Playing shooter and driving videogames improves top-down guidance in visual search

Abstract

Playing action videogames is known to improve visual spatial attention and related skills. Here, we showed that playing action videogames also improves classic visual search, as well as the ability to locate targets in a dual search that mimics certain aspects of an action videogame. In Experiment 1A, first-person shooter (FPS) videogame players were faster than nonplayers in both feature search and conjunction search, and in Experiment 1B, they were faster and more accurate in a peripheral search and identification task while simultaneously performing a central search. In Experiment 2, we showed that 10 h of play could improve the performance of nonplayers on each of these tasks. Three different genres of videogames were used for training: two action games and a 3-D puzzle game. Participants who played an action game (either an FPS or a driving game) achieved greater gains on all search tasks than did those who trained using the puzzle game. Feature searches were faster after playing an action videogame, suggesting that players developed a better target template to guide search in a top-down manner. The results of the dual search suggest that, in addition to enhancing the ability to divide attention, playing an action game improves the top-down guidance of attention to possible target locations. The results have practical implications for the development of training tools to improve perceptual and cognitive skills.

Action video game training reduces the Simon Effect

“…These findings add to evidence that action game play can reduce RTs on a number of laboratory tasks (Dye et al, 2009). The absence of a reduction in the Simon Effect for participants in the Sight Training or control groups is also consistent with previous evidence for training improvements that are specific to action games (Wu & Spence, 2013). In addition, our results provide the first direct evidence of training that generalizes from action game play to a laboratory task used to induce conflict during response selection (Hommel, 2011).…”

“…Video game play has also been associated with an increase in the speed of visual processing and faster response times (RTs) (Dye, Green, & Bavelier, 2009). Game play decreases the attentional blink (Green & Bavelier, 2003), increases search efficiency (Wu & Spence, 2013), and decreases attentional capture by task-irrelevant distractors (Chisholm, Hickey, Thweeuwes, & Kingstone, 2010). These improvements have been observed in non-game players who have undergone as little as 10 hours' training, indicating rapid changes in perceptual sensitivity and attentional control that generalize from game play to laboratory and real-world tasks (see Bavelier, Green, Pouget, and Schrater (2012) and Spence and Feng (2010) for reviews).…”

“…A key question in this regard is how video game training affects each stage of the visuo-motor decision process. Many of the benefits associated with action game play have been attributed to enhanced top-down attentional control during the identification and selection of task-relevant stimuli (Cain, Prinzmetal, Shimamura, & Landau, 2014;Green & Bavelier, 2003;Wu & Spence, 2013). Game play modulates late event-related potential (ERP) components thought to reflect the endogenous modulation of stimulus-driven competition for selection (Wu, Cheng, Feng, D'Angelo, Alain, & Spence, 2012), and has been associated with changes in the activation of a frontoparietal network implicated in executive control and the dynamic allocation of cognitive resources (Bavelier, Green, Pouget, & Schrater, 2012;Kuhn, Lorenz, Banaschski, et al, 2014).…”

The Changing Face of Video Games and Video Gamers: Future Directions in the Scientific Study of Video Game Play and Cognitive Performance

“…In the more than 10 years that have passed since this study, a vast amount of work has been published on the potential use of action video games to enhance various processes such as perception (Donohue et al 2010;Dye et al 2009;Li et al 2010b), attention (e.g., Dye et al 2009;Dye and Bavelier 2010;Green and Bavelier 2003HubertWallander et al 2011;Li et al 2010a, b;Wu and Spence 2013;Wu et al 2012), and higher-level cognition including task switching (Chiappe et al 2013;Colzato et al 2010;Green et al 2012;Strobach et al 2012), multi-tasking (Strobach et al 2012), and some aspects of short-term/working memory (Blacker and Curby 2013;Blacker et al 2014;Colzato et al 2013;McDermott et al 2014;Sungur and Boduroglu 2012;Wilms et al 2013). Indeed, the literature on the relationship between video game play and cognitive and perceptual performance is now sufficiently large enough to allow for metaanalyses to be conducted (Bediou et al under review;Powers et al 2013).…”

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

“…In tasks that do not employ linguistic stimuli, both AVG players and individuals without video games experience but trained with AVG (or driving games) were found to have better skills than control group [79]. Where participants have simply to count the amount of stimuli (dots) on the screen, children with DD resulted mildly impaired, mainly with larger quantities [80,81].…”