Recent Study Shows That Video Games Improve Attention

Recent Study Shows That Video Games Improve Attention

At least they aren't making it worse.

LizardRock by LizardRock on Feb 20, 2018 @ 07:00 PM (Staff Bios)
Comment(s)
According to a recent study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, playing an hour of video games improves people's attention.

Twenty-nine male grad and undergrad students were separated into their time and skill with the popular MOBA, League of Legends. Group 1 had over 2 years time with the game and a 7% expertise ranking. Group 2 had less than 6 months with the game and an understandably lower ranking.

The study took place in 3 stages: A VSA test, an hour of video games, and another VSA test. The participants, connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine, had their visual selective attention (VSA) tested. This was done by focusing on a square on a screen and responding when a new square appears, indicating the direction of the new square with a controller. The participants then play 1 hour of League of Legends, after which they perform the VSA test again.

Research%20Charts.jpg

Results showed an improvement in average response times. The experts had a smaller improvement, while the non-experts had a drastic improvement, placing them to the same degree as the experts.

It's also noted that the experienced gamers had a higher VSA than non-gamers in the pre-game test. This is possibly from long-term exposure to video games.

As cool as this information is, more testing is required to establish legitimate information. Larger, more diverse test groups are needed, and a wider range of video game genres need to be experimented with. Even so, good to know video games aren't actually making our attention spans worse.

Comments

Comment on this Article in our Forum

More GamerzUnite News

Are We Being Controlled in a PC Game by Aliens?

Are We Being Controlled in a PC Game by Aliens?

New UFO Film proposes we might!

February 19 @ 02:23 PM
Explore an Eerie Archipelago in Dredge

Explore an Eerie Archipelago in Dredge

A fishing adventure gone bad...

February 11 @ 03:07 PM
Automation Goes Too Far in The Last Worker

Automation Goes Too Far in The Last Worker

A bleak future for anyone looking for a job...

September 2 @ 01:11 AM
Alien Infestation takes over in From Space

Alien Infestation takes over in From Space

Liberate the Earth in this fun new action-shooter...

August 27 @ 09:50 PM
August 27 @ 09:14 PM
Join GamerzUnite and Unite with other Gamerz.
A Piece of Our Mind

Every Single Detail We Found in the Starfield Gameplay Reveal

Video Games Shouldn't Need Wiki Pages

PopSlinger Review: It Goes Down Rough, Really Rough

Halo: Infinite Highlights Everything Wrong with Gaming Today

Echo Generation Review: Not Exactly a Blockbuster