Playing Action Video Games Affects Cognitive Ability

Abstract

The great growth of the video game industry and the massive increase in the number of video game players has prompted extensive research into video games. The varied impacts of video games gaming on cognitive skills, primarily action video game, are reviewed in the article. Different studies were divided into three types: the speed of processing, perception, and attention, in order to explore the neural mechanism behind action video game play. Action video games' effects on users' cognitive abilities can be mainly divided into the impact on low-level sensory pathways and the impact on attention control. Although behavioral experiments have demonstrated superior perception abilities in action video game players, less evidence when it comes to electrophysiology and brain imaging for the same enhancement. Action Video games are widely proven to enhance top-down attention and working memory but have no significant effect on bottom-up attention.