Real-Time Strategy Game Training: Emergence of a Cognitive Flexibility Trait
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Training in action video games can increase the speed of perceptual processing. However, it is unknown whether video-game training can lead to broad-based changes in higher-level competencies such as cognitive flexibility, a core and neurally distributed component of cognition. To determine whether video gaming can enhance cognitive flexibility and, if so, why these changes occur, the current study compares two versions of a real-time strategy (RTS) game. Using a meta-analytic Bayes factor approach, we found that the gaming condition that emphasized maintenance and rapid switching between multiple information and action sources led to a large increase in cognitive flexibility as measured by a wide array of non-video gaming tasks. Theoretically, the results suggest that the distributed brain networks supporting cognitive flexibility can be tuned by engrossing video game experience that stresses maintenance and rapid manipulation of multiple information sources. Practically, these results suggest avenues for increasing cognitive function.
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Following the 7 weeks, the StarCraft group performed better on cognitive tests of task switching, multi-source information management, and adaptation to changing task rules.
“Following the 7 weeks, the StarCraft group better performed on cognitive tests of task switching, multi-source information management, and adaptation to changing task rules [36].”
From Health Benefits of Video Games in Adolescents and Young Adults (2026) · cites this paper as [36]
The Methods report testing after 40 hours of play, with participants given seven weeks to complete the study. The Results (Behavioral Modeling of Assessed Cognitive Flexibility) find an overall benefit across cognitive-flexibility tasks, but Table 1 gives only modest individual contrasts for task switching and multi-location switching. The paper describes managing multiple information sources during gameplay; it does not establish better performance on a separate test of adapting to changing task rules. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredUniversity students with little prior video game experience who played StarCraft demonstrated significant improvements in cognitive flexibility compared to a control group that played Sims.
“Those who played StarCraft demonstrated significant improvements in cognitive flexibility, the capacity to rapidly and simultaneously maintain, evaluate, and coordinate multiple streams of information and action, compared to a control group that played Sims, a less situationally demanding game [36].”
From Health Benefits of Video Games in Adolescents and Young Adults (2026) · cites this paper as [36]
Glass, Maddox, and Love (2013) reported improvements in cognitive flexibility in a Starcraft group after 40 h of managed play emphasizing resource awareness and rapid switching, while a second group playing the same 40 h without those demands showed no improvement.
“Glass, Maddox, and Love (2013) reported improvements in tasks measuring cognitive flexibility in a group trained on Starcraft, but only after 40 h of carefully managed play emphasizing maintained awareness of resources and rapid switching.A second group played Starcraft for the same 40 h, but without these specific demands, and showed no improvement.”
From A simultaneous examination of two forms of working memory training: Evidence for near transfer only (2016) · cites this paper as Glass, Maddox, and Love (2013)
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- Authors
- Glass, B. D., Maddox, W. T., & Love, B. C.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Love, Bradley C.
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-08-07
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e70350
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3737212
- OpenAlex
- W1986493181
- Cited by
- 227
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 18.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Texas ScholarWorks (Texas Digital Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21MH091523, MH091523)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA032457, DA032457)
- Army Research Laboratory (W911NF, W911NF-09-2-0038)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Keywords
- video game training, real-time strategy games, cognitive flexibility, action video games, task switching, distributed brain networks, cognitive enhancement
- MeSH terms
- Bayes Theorem, Brain, Cognition, Cues, Humans, Nerve Net, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Video Games, Principal Component Analysis, Young Adult
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