Reaction time and working memory in middle-aged gamers and non-gamers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore whether asking middle-aged gamers and non-gamers about their video games habits will affect their performance of cognitive-motor tasks. One-hundred and twenty-one participants were randomly assigned to four groups: (a) gamers who were asked about their playing habits prior to the study, (b) gamers who were asked about their playing habits following the study, (c) non-gamers who were asked about their playing habits prior to the study, and (d) non-gamers who were asked about their playing habits following the study. The participants performed three reaction time (RT) tasks and a digit-span memory task. In a task-switching task, gamers had more correct responses when they answered the questionnaire before performing the task compared with after the task. For the non-gamers, the opposite occurred. We conclude that some performance measures of cognitive-motor tasks could have been affected by the timing of the completion of the questionnaire. This finding should be known to researchers as it may lead to biases gaming research.