Cargando…

Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition

There is a constantly growing interest in developing efficient methods to enhance cognitive functioning and/or to ameliorate cognitive deficits. One particular line of research focuses on the possibly cognitive enhancing effects that action video game (AVG) playing may have on game players. Interest...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Steenbergen, Laura, Sellaro, Roberta, Stock, Ann-Kathrin, Beste, Christian, Colzato, Lorenza S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675555/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26655929
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144364
_version_ 1782405037090144256
author Steenbergen, Laura
Sellaro, Roberta
Stock, Ann-Kathrin
Beste, Christian
Colzato, Lorenza S.
author_facet Steenbergen, Laura
Sellaro, Roberta
Stock, Ann-Kathrin
Beste, Christian
Colzato, Lorenza S.
author_sort Steenbergen, Laura
collection PubMed
description There is a constantly growing interest in developing efficient methods to enhance cognitive functioning and/or to ameliorate cognitive deficits. One particular line of research focuses on the possibly cognitive enhancing effects that action video game (AVG) playing may have on game players. Interestingly, AVGs, especially first person shooter games, require gamers to develop different action control strategies to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to flexibly adapt their behaviour to the ever-changing context. This study investigated whether and to what extent experience with such videogames is associated with enhanced performance on cognitive control tasks that require similar abilities. Experienced action videogame-players (AVGPs) and individuals with little to no videogame experience (NVGPs) performed a stop-change paradigm that provides a relatively well-established diagnostic measure of action cascading and response inhibition. Replicating previous findings, AVGPs showed higher efficiency in response execution, but not improved response inhibition (i.e. inhibitory control), as compared to NVGPs. More importantly, compared to NVGPs, AVGPs showed enhanced action cascading processes when an interruption (stop) and a change towards an alternative response were required simultaneously, as well as when such a change had to occur after the completion of the stop process. Our findings suggest that playing AVGs is associated with enhanced action cascading and multi-component behaviour without affecting inhibitory control.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4675555
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-46755552015-12-31 Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition Steenbergen, Laura Sellaro, Roberta Stock, Ann-Kathrin Beste, Christian Colzato, Lorenza S. PLoS One Research Article There is a constantly growing interest in developing efficient methods to enhance cognitive functioning and/or to ameliorate cognitive deficits. One particular line of research focuses on the possibly cognitive enhancing effects that action video game (AVG) playing may have on game players. Interestingly, AVGs, especially first person shooter games, require gamers to develop different action control strategies to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to flexibly adapt their behaviour to the ever-changing context. This study investigated whether and to what extent experience with such videogames is associated with enhanced performance on cognitive control tasks that require similar abilities. Experienced action videogame-players (AVGPs) and individuals with little to no videogame experience (NVGPs) performed a stop-change paradigm that provides a relatively well-established diagnostic measure of action cascading and response inhibition. Replicating previous findings, AVGPs showed higher efficiency in response execution, but not improved response inhibition (i.e. inhibitory control), as compared to NVGPs. More importantly, compared to NVGPs, AVGPs showed enhanced action cascading processes when an interruption (stop) and a change towards an alternative response were required simultaneously, as well as when such a change had to occur after the completion of the stop process. Our findings suggest that playing AVGs is associated with enhanced action cascading and multi-component behaviour without affecting inhibitory control. Public Library of Science 2015-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4675555/ /pubmed/26655929 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144364 Text en © 2015 Steenbergen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Steenbergen, Laura
Sellaro, Roberta
Stock, Ann-Kathrin
Beste, Christian
Colzato, Lorenza S.
Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title_full Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title_fullStr Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title_full_unstemmed Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title_short Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition
title_sort action video gaming and cognitive control: playing first person shooter games is associated with improved action cascading but not inhibition
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675555/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26655929
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144364
work_keys_str_mv AT steenbergenlaura actionvideogamingandcognitivecontrolplayingfirstpersonshootergamesisassociatedwithimprovedactioncascadingbutnotinhibition
AT sellaroroberta actionvideogamingandcognitivecontrolplayingfirstpersonshootergamesisassociatedwithimprovedactioncascadingbutnotinhibition
AT stockannkathrin actionvideogamingandcognitivecontrolplayingfirstpersonshootergamesisassociatedwithimprovedactioncascadingbutnotinhibition
AT bestechristian actionvideogamingandcognitivecontrolplayingfirstpersonshootergamesisassociatedwithimprovedactioncascadingbutnotinhibition
AT colzatolorenzas actionvideogamingandcognitivecontrolplayingfirstpersonshootergamesisassociatedwithimprovedactioncascadingbutnotinhibition