79
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Do Action Video Games Improve Perception and Cognition?

      review-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Frequent action video game players often outperform non-gamers on measures of perception and cognition, and some studies find that video game practice enhances those abilities. The possibility that video game training transfers broadly to other aspects of cognition is exciting because training on one task rarely improves performance on others. At first glance, the cumulative evidence suggests a strong relationship between gaming experience and other cognitive abilities, but methodological shortcomings call that conclusion into question. We discuss these pitfalls, identify how existing studies succeed or fail in overcoming them, and provide guidelines for more definitive tests of the effects of gaming on cognition.

          Related collections

          Most cited references28

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in spatial cognition.

          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 non-action 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.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Effects of cognitive training interventions with older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

            Cognitive function in older adults is related to independent living and need for care. However, few studies have addressed whether improving cognitive functions might have short- or long-term effects on activities related to living independently. To evaluate whether 3 cognitive training interventions improve mental abilities and daily functioning in older, independent-living adults. Randomized, controlled, single-blind trial with recruitment conducted from March 1998 to October 1999 and 2-year follow-up through December 2001. Volunteer sample of 2832 persons aged 65 to 94 years recruited from senior housing, community centers, and hospital/clinics in 6 metropolitan areas in the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: 10-session group training for memory (verbal episodic memory; n = 711), or reasoning (ability to solve problems that follow a serial pattern; n = 705), or speed of processing (visual search and identification; n = 712); or a no-contact control group (n = 704). For the 3 treatment groups, 4-session booster training was offered to a 60% random sample 11 months later. Cognitive function and cognitively demanding everyday functioning. Thirty participants were incorrectly randomized and were excluded from the analysis. Each intervention improved the targeted cognitive ability compared with baseline, durable to 2 years (P<.001 for all). Eighty-seven percent of speed-, 74% of reasoning-, and 26% of memory-trained participants demonstrated reliable cognitive improvement immediately after the intervention period. Booster training enhanced training gains in speed (P<.001) and reasoning (P<.001) interventions (speed booster, 92%; no booster, 68%; reasoning booster, 72%; no booster, 49%), which were maintained at 2-year follow-up (P<.001 for both). No training effects on everyday functioning were detected at 2 years. Results support the effectiveness and durability of the cognitive training interventions in improving targeted cognitive abilities. Training effects were of a magnitude equivalent to the amount of decline expected in elderly persons without dementia over 7- to 14-year intervals. Because of minimal functional decline across all groups, longer follow-up is likely required to observe training effects on everyday function.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?

              Declines in various cognitive abilities, particularly executive control functions, are observed in older adults. An important goal of cognitive training is to slow or reverse these age-related declines. However, opinion is divided in the literature regarding whether cognitive training can engender transfer to a variety of cognitive skills in older adults. In the current study, the authors trained older adults in a real-time strategy video game for 23.5 hr in an effort to improve their executive functions. A battery of cognitive tasks, including tasks of executive control and visuospatial skills, were assessed before, during, and after video-game training. The trainees improved significantly in the measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in executive control functions, such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning. Individual differences in changes in game performance were correlated with improvements in task switching. The study has implications for the enhancement of executive control processes of older adults. Copyright (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychology
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Research Foundation
                1664-1078
                13 September 2011
                2011
                : 2
                : 226
                Affiliations
                [1] 1simpleDepartment of Psychology, Florida State University Tallahassee, FL, USA
                [2] 2simpleDepartment of Psychology, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, USA
                Author notes

                Edited by: Mattie Tops, University of Groningen, Netherlands

                Reviewed by: Mattie Tops, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Sarah E. Donohue, Duke University, USA

                *Correspondence: Walter R. Boot, Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 W. Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, USA. e-mail: boot@ 123456psy.fsu.edu

                This article was submitted to Frontiers in Cognition, a specialty of Frontiers in Psychology.

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00226
                3171788
                21949513
                b6ffd02b-aafc-4896-9abc-9e1d24dbc1f2
                Copyright © 2011 Boot, Blakely and Simons.

                This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with.

                History
                : 31 March 2011
                : 24 August 2011
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 1, Equations: 0, References: 36, Pages: 6, Words: 4784
                Categories
                Psychology
                Perspective Article

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                transfer of training,perceptual learning,video games,cognitive training

                Comments

                Comment on this article