Issues and advances in research methods on video games and cognitive abilities

Sobczyk, Bartosz; Dobrowolski, Paweł; Skorko, Maciek; Michalak, Jakub; Brzezicka, Aneta

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01451

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…All subjects completed an online questionnaire about demographics, education status, and video game playing experience. In our selfdesigned questionnaire (online questionnaire on the GEX platform), 45 we asked additional questions to assess how often individuals engage in various game genres. We broke the game genres down into the following categories: first-person shooter (FPS), RTS, role playing, sports, a multiplayer online battle arena, racing, puzzles, fighting, turn-based strategy, adventure, and platform games.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lenticular nucleus volume predicts performance in real‐time strategy game: cross‐sectional and training approach using voxel‐based morphometry

Kowalczyk-Grębska

Skorko

Dobrowolski

et al. 2020

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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It is unclear why some people learn faster than others. We performed two independent studies in which we investigated the neural basis of real-time strategy (RTS) gaming and neural predictors of RTS game skill acquisition. In the first (cross-sectional) study, we found that experts in the RTS game StarCraft R II (SC2) had a larger lenticular nucleus volume (LNV) than non-RTS players. We followed a cross-validation procedure where we used the volume of regions identified in the first study to predict the quality of learning a new, complex skill (SC2) in a sample of individuals who were naive to RTS games (a second (training) study). Our findings provide new insights into how the LNV, which is associated with motor as well as cognitive functions, can be utilized to predict successful skill learning and be applied to a much broader context than just video games, such as contributing to optimizing cognitive training interventions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lenticular nucleus volume predicts performance in real‐time strategy game: cross‐sectional and training approach using voxel‐based morphometry

Kowalczyk-Grębska

Skorko

Dobrowolski

et al. 2020

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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“…We administered a questionnaire of our own design (Sobczyk et al, ) on the GEX platform (GEX Immergo, Funds Auxilium Sp. z o.o) to measure demographics and education status together with the covert measurement of game experience.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real‐time strategy video game experience and structural connectivity – A diffusion tensor imaging study

Kowalczyk

Shi

Magnuski

et al. 2018

Human Brain Mapping

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Experienced video game players exhibit superior performance in visuospatial cognition when compared to non-players. However, very little is known about the relation between video game experience and structural brain plasticity. To address this issue, a direct comparison of the white matter brain structure in RTS (real time strategy) video game players (VGPs) and non-players (NVGPs) was performed. We hypothesized that RTS experience can enhance connectivity within and between occipital and parietal regions, as these regions are likely to be involved in the spatial and visual abilities that are trained while playing RTS games. The possible influence of long-term RTS game play experience on brain structural connections was investigated using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a region of interest (ROI) approach in order to describe the experience-related plasticity of white matter. Our results revealed significantly more total white matter connections between occipital and parietal areas and within occipital areas in RTS players compared to NVGPs. Additionally, the RTS group had an altered topological organization of their structural network, expressed in local efficiency within the occipito-parietal subnetwork. Furthermore, the positive association between network metrics and time spent playing RTS games suggests a close relationship between extensive, long-term RTS game play and neuroplastic changes. These results indicate that long-term and extensive RTS game experience induces alterations along axons that link structures of the occipito-parietal loop involved in spatial and visual processing.

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“…These participants were recruited primarily through Facebook advertising campaigns, which invited individuals to participate in a longitudinal study of complex skill learning. Potential participants were screened online using the VGQ (Video Game Questionnaire; Sobczyk et al, 2015) in order to assess their video game playing history. Only individuals who reported playing action video games (first-person shooter, third-person shooter, real-time strategy, open-world action games, and multi-player online battle arenas) less than 5 h per week over the past 6 months were accepted to the study and invited for laboratory measures.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual, Attentional, and Executive Functioning After Real-Time Strategy Video Game Training: Efficacy and Relation to In-Game Behavior

et al. 2021

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Recent meta-analyses and meta-analytic reviews of most common approaches to cognitive training broadly converge on describing a lack of transfer effects past the trained task. This also extends to the more recent attempts at using video games to improve cognitive abilities, bringing into question if they have any true effects on cognitive functioning at all. Despite this, video game training studies are slowly beginning to accumulate and provide evidence of replicable improvements. Our study aimed to train non-video game playing individuals in the real-time strategy video game StarCraft II in order to observe any subsequent changes to perceptual, attentional, and executive functioning. Thirty hours of StarCraft II training resulted in improvements to perceptual and attentional abilities, but not executive functioning. This pattern of results is in line with previous research on the more frequently investigated “action” video games. By splitting the StarCraft II training group into two conditions of “fixed” and “variable” training, we were also able to demonstrate that manipulating the video game environment produces measurable differences in the amount of cognitive improvement. Lastly, by extracting in-game behavior features from recordings of each participant’s gameplay, we were able to show a direct correlation between in-game behavior change and cognitive performance change after training. These findings highlight and support the growing trend of more finely detailed and methodologically rigorous approaches to studying the relationship between video games and cognitive functioning.

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Issues and advances in research methods on video games and cognitive abilities

Cited by 19 publications

References 40 publications

Lenticular nucleus volume predicts performance in real‐time strategy game: cross‐sectional and training approach using voxel‐based morphometry

Lenticular nucleus volume predicts performance in real‐time strategy game: cross‐sectional and training approach using voxel‐based morphometry

Real‐time strategy video game experience and structural connectivity – A diffusion tensor imaging study

Perceptual, Attentional, and Executive Functioning After Real-Time Strategy Video Game Training: Efficacy and Relation to In-Game Behavior

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