Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition

Abstract

ABSTRACT-We demonstrate a previously unknown gender difference in the distribution of spatial attention, a basic capacity that supports higher-level spatial cognition. More remarkably, we found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate this gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability, a higher-level process in spatial cognition. After only 10 hr of training with an action video game, subjects realized substantial gains in both spatial attention and mental rotation, with women benefiting more than men. Control subjects who played a nonaction game showed no improvement. Given that superior spatial skills are important in the mathematical and engineering sciences, these findings have practical implications for attracting men and women to these fields.

Video Game Use and Cognitive Performance: Does It Vary with the Presence of Problematic Video Game Use?

“…6 The transferable nature of these abilities may also be due to the flexibility in the kinds of training video games provide, as increasing the need for switching between task demands and the requirements for adjustments in the approach or skills used has been suggested to encourage a greater level of transfer to novel situations. 7 This has been well supported by the literature, which has demonstrated that action video game players as well as nonplayers trained using action video games have a greater attentional capacity, as measured by both flanker compatibility 2,8,9 and enumeration paradigms, 10 greater mental rotation, 11,12 executive control 2,13-16 (normally measured by task switching performance, for which participants are required to alternate quickly between two conflicting tasks), and visual short-term memory (VSTM), 13 to name but a few. However, these discoveries have not gone undisputed, and several studies have reported there to be no significant differences between VGPs and NVGPs.…”

Action video game training for cognitive enhancement

“…This includes improvements in visual sensitivity [24,29], basic perimetry [20], perceptual decision making [30], speed of processing [31,32], perceptual simultaneity and temporal order judgments [21], in the capacity to select task relevant information across space [23,33 ,34-36,37 ,38] and time [23,33 ,39,40], to overcome attentional capture [41,42] and utilize cognitive control [25], in the ability to track multiple moving objects [23,43,44], to mentally rotate complex shapes [36], to remember visually presented information [45,46], and to either rapidly switch between tasks [47 , [48][49][50][51][52] or to perform multiple tasks concurrently [51,53] (although see [54][55][56][57] for failures to find such effects). The available research also strongly contradicts the popular conception of the 'triggerhappy' video game player who is willing to trade reductions in accuracy for increased speed.…”

Jogos Digitais na Escola: aprimorando a atenção e a flexibilidade cognitiva

“…A partir da interação com esse tipo de jogo, os sujeitos jogadores têm um tempo menor de reação, melhoria no desempenho relacionado às habilidades visuais básicas e a atenção (Li et al, 2010); exercitam habilidades relacionadas à atenção, como o aumento do número de objetos que são percebidos simultaneamente, a atenção seletiva e a atenção dividida (Feng;Spence;Pratt, 2007;Dye;Bavelier, 2010); melhoram o desempenho cognitivo, aprimorando a capacidade de fazer mais de uma tarefa ao mesmo tempo e de tomar decisões executivas (Boot et al, 2008).…”