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Video Gamers See the World Differently
trendspotter points out this research from Duke University:
"Hours spent at the video gaming console not only train a player's hands to work the buttons on the controller, they probably also train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers (abstract). 'Gamers see the world differently,' said Greg Appelbaum, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the Duke School of Medicine. 'They are able to extract more information from a visual scene.' ... Each participant was run though a visual sensory memory task that flashed a circular arrangement of eight letters for just one-tenth of a second. After a delay ranging from 13 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds, an arrow appeared, pointing to one spot on the circle where a letter had been. Participants were asked to identify which letter had been in that spot. At every time interval, intensive players of action video games outperformed non-gamers in recalling the letter."
Breaking news: gamers better at playing games.
People who play video games are good at video game-like tasks.
Mostly because I was a long time gamer before I signed up for a psychology experiment.(This was in the early 90's.) They'd flash a single wordson the monitor and see which ones I could or couldn't read.(I forget what they were testing with the words since it's been so long.) To make a long story short they couldn't use me for the experiment because I could always read the words even if flashed for 1 frame. (1/60th of a second or 15milliseconds) I told the psych professor it was probably because I played so many video games.(Which was the only thing that made sense to me since you have to respond to very quick visual stimuli.) Actually this sucked because I signed up for the experiment in the first place because we had to do a couple hours of participating in experiments for the psych class I was taking and basically I wasted an hour on this and got no credit.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
I thought they sat in a dark room all day with a black t-shirt that says do not expose to sun.
I wonder how well it works for longer term decision making? In extreme, is there any risk of training yourself into a fast swimming ADHD Dory?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
[citation needed]
Nobody is claiming otherwise
The title purposely makes it sounds like it's going to be something controversial to get more views.
The first few layers of the visual cortex are highly malleable. Wear a set of glasses that flip the world upside down (or angle the field of view by 10 degrees) and the system will adapt within a couple of days - the user will see the world as normal.
But also - when the user stops wearing the glasses the system quickly adapts back.
With all this fluidity, I suspect that a gamer's heightened sense of perception will dissipate if they stop playing games. At a guess this would probably take about 6 weeks.
yes, because playing video games are mutually exclusive with those two things~
There's nothing preventing a video game player from playing in sports and having adequate physical activity. After all, even extreme athletes know there is a rest period.
God spoke to me
The circles of eight letters flashed on the screen included: WARCRAFT, KILLZONE, and ROBOTRON. The losers saw UMADBRO?
Does gaming make you better at these tests or is it just that people that have these particular skills tend to gravitate to action video games?
It doesn't strike me as impossible to have both acceptable or even good person to person social interaction and somewhat faster reaction time.
Also, faster reaction time could be beneficial in lots of situations, for example avoiding car crashes, which can occur pretty often and has some very real life consequences if you reacted fast or not.
When I was a busy salesman driving around my city I used FPSs to keep my reaction times low and situational awareness sharp. Where I live the traffic is the worst/deadliest in our area so I felt like I needed something to give me an advantage. I drove on this route for six years and 35,000 miles without a ticket or accident. Not that I didn't come close a few times.
Slightly faster reactions to a visual input is a poor tradeoff for reduced person to person social interaction and physical activity.
I dunno... this kind of skill could pay off big when the aliens take over and put us all to work at "spot the letter", to generate energy for their [technobabble].
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There's nothing preventing a video game player from playing in sports and having adequate physical activity. After all, even extreme athletes know there is a rest period.
Yes, but do extreme gamers know that?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There's been other similar prior work. For example, there's evidence that gamers can quickly allocate their attention in an efficient fashion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2680769/ and that gamers have faster reaction times for a large variety of tasks http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/18/6/321.short.
The causal relationship does seem plausible, but this does not show that connection. People who are good at this might simply be more likely to be "intensive players of action video games".
The effect could also be limited to people who watch computer screens are better at watching computer screens. I wonder if the outcome would differ if multiple focal distances were involved, or a wider field of view, or higher contrast ratios. Looking at a screen really is a very limited subset of what our visual system can do.
Anyway, I suspect their conclusion is accurate. If you train yourself for years to be good at something, its no surprise you are better than average at it. Even a tiny difference would be statistically significant given enough data.
...all those years of sitting in this basement in my underwear playing WoW are finally going to pay off.
Gestalt psychology would suppose that the brain processes information with the ability to fill in gaps so to speak, or to quote Kurt Koffka, "The whole is other than the sum of the parts." One of the gestalt "laws" of grouping, that of symmetry, is that object of similar grouping will be perceived as formed around a center point.
Gamers have the benefit of using the natural fixation point of our retinas in an enhanced way (or rather in a more methodical fashion); "focus" as abstract as that means in cognition, can still be more or less analyzed as a gradient via intentness of this point in the types of exercises this study put the subjects. Thus, it would lead to more clarity in the immediate vicinity of this area of focus.
