The effects of action video game playing on low level vision

Action video game playing has been shown to significantly improve reaction times and modify selective visual attention, from the spatial distribution and resolution of attention to the temporal characteristics of attention and its capacity. However, two important questions are still unresolved. One is whether the beneficial effects of action video game playing can generalize to basic functions of low level vision, and if so through which mechanism(s) action video game playing may be doing this. Here we designed a series of experiments to investigate these two fundamental questions. In the first experiment, the contrast sensitivity function, which is one of the main determinants of how well a people can see, of action video game players (VGPs) and non action video game players (NVGPs)' were measured through a contrast detection task. VGPs showed over all improved contrast sensitivity in comparison to NVGPs, especially at middle and high spatial frequencies. VGPs also showed faster temporal integration time in contrast detection. These results suggested that action video game playing is able to modify one of the most fundamental properties of vision. In the second experiment, we investigated whether the effects of action video game playing can generalize to basic temporal visual functions. We measured the visual masking effect in VGPs and NVGPs. VGPs showed reduced backward masking effect in comparison to NVGPs, while leaving forward masking effect intact. This result confirmed the role of action video game playing in modifying low level vision and also suggested that VGPs have a faster temporal resolution of visual processing. Importantly, the causal effect of action video game playing on contrast sensitivity and visual masking was established through intensive 50 hours of video game training studies in NVGPs. In the third experiment, a perceptual template model (PTM) developed by Dosher and Lu (1998) was used to assess the mechanisms underlying action video game playing. VGPs showed lower contrast thresholds for an orientation identification task across all external noise levels. Through PTM, VGPs' superior performance can be captured by two mechanisms: (1) internal additive noise reduction and (2) external noise exclusion, reflecting channels reweighing at the cortical level. A training study then established the causal effect of action video game playing in this enhancement. This result suggested that when faced with a new task or environment, action game experience allowed the participant to reselect and/or strengthen task-related channels, as well as reduce irrelevant channels, to process visual information more efficiently. This proposed hypothesis naturally explained the greater efficiency of VGPs in performing cognitive and perceptual tasks and how the improvements generalized to untrained conditions.