Summary: A new study reports people who play video games for a few hours a week are able to process visual information more accurately than those who don’t.
Source: Nottingham Trent University.
People who play video games for even a small amount of time have superior perception and attention skills to those who don’t play at all, new research suggests.
A study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University found participants who played action games for between one and five hours a week could more accurately process visual information than those who didn’t play at all.
As part of the study, published in the journal Perception , participants were challenged to perform observation tasks on a screen.
This involved being rapidly presented with a stream of items – at a speed of ten per second – before being asked to recall details of two of the items in the stream. People had to say which item had appeared in a different colour and also to correctly identify the rotation of another.
The researchers found that video gamers were able to perform this dual task on average 5% more accurately than non-gamers, suggesting faster and more efficient processing of rapidly-presented stimuli.
It is the first time research has examined improved attention of moderate video gamers in this way, with previous work tending to focus on those who game more regularly.
“It appears that even very moderate gamers have enhanced processing ability, leading to better performance in perceptual and attentional tasks,” said lead researcher Dr Christina Howard, a psychologist in the University’s School of Social Sciences.
She said: “5% could have a significant impact if you think of 5 out of 100 rapid events potentially being missed by non-gamers but seen by videogame players.
“It could be the case that people who already have these superior perception and attention skills are drawn to gaming – or it might be that they develop these skills as a result of their video gaming activity.
“Either way, we believe the findings might have implications for everyday activities which require enhanced rapid perception. This might include driving, sports – playing, refereeing or judging for instance – or professions which require close monitoring of systems, such as CCTV.”
Source: Nottingham Trent University
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Nottingham Trent University press release.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Light Video Game Play is Associated with Enhanced Visual Processing of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Targets” by Christina J. Howard, Robert Wilding, and Duncan Guest in Perception. Published online October 3 2016 doi:10.1177/0301006616672579
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Nottingham Trent University. “Moderate Video Game Playing Enhances Perception and Attention Skills.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 10 October 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/video-games-attention-perception-5254/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Nottingham Trent University. (2016, October 10). Moderate Video Game Playing Enhances Perception and Attention Skills. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved October 10, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/video-games-attention-perception-5254/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Nottingham Trent University. “Moderate Video Game Playing Enhances Perception and Attention Skills.” https://neurosciencenews.com/video-games-attention-perception-5254/ (accessed October 10, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Light Video Game Play is Associated with Enhanced Visual Processing of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Targets
There is mixed evidence that video game players (VGPs) may demonstrate better performance in perceptual and attentional tasks than non-VGPs (NVGPs). The rapid serial visual presentation task is one such case, where observers respond to two successive targets embedded within a stream of serially presented items. We tested light VGPs (LVGPs) and NVGPs on this task. LVGPs were better at correct identification of second targets whether they were also attempting to respond to the first target. This performance benefit seen for LVGPs suggests enhanced visual processing for briefly presented stimuli even with only very moderate game play. Observers were less accurate at discriminating the orientation of a second target within the stream if it occurred shortly after presentation of the first target, that is to say, they were subject to the attentional blink (AB). We find no evidence for any reduction in AB in LVGPs compared with NVGPs.
“Light Video Game Play is Associated with Enhanced Visual Processing of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Targets” by Christina J. Howard, Robert Wilding, and Duncan Guest in Perception. Published online October 3 2016 doi:10.1177/0301006616672579
