Play a Game?”: Improving Reading Through Action Video Games in Developmental Dyslexia

“…Chisholm and Kingstone [118,119] showed a marginal effect in saccade latencies (with AVG players faster than NAVG players) during a cued visual search task (but see [98,118,120]). West et al [98] found greater attentional allocation to the cued target location in AVG players compared to NAVG ones.…”

Neural bases of enhanced attentional control: Lessons from action video game players

“…AVGPs have been shown to possess larger attentional resources and display more flexibility in how they distribute these resources over space, time or to objects, which allows them to adapt to task demands (for reviews see Green & Bavelier, ; Spence & Feng, ). Eye‐tracking studies provide a convergent view by documenting initial oculomotor capture effects that are similar in AVGPs and NVGPs, but swifter recovery in AVGPS when wrongly cued (Chisholm, Hickey, Theeuwes, & Kingstone, ; Chisholm & Kingstone, , ). Search studies using manual reaction times, detection rate or eye‐tracking concur to demonstrate that AVGPS outperform NVGPs in detecting targets among distractors with some studies directly documenting fewer attention shifts (saccades) to task‐irrelevant distractors (Castel, Pratt, & Drummond, ; Chisholm & Kingstone, , , ; Clark, Fleck, & Mitroff, ; Hubert‐Wallander, Green, Sugarman, & Bavelier, ; Mack, Wiesmann, & Ilg, ; but see for another view Heimler, Pavani, Donk, & van Zoest, ).…”

Action video gaming and the brain: fMRI effects without behavioral effects in visual and verbal cognitive tasks

“…There is promising evidence that video game experience results in general improvement in attentional control, which, in turn, can be applied to various cognitive tasks (for a review, see Hubert‐Wallander, Green, & Bavelier, ). For example, Chisholm and Kingstone () found that action VGP outperform NVGP in selection‐based as well as response‐based processes of an oculomotor capture task indicating that experienced gamers benefit from enhanced attentional control. Advantages for action VGP in various attention‐demanding tasks have also been reported by Cardoso‐Leite et al.…”