Slashdot Mirror
Video Games Found To Enhance Visual Attention
donniebaseball23 writes "Reporting on new research from WIREs Cognitive Science, IndustryGamers writes: 'Action games like Call of Duty and Halo can enhance visual attention, the ability that helps us focus on relevant visual information. The mental mechanism allows people to select pertinent visual information and ignore irrelevant information. It suggests that action titles can be used to augment military training, educational tools, and correct visual deficits.' Shawn Green, co-author of the study, commented, 'At the core of these action video game-induced improvements appears to be a remarkable enhancement in the ability to flexibly and precisely control attention, a finding that could have a variety of real-world applications. For example, those in professions that demand "super-normal" visual attention, such as fighter pilots, would benefit enormously from enhanced visual attention, as their performance and lives depend on their ability to react quickly and accurately to primarily visual information."
I hear "zug zug".
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
What about ANGBAND??? Surely the hours I've poured into that have improved me in some way? Surely???
Just because hunting and being outside is more effective at developing military patrol skills than video games are, it doesn't necessarily follow that video games are not effective. They could simply be less effective. Plus, the example quoted in the summary was fighter jet pilots. That sort of task is highly visual in a very different way and I would imagine that at times, modern HUDs resemble video games. Not to mention that, as I have heard, there are several flight simulation games that actually require you to know how to operate all of the equipment in the cockpit for the plane you are flying. I'd like to see a study that specifically controlled for experience at THOSE types of games, not just "Halo" or something stupid. I don't know of any FPS, even amongst the more realistic ones than Halo, that require you to know how to actually operate an M-16, AK-47, Colt .45, or whatever else they put in the hands of the player.
Being in the Air Force and piloting an F-16 is a very different task than being in the Army and patrolling the latrines.
I realize that the Army doesn't just patrol the latrines but it rhymes so I couldn't help myself ;-)
Also don't forget that the skills mentioned in the summary aren't just useful in the military. Enhanced visual attention could be useful to someone who performed robotic open-heart surgery, or a designer who uses AutoCAD to engineer low-cost hydroponic farm equipment. The world doesn't ALWAYS have to be about war, death and destruction, you know ;-)