Is Playing Video Games Related to Cognitive Abilities?

@article{Unsworth2015IsPV,
  title={Is Playing Video Games Related to Cognitive Abilities?},
  author={Nash Unsworth and Thomas S. Redick and Brittany D. McMillan and David Z. Hambrick and Michael J. Kane and Randall W. Engle},
  journal={Psychological Science},
  year={2015},
  volume={26},
  pages={759 - 774}
}
The relations between video-game experience and cognitive abilities were examined in the current study. In two experiments, subjects performed a number of working memory, fluid intelligence, and attention-control measures and filled out a questionnaire about their video-game experience. In Experiment 1, an extreme-groups analysis indicated that experienced video-game players outperformed nonplayers on several cognitive-ability measures. However, in Experiments 1 and 2, when analyses examined… 

Figures and Tables from this paper

An Analysis of a Video Game on Cognitive Abilities: A Study to Enhance Psychomotor Skills via Game-Play
TLDR
The findings of the study suggest that those participants who played the video game were more confident in using their eye-hand coordination and visual response, and managed to complete the natural building block task faster and more accurately than the participants who did not play the videogame.
Competitive Action Video Games’ Effect on Cognitive Abilities : The Case of Overwatch
Research into the effects of video game play on performance in psychophysical tasks has seen a surge in the last decade. The type of players studied however might not have been the optimal
Issues and advances in research methods on video games and cognitive abilities
TLDR
Objective and declarative gameplay time data gathered from large samples are presented in order to illustrate how playtime is distributed over VGP populations and arguments in favor of differentiating video games based on their genre when recruiting study samples are argued.
Commercial video games and cognitive functions: video game genres and modulating factors of cognitive enhancement
TLDR
Commercial video games are suggested to have the potential for cognitive function enhancement as several factors were identified to modulate cognitive enhancement and the individual difference in the association between video game playing and cognitive function was found.
Perceptual, Attentional, and Executive Functioning After Real-Time Strategy Video Game Training: Efficacy and Relation to In-Game Behavior
Recent meta-analyses and meta-analytic reviews of most common approaches to cognitive training broadly converge on describing a lack of transfer effects past the trained task. This also extends to
The effects of video gaming on visual selective attention
A growing body of research shows that video games may be used to enhance cognitive skills, with particular reference to attentional abilities. This research study explored the effects of video game
Meta-Analysis of Action Video Game Impact on Perceptual, Attentional, and Cognitive Skills
TLDR
Moderator analyses indicated that action video game play robustly enhances the domains of top-down attention and spatial cognition, with encouraging signs for perception.
A new look at the cognitive neuroscience of video game play
TLDR
First‐ and third‐person shooter games are no longer unique in the extent to which they load upon cognitive abilities, and a host of other game genres appear to place similar degrees of load upon these systems.
Exploring the relationship between video game expertise and fluid intelligence
TLDR
Two studies that examine the potential link between intelligence and performance in one of the most popular video games genres in the world (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas: MOBAs) show that performance in the popular MOBA League of Legends correlates with fluid intelligence as measured under controlled laboratory conditions.
The Effects of Covert Recruitment on Cognitive Processing in Action Video Game Players
Cognitive processing among video game players has been widely investigated. However, there has been serious debate regarding how methodological issues could be affecting these results. Our study is
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 63 REFERENCES
Effects of video-game play on information processing: A meta-analytic investigation
TLDR
Using random-effects models, video games led to improved information processing in both the quasi-experimental studies and the true experiments, which yielded negligible effects for executive functions, which contrasted with the small to medium effect sizes in other domains.
Video Games and Spatial Cognition
Video game enthusiasts spend many hours at play, and this intense activity has the potential to alter both brain and behavior. We review studies that investigate the ability of video games to modify
Action video game modifies visual selective attention
TLDR
It is shown that action-video-game playing is capable of altering a range of visual skills, and non-players trained on an action video game show marked improvement from their pre-training abilities.
Not so fast: Rethinking the effects of action video games on attentional capacity
Abstract Considerable excitement has been generated by recent studies showing that video gaming alters fundamental aspects of attention. We tested the claim that people who frequently play action
Memory abilities in action video game players
Real-Time Strategy Game Training: Emergence of a Cognitive Flexibility Trait
TLDR
Comparing two versions of a real-time strategy game found that the gaming condition that emphasized maintenance and rapid switching between multiple information and action sources led to a large increase in cognitive flexibility as measured by a wide array of non-video gaming tasks.
Videogame interventions and spatial ability interactions
TLDR
This work investigates the available evidence for transfer specifically to nonverbal intelligence and spatial ability measures, given recent research that these abilities may be most sensitive to training on cognitive and working memory tasks.
Enhanced visual short-term memory in action video game players
TLDR
This study investigated the VSTM advantage among video game players and assessed whether enhanced processing speed can account for this advantage, finding findings that are inconsistent with a speed-of-processing account of this advantage.
Playing video games does not make for better visual attention skills
The current study aimed to replicate and extend the findings of Green and Bavelier (2003) which showed video game players (VGPs) to have superior temporal attention, spatial distribution of attention
...
1
2
3
4
5
...