Introduction
The topic of the present study is the effect of video games playing on a person’s visuospatial attention performance, that is, the response time and accuracy in video game latency. In order to measure this performance, a flanker compatibility task is being used. The function of selective attention is crucial: it allows us to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and lets the former guide behavior while minimizing the impact of the latter (Bavelier, Achtman, Mani, & Föcker, 2012).
Visuospatial selective attention is significant for a number of mundane but important tasks like driving (Green & Bavelier, 2006). It is noteworthy, though, that irrelevant information still has the chance of affecting behavior, which, in particular, results in worse selective attention performance (Wendt & Luna-Rodriguez, 2009). The ability to suppress distracting information and pay attention to the relevant one is supposed to indicate greater executive and attentional control, which is beneficial for attention performance (Bavelier et al., 2012).
Nowadays, the means of measuring this performance include the flanker compatibility task (Bavelier et al., 2012), which is a choice task that allows defining accuracy and response time and presupposes the presence of a target stimulus flanked with irrelevant ones (Wendt & Luna-Rodriguez, 2009). The study of selective attention provides us with insights into its mechanisms; for example, it has been established that visuospatial performance can be trained (Sanchez, 2012), and there is evidence to the idea that video games night offer an opportunity for such training.
Analysis
The effects of video games on players are numerous, and they can be positive as well as negative. The fact that the visual environments of modern games include complex visual cues that “require flexible attentional resources” has captivated the thought of researchers (Latham, Patston, Westermann, Kirk, & Tippett, 2013, p. 1), and the bulk of evidence to the theory that game playing is capable of affecting the performance on visuospatial and attentional tasks has been growing (Green & Bavelier, 2006).
As a result, the study of the relationship between games and visual selective attention has been developing in the past years, but even nowadays the field exhibits numerous blank spots (Bavelier et al., 2012; Gentile, 2011; Irons, Remington, & McLean, 2011; Latham et al., 2013).
Moreover, the question of whether there is a relationship between gaming and attention remains unanswered. For example, the study by Green and Bavelier (2006) indicates that gamers exhibit enhanced spatial attention performance (both in the periphery and central vision). Similarly, Chen, Chiang, Liu, and Chang (2012) demonstrate that exposure to video games is capable of enhancing one’s selective attention. However, Irons et al. (2011) carried out two experiments that prove no difference in selective attention performance between frequent players and the people who do not play video games.
It is noteworthy that the sample of Irons et al. (2011) was greater in size than that of Green and Bavelier (2006), but the study of Chen et al. (2012) involved a bigger sample. Also, the studies did not use the same games. Video games vary in their characteristics, including their cognitive load, and it is noteworthy that the specifics of games and their playing process can shape the effects (Gentile, 2011). This fact implies that the cognitive load of a game may determine the extent of its impact on a player’s spatial performance, which could have affected the controversial results achieved by the researchers.
To sum up, this area of study demands further research, which has the potential of deepening our understanding of human beings. However, apart from providing further knowledge on the topic of selective attention (Bavelier et al., 2012), the study of the effects of video games on selective attention has a practical application. Indeed, the understanding of the mechanics of these effects has the potential of enabling the development of interventions for the enhancement of performance, which is especially important for people with reduced attention control.
An example of the progress in this area is the study by Chen et al. (2012) that involves a test of the effects of Xbox games interventions on the visuospatial attention performance of 58 participants aged 65-92. The authors reported that the majority of participants experienced positive effects, but insisted that further research was required for the development of the best suitable interventions.
Conclusion
To sum up, the study of the effects of video games on spatial performance is a field of research that is promising both from the theoretical and practical perspectives, which justifies the present study. It is devoted to an experiment that employs a flanker compatibility task as the measurement tool for the participant’s video game latency. The performance aspects that are going to be taken into consideration include response time and accuracy. Selective attention will be measured by defining the ability to recognize and use game cues. Apart from that, the games with the high and low cognitive load will be studied to find out if the load affects the performance.
This aspect of the current investigation belongs to a relatively underresearched area of video game studies. Our inquiry of the existing research and our previous findings allow us to present the following hypotheses: first, more intensive video game playing tends to improve response time and accuracy rates; second, playing high load video games results in better response time and accuracy rates.
References
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