The Perceptual and Cognitive Effects of Action Video Game Experience

This chapter examines the effects of action video game experience on children's vision, attention, and cognitive skills. It first provides an overview of action video games before turning to a discussion of evidence on how such games affect the spatial and temporal characteristics/resolution of vision and attention, attentional capacity and how attentional resources are distributed, and the players' executive functions. It then considers the neural mechanisms that may underlie the enhanced attentional skills observed in action video game players. It also explores the effects of action video game experience on exogenous attention, along with the view that relates the perceptual and cognitive effects of action video game experience to an increase in the rate at which perceptual information is integrated. The chapter concludes by outlining the lessons from action video games for educational games as tools of learning in the classroom setting.