To bring things to a more salient point, the concept of the simple harmonic oscillator (as a quantum function) of the brain would touch on how the fine-tuning of this fixation point awareness would lead to essentially cutting milliseconds off of certain neuronic processes between the optic nerve and the visual cortex. Thus, whether the effects are temporary or not this is still relevant in our understanding of the gestalt.
They are turning into Neanderthals!
Forget those amateurs! I could identify the letter AND shoot it in one shot! I hear that's an achievement.
Generally yes. However, I can just about guarantee that the gamers who have enough skill to make an appreciable impact impact on a study like this are NOT going to be the same group of games who can suitably balance sports and other physical activity with said gaming activity.
No references/evidence to provide, only experience here sorry.
What a shame they did not test their peripheral vision at the same time, because I suspect they also develop tunnel vision.
I have seen a gun pointed at a person playing a shooting game and they did not see it because they are focused on the center of their vision and have lost their natural hunting instincts.
Slightly faster reactions to a visual input is a poor tradeoff for reduced person to person social interaction and physical activity.
So what you actually meant is "Fatter isn't better" ...
Seems that you like to conform to Daily Mail/Fox news stereotypes. I've just come back from the Lake District with a group of my friends who have a wide variety of professions, It professionals, business owners, accountants, tree surgeons etc.. who enjoy mountaineering, canoeing, swimming need I go on? No anti social fat basement dwellers there. The only thing that we all had in common apart from knowing each other before hand, is a over of computer games since childhood.
In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
They should make it so the first post cannot be anonymous.
Interestingly, the researchers also noted that, despite the lack of anonymity, gamers exhibited a higher rate of verbal abuse of other participants who failed to complete the given task successfully. This rate was shown to be independent of the gamer's biological age, ethnicity and social class, but a correlation appeared when plotted against the gamer's online age. The rate of abuse also increased as the gamers became more confident in their ability to outperform other participants.
The researchers have therefore proposed the following refinement of John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory: it is not anonymity per se but rather the expected impunity which is required to demonstrate the greater internet fuckwad theory. To confirm this, the gamers were divided into two groups and electric shocks were administered in response to abuse. At low voltages the rate of abuse unexpectedly increased and was directed at the researches, but as the voltage was increased above a certain per-gamer threshold, the abuse suddenly stopped. The authors have not provided further details due to time constraints and could not be reached for questioning.
My first computer was a ZX Spectrum, and I used to play games like *Psssst*. I have always felt that I was better at moving through thick crowds because of this. My wife always takes the wrong ways through crowds, moving to the places with most people, whereas I see al the holes in the crowd.
Who decides that it's a poor tradeoff? That's absolutely subjective.
They should make it so the first post cannot be anonymous.
It should come with a first post pre attached.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Breaking Fox News: Gamers implicated in ABC murders.
It causes bad drivers.
The place I see this effect is driving home from the AMC 20 in Santa Clara on 101, and the idiots in the rice rockets who (A) thing they are playing a video game, (B) think that video game physics perfectly mirror reality, so things that work there work in the meat word, and (C) think everyone else drives the same way they do, so it's OK to drive that way because the only people who will get in accidents are the people who don't play the game as well as they play it.
Personally, If I were a CHP, I'd fill my monthly no-such-thing-as-a-quota on Friday and Saturday night, and maybe Sunday, if it was a 3 day weekend, and then take the rest of the week off and windsurf. Instead, these guys simply don't get pulled over.
The reason professional race car drivers don't drive like assholes on the freeway is they realize that not everyone is a professional race car driver.
Every time I walked down the street, I expected a dragon out of fucking nowhere to come wreck everything.
And then walking down a busy mall, suddenly zombies, everyone is zombies.
We lost a lot of men that day.
God forbid the world suddenly became Resistance. Although I would like a new body, even if it is shared.
I have a nephew who is a classic example of the video game addicted kid... only he's not a kid any more. Sure, he's got the boost in hand-eye coordination, but where does it benefit his life? He might have a career in operating drones in the future..."securing our freedom?" But his unending focus on non-productive, non-valuable sense of achievement [unlocked!] had literally interfered with his development as a person. He is/was a truly sharp person but we just can't tear him away from his gaming.
And like it or not (I'll get modded flamebait or troll for this I'm sure) it does the same to many people here. Their choice of PCs and OSes all seem to require support for their gaming needs. Really? ("I'd switch to Linux, but I've got to play my games!") I find it disturbing. I like games too. But I found they used too much of my time and they upset the balance of my life. As I do not live with a parent or anyone else to take care of me, any and all of my focus must be primarily on the basics of life which are work, eating, sleeping, shelter and all of those things.
Citing some ostensibly positive benefit of being immersed in video games does nothing to help the problems associated with how they distract, delay and deter people from real life. And before people say "...just kids..." I suggest they look around. A lot of these "kids" are in their 30s and some in their 40s. We already have a serious maturity and development crisis here in this 1st world nation we call the USA. Where before it was just TV, now it's that and a lot more.
Graphics 8.0 - Fairly realistic, but lack of cool effects makes the overall appearence dull.
