Abstract
Action video game players (VGPs) have demonstrated a number of attentional advantages over non-players. Here, we propose that many of those benefits might be underpinned by improved control over exogenous (i.e., stimulus-driven) attention. To test this we used an anti-cueing task, in which a sudden-onset cue indicated that the target would likely appear in a separate location on the opposite side of the fixation point. When the time between the cue onset and the target onset was short (40 ms), non-players (nVGPs) showed a typical exogenous attention effect. Their response times were faster to targets presented at the cued (but less probable) location compared with the opposite (more probable) location. VGPs, however, were less likely to have their attention drawn to the location of the cue. When the onset asynchrony was long (600 ms), VGPs and nVGPs were equally able to endogenously shift their attention to the likely (opposite) target location. In order to rule out processing-speed differences as an explanation for this result, we also tested VGPs and nVGPs on an attentional blink (AB) task. In a version of the AB task that minimized demands on task switching and iconic memory, VGPs and nVGPs did not differ in second target identification performance (i.e., VGPs had the same magnitude of AB as nVGPs), suggesting that the anti-cueing results were due to flexible control over exogenous attention rather than to more general speed-of-processing differences.
Highlights
In the previous decade, action video game players (VGPs) have demonstrated a number of advantages over non-players on visual and cognitive tasks
Analyses were conducted in parallel for both accuracy and response time (RT), with incorrect trials excluded from RT analysis
Overall analysis Results were primarily analyzed with linear mixed effects models (Baayen et al, 2008; Barr et al, 2013) using the lme4 package in R (Bates et al, 2013). These models are similar to repeatedmeasures ANOVAs, but use all experimental trials rather than averages and allow for better testing of proportional data. For both accuracy and RT, models were constructed with Group (VGP or nVGP), Target Position (Cued or Anti-Cued), and stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) (40 or 600 ms) as fixed effects and Participant as a random effect
Summary
Action video game players (VGPs) have demonstrated a number of advantages over non-players (nVGPs) on visual and cognitive tasks. Action video games often have a great deal of visual distraction, so it would be plausible for VGPs to develop some level of control over the degree to which salient distractions in the visual environment capture their attention in order to promote better performance on their primary task. VGPs were better able than nVGPs to avoid exogenous capture by a suddenly appearing distractor in a color-singleton search (Chisholm and Kingstone, 2012) While this is strong evidence for improved distractor resistance in VGPs, other studies have demonstrated that VGPs use exogenous cuing to the same extent as nVGPs (Cain and Mitroff, 2011; Hubert-Wallander et al, 2011b). In the studies showing no differences in attentional capture between VGPs and nVGPs (Cain and Mitroff, 2011; Hubert-Wallander et al, 2011b), attending to exogenous cues would often have been beneficial to performance
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