Effects of Action Video Game Experience on Change Detection
Open accessAbstract
Monitoring digital displays for changes will be an increasing part of a soldier's duties as the U.S. Army transforms to a networked system of systems; however, it is well established that humans often fail to detect such changes in contexts with competing demands on attention. Interventions that enhance visual attention might also enhance change detection, because focused attention has been identified as a requirement for change detection. Given current claims that habitual experience with action video games can increase attentional resources, we investigated whether such experience would lessen the incidence of change blindness in two change detection tasks. Although we replicated a previously demonstrated difference between players and nonplayers on the flanker-compatibility test (Green & Bavelier, 2003 Green, C. S. and Bavelier, D. 2003. Action video game modifies visual selective attention.. Nature, 423: 534–537. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we failed to find evidence that habitual action video game players were superior to nonplayers when it came to change detection.
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Video game players outperform nongamers on tests of working memory, visual attention, and processing speed.
“There is good evidence that video game players outperform nongamers on tests of working memory [52] visual attention [53,54] and processing speed [55,56].”
From Gamification of Cognitive Assessment and Cognitive Training: A Systematic Review of Applications and Efficacy (2016) · cites this paper as [53]
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- Authors
- Durlach, P. J., Kring, J. P., & Bowens, L. D.
- Affiliations
- U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (US)
- Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (US)
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Venue
- Military Psychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-01-14
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-39
- ISSN
- 0899-5605 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7876
- OpenAlex
- W2063552975
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Military Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- action video games, change detection, change blindness, visual selective attention, attentional resources, gamers, multitasking
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