A new study shows that people who frequently play video games perform better on cognitive tasks related to attention and memory. New research published in England British Journal of Psychology Research from the Psychological Society shows that regular gamers perform better on tasks that assess cognitive functions, including attention and memory.
The study, carried out at the University of Limerick’s Lero Esports research lab, involved 88 young people, half of whom regularly played action games for more than seven hours a week.
Participants were tested on three tasks that measured different aspects of their cognitive abilities: a simple reaction time test, a task that involved switching between responding to number and letter combinations to assess executive function and working memory, and a maze-based task to assess visual-spatial activity. memory. The researchers found that regular gamers were able to complete the number task and the maze task 12.7% and 17.4% faster, respectively, than the non-gaming group.
Cognitive benefits and consequences
From the University of Limerick, Dr. “Regular video game playing is often criticized as unhealthy, but our research shows that gamers may enjoy some cognitive benefits compared to the general population, particularly in terms of attention and memory,” said Adam Toth and Leroy. . Research Foundation of the Irish Software Research Center and co-author of the study.
Dr. Mark Campbell added: “Consistent with previous work from our laboratory, this research may have implications in industries where cognitive performance is crucial, such as surgery and air traffic control, where video game playing can be encouraged to improve elite cognitive performance.”
The study also looked at another perspective: whether gamers suffer less from cognitive fatigue than other people.
Some participants were given an additional task that required prolonged concentration and caused cognitive fatigue (degraded performance) before being re-evaluated in initial cognitive tests. The researchers found that the performance of gamers and non-gamers decreased at the same rate, and there was no significant difference in their levels of cognitive fatigue.