How different video games impact players’ speed, accuracy
December 13th, 2009 - 5:38 pm ICT by ANIWashington, December 13 (ANI): Playing video games can have an affect on speed and accuracy in people, according to a new study.
Rolf Nelson, a psychology professor at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., who studies human visual perception, insisted that playing different kinds of video games changes the way people think and approach their surroundings. As part of study, people were made to play either a fast-