A new study at Duke University says that people who play video games are not just training themselves to press controller buttons fast: they learn to react faster to what they see. The researchers add that gamers see the world differently, with the ability to pick up more information from their surroundings.
One difficulty the team faced was finding people at the university who did not play games on computers or other devices. In the end they found 125 people who played little or not at all, to compare with gamers.
The scientists showed eight letters arranged in a circle for a very short time, no more than a tenth of a second. After a delay of between 13 milliseconds and 2.5 seconds, an arrow appeared pointing to where one of the letters had been, and participants had to name that letter.
There was a big difference between gamers and non-gamers in recognising the letters, especially among players of first-person shooter games such as Counter-Strike. These games train players to guess and move quickly from side to side to find all their targets, which strengthens what the scientists called "probabilistic inference".
Both groups forgot the letters quickly as the delay grew, but the gamers did better at every interval. Short-term memory fades fast, and the scientists say it is the speed of inference that helps gamers rather than a stronger memory, though gamers may also see more detail, which helps them do better.
This could be useful for racing drivers, pilots and soldiers in combat, who need quick reactions. Who knows, you may one day be advised to play a little on the computer before you drive.
Like
Love
Angry
Dislike
