Video Game Use and Cognitive Performance: Does It Vary with the Presence of Problematic Video Game Use?

Collins, Emily and Freeman, Jonathan. 2014. Video Game Use and Cognitive Performance: Does It Vary with the Presence of Problematic Video Game Use? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(3), pp. 153-159. ISSN 2152-2715 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Action video game players have been found to outperform nonplayers on a variety of cognitive tasks. However, several failures to replicate these video game player advantages have indicated that this relationship may not be straightforward. Moreover, despite the discovery that problematic video game players do not appear to demonstrate the same superior performance as nonproblematic video game players in relation to multiple object tracking paradigms, this has not been investigated for other tasks. Consequently, this study compared gamers and nongamers in task switching ability, visual short-term memory, mental rotation, enumeration, and flanker interference, as well as investigated the influence of self-reported problematic video game use. A total of 66 participants completed the experiment, 26 of whom played action video games, including 20 problematic players. The results revealed no significant effect of playing action video games, nor any influence of problematic video game play. This indicates that the previously reported cognitive advantages in video game players may be restricted to specific task features or samples. Furthermore, problematic video game play may not have a detrimental effect on cognitive performance, although this is difficult to ascertain considering the lack of video game player advantage. More research is therefore sorely needed.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0629

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates:

DateEvent
4 March 2014Published

Item ID:

10758

Date Deposited:

14 Oct 2014 15:15

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 16:02

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/10758

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