Effects of action video game training on spatial attention

Abstract

Studies suggest that action video game play improves top-down attentional control. A current learning to learn theory proposes that probabilistic inference, the ability to identify statistical patterns and create task-relevant perceptual templates to efficiently orient endogenous attention, underlies video game players’ greater performance relative to non-gamers in a variety of tasks. The current study aimed to evaluate this theory using a target detection task known to induce a suboptimal number line top-down template, which results in spatial biases. Participants were trained for ten hours on either Tetris or Medal of Honor. Mean reaction time across all conditions was significantly improved in both groups. However, there was no evidence for enhanced top-down control due to video game training in this experiment.