Enhancing perceptual and attentional skills requires common demands between the action video games and transfer tasks
Open accessAbstract
Despite increasing evidence that shows action video game play improves perceptual and cognitive skills, the mechanisms of transfer are not well-understood. In line with previous work, we suggest that transfer is dependent upon common demands between the game and transfer task. In the current study, participants played one of four action games with varying speed, visual, and attentional demands for 20 h. We examined whether training enhanced performance for attentional blink, selective attention, attending to multiple items, visual search and auditory detection. Non-gamers who played the game (Modern Combat) with the highest demands showed transfer to tasks of attentional blink and attending to multiple items. The game (MGS Touch) with fewer attentional demands also decreased attentional blink, but to a lesser degree. Other games failed to show transfer, despite having many action game characteristics but at a reduced intensity. The results support the common demands hypothesis.
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Non-gaming university students instructed to play an action video game showed significant improvements in attentional control.
“In one study, non-gaming university students who were instructed to play an action video game showed significant improvements in attentional control [34].”
From Health Benefits of Video Games in Adolescents and Young Adults (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
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“For instance, the question remains whether the creative problem-solving skills applied in and potentially enhanced through may extend even to novice players [34].”
- Authors
- Oei, A. C., & Patterson, M. D.
- Affiliations
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Corresponding author
- Patterson, Michael D.
- ORCID
- Oei, Adam C.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2015-02-10
- Volume
- 6
- Pages
- 113-113
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4322619
- OpenAlex
- W2001837590
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 11.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- action video games, transfer of training, attentional blink, selective attention, visual search, auditory detection, perceptual skills, game speed
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