Audio 9.5 - GREAT surround sound support!
Gameplay 2.0 - Quests are boring and hard to get, too much farming and a lack of greater goal.
Overall 4.0 - Meh! Rent at most, not worth full purchase.
True, but the reality is otherwise. To become really good at a video game means sitting in front of the video game. To become really good at athletics means actually going out and doing it. An athlete will not play video games in their rest period, because it is REST! I used to windsurf about 4 to 5 hours a day while still being in school. The last thing I wanted to do was play video games during my rest time. Video games are not resting, unless you are talking casual games, but I doubt casual gamers (like myself) have much better reactions that FPS gamers.
Ironically, even to this day when I want to rest and relax I exercise. Nothing too strenuous, just enough to keep the blood moving.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Wrong... Here is the issue. If you have a faster reaction time and play video games you tend to be more "jumpy". I don't mean this in a bad way. I mean you tend to be faster than other folks. THUS what ends up happening is that you drive faster, and the advantage you have in reaction gets nullified since you are driving faster. I am not saying you are a hazard. I am saying things balance out.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
I usually place 1st in fast paced FPS games like Team Fortress 2, have won numerous local tournaments back in the day for Quake 3 too. From what I recall, many of the pro CS players used to include physical workouts in their training regime too. While I code and design games more than play these days, I still push hard to keep my 10km runs under 40 min. Recently I just so happened to get an achievement in Runkeeper for tracking my 1,000th km.
:)
We are out there
Someone teach this man (professor) the difference between causality and correlation.. He's not a artsie guy, he's a scientis... Wait... "assistant professor of psychiatry"..... Ok.. I understand.
Second post.
In that case it's still beneficial as they're no less safe but tend to arrive more quickly.
I went through a period that I was playing "Need For SPeed: Porsche Unleashed".
For several days, on my way to work, I had this tendency to drive into incoming traffic. I got over that.
Playing GTA VI did not make we want to drag people out of their cars though.
I know I see the world differently.
After playing through the first Assassin's Creed game, I'd find myself looking up at tall buildings, churches, etc. working out the best path to take for climbing up to the roof.
Never actually attempted to climb to the roof of any building - probably for the best; I hate heights.
He's Jesus, for Christ's sake.
they perform better at that task than people not trained for it.
Got it. Thanks.
Since we've finally moved past the old "you only use 10% of your brain" canard, it seems plausible that the neural paths reinforced by/for tasks like this would otherwise have been doing something else. I wonder if there are tasks where these gamers perform significantly worse than non-gamers? If there are, are the deficits consistent, or do different brains lose different things?
Looks like the gamers know what the letter has been in some spot a few milli seconds later. It probably explains why gamers playing real baseball with real bats seem to be hitting where the ball had been a few milliseconds instead of where the ball is now.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
So this could just be attributed to lots of weed and caffeine?
Similar situation here. I've played computer games since Contra on the NES, and I have a girlfriend that doesn't need quote marks! :D
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
This is me. I have an easier time reading the plays and movements of players in real life thanks to my video game days growing up. I don't really game anymore but I do spend almost as much time in the gym and playing sports now than I did playing games. My brain is still just as quick and now I'm in great shape and cut.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
Duke Nukem University?
Depends on ammo type, but here's a little table:
No. 2 - 330 yards
No. 4 - 286 yards
No. 6 - 242 yards
That is provided they use shots, and not slugs. Slugs have good accuracy to 70-80 yards, and are lethal at several times that distance.
Video games, especially first person shooters, definitely increase your situational awareness. In those games, you often have to identify multiple simultaneous threats, prioritize them, and strategize how to neutralize them all with split-second precision. While that process may require analyzing more of the visual field faster than the average person, as this study seems to show, I think there is a lot more higher-order processing going on to prioritize the threats and neutralize them.
With that said, I see a lot of comments that claim that video games aren't realistic enough for these skills to translate into real-world advantages and I have to highly disagree. Regardless of the realism of the weapons or the play mechanics, the increased situational awareness can be drastically advantageous in situations such as traffic accidents involving multiple vehicles, since a gamer would be able to analyze the new trajectories of all of the vehicles and have a better ability to steer around them. A non-gamer in that situation would not only be less likely to find a safe path through the colliding vehicles, but they would also be more likely to be overwhelmed by the situation and freeze or simply slam the brakes and hope for the best. The point is that regardless of the realism of the simulation, training your brain to handle multiple simultaneous moving threats will still provide an advantage over someone with no training.
Science articles are always incorrect: either they get the statistics wrong, or they don't have a good control, or they imply causality from correlation and that's always wrong. However, when something that most slashdoters can relate to comes up, then it's aces.
I'm pretty sure that professional athletes play video games. They have a lot of downtime.
Funding from the military, DHS, and DARPA? No one else finds this connection curious?
I knew it! Always thought crushing people in GTA give me an egde on the road!
I wonder if it means we are better drivers, and enable us to get lower car insurance rate...