Cognitive Training by Tilo Strobach & Julia Karbach

Author:Tilo Strobach & Julia Karbach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Effects of Action Video Games on Perceptual Skills

Vision : Action video game playing has been repeatedly linked to augmented performance in perceptual tasks. For example, one of the most fundamental aspects of vision is contrast sensitivity —the ability to detect differences in luminance in adjacent parts of the visual world (as changes in luminance frequently demarcate important parts of the scene, such as object boundaries). In cross-sectional work, AVGPs have been seen to have enhanced contrast sensitivity as compared to NVGPs (i.e., AVGPs could detect finer differences in luminance than NVGPs; Li et al. 2009). The same study also established a causal relationship between action video game play and enhanced contrast sensitivity via a 50-h intervention study wherein NVGPs trained on an action video game showed significantly greater improvements in contrast sensitivity than NVGPs trained on a nonaction video game.

In cross-sectional work, researchers have also observed enhancements in a number of basic aspects of peripheral vision. For instance, AVGPs have been shown to perform better than NVGPs in the Goldmann visual perimetry test (Buckley et al. 2010). Here individuals sit in front of a large white bowl that encompasses the majority of their visual field. Small lights are turned on at random locations throughout the field, and the individual must indicate whenever a light is observed. AVGPs have also been shown to have enhancements in peripheral acuity (i.e., visual resolution—an eye chart measures the same ability in the central visual field) as compared to NVGPs (Green and Bavelier 2007) as well as enhancements in certain types of motion processing (Hutchinson and Stocks 2013).

Speed of Processing : A number of papers have demonstrated that AVGPs show increases in speed of processing. For example, Dye and colleagues (2009) utilized what is known as the “Brinley plot” technique to examine this issue. Here, AVGP reaction times on a wide variety of tasks (from experiments run by several independent labs) were plotted against NVGP reaction times on the same tasks. AVGPs were found to respond approximately 12 % faster than NVGPs across all of the tasks considered, without any change in accuracy (i.e., the effect could not be attributed to a simple speed-accuracy tradeoff). A similar finding was seen when examining just those studies from the literature employing intervention studies (i.e., testing the causal link).

More recently, several groups have examined this question experimentally via the framework of the theory of visual attention (TVA) . This framework allows researchers to segregate performance into a number of distinct aspects (e.g., related to basic perceptual thresholds, speed of processing, short-term memory storage capacity, top-down attentional control). Specifically, using this framework, Wilms and colleagues (2013) found that AVGPs showed a specific enhancement in the speed with which visual information is transmitted to short-term memory. Schubert and colleagues (2015) also observed greater speed of processing in AVGPs as compared to NVGPs (restricted to the lower visual field in their case) as well as heighted perceptual thresholds in AVGPs. However, no changes in these aspects were noted in NVGP participants

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