The Changes of Cognition in Teenagers after Playing Video Games

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that video games alter cognition in teenagers, but it is unknown how teen cognition changes in the short-term directly after playing video games. This study measured the differences in selective attention, processing speed, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility of video-game playing (VGP) adolescents at different time intervals after playing video games. Three different reasoning tests were used: the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), and the Stroop Task. A custom 250 question arithmetic test was also used, but was unable to uncover processing speed differences between VGPs after playing video games. All VGP participants in the study underwent reasoning tests before playing video games, played League of Legends (LoL)—known for its intensive use of spatial awareness, cognitive decision making, and working memory—for an hour, and then took reasoning tests once again at different times after having played LoL. This experiment affirms that video games create cognitive enhancement, though the experiment uncovered that VGP teens have worsened selective and sustained attention as time elapses after playing video games. Future research may want to extend the variable of time to test how video games affect attention or cognition by time in a longer term with a larger sample size.