Influence of action video gaming on spatial representation in the haptic modality

Hanneke I Van Mier,Hui Jiao

doi:10.1007/s00221-020-05931-7

Abstract

Spatial representation in the haptic domain has been shown to be prone to systematic errors. When participants are asked to make two bars haptically parallel, their performance deviates from what would be veridically parallel. This is hypothesized to be caused by the bias of the egocentric reference frame. Stimulating the use of an allocentric reference frame has previously been shown to improve performance in haptic parallelity matching. The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of action video game experience on parallelity performance. We hypothesized that participants who extensively play action video games with a so-called ‘bird’s-eye view’ are likely to process spatial information more allocentrically, resulting in better performance in haptic parallelity matching. This was tested in two groups of male participants, 10 participants with extensive action video gaming experience (AVGPs) and 10 participants without or hardly any action video gaming experience (NAVGPs). Additionally, the effect of visual–haptic practice on haptic parallelity performance was tested. In the haptic blocks, blindfolded participants had to feel the orientation of a reference bar with their non-dominant hand and had to match this orientation on a test bar with their dominant hand. In subsequent visual–haptic blocks, they had full view of the set-up and visually paralleled both bars. As hypothesized, AVGPs performed significantly better in haptic blocks than NAVGPs. Visual–haptic practice resulted in significantly better performance in subsequent haptic blocks in both groups. These results suggest that playing action video games might enhance haptic spatial representation, although a causative relationship still needs to be established.

Highlights

Nowadays, an increasing number of people are playing action video games, with quite some players doing this on a weekly or daily basis, playing several hours per week or day
We hypothesized that action video game players (AVGPs), who play action video games with a so-called bird’s-eye view, might be more allocentrically oriented which would benefit their performance in the haptic parallelity task
We expected that NAVGPs would benefit more in the haptic blocks due to the combined visual and haptic practice in the visual–haptic blocks than AVGPs, but we found that both groups improved at more or less the same rate

Summary

Introduction

An increasing number of people are playing action video games, with quite some players doing this on a weekly or daily basis, playing several hours per week or day. Positive benefits of action video gaming have been reported for perceptual (Green and Bavelier 2007; Li et al 2009), motor (Li et al 2016; Rupp et al 2019), spatial (Feng et al 2007; Spence and Feng 2010), as well as cognitive skills, such as executive control (Boot et al 2008; Strobach et al 2012), selective attention (Feng et al 2007; Green and Bavelier, 2003, 2006), working/short-term memory (Colzato et al 2013; McDermott et al 2014), and cognitive flexibility (Colzato et al 2010; Doborwolski et al 2015). A recent meta-analysis regarding the impact of action video gaming on various domains of cognition reported

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion