Specific effects of action video games on perception and attention

Many research studies have established that playing action video games can lead to visual attention and perception benefits for the player. This dissertation pioneers the use of custom designed video game levels to determine if a single aspect of action video game play has specific effects on the player. In the following studies, specific aspects of action video games can indeed be isolated and thus potentially used as training tools for targeted perceptual benefits. Experiment 1 demonstrates that just two hours of training in a custom designed video game world that emphasizes friend vs. foe discrimination benefits players’ ability to focus on relevant visual information, and leads to marginally decreased flanker interference and marginally improved filtering capacity. Experiment 2 examines the beneficial effects of dispersed vs. narrowly focused attention in a second custom designed video game world. After two hours of game play, players in the dispersed attention condition significantly increased their visual working memory capacity and ability to allocate attention to peripheral items.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wichita State University

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Brown, Christopher Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Palmer, Evan M.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright Christopher Michael Brown, 2012. All rights reserved

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

d12001

OAI record oai:identifier

https://soar.wichita.edu/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Anull%3A10057%2F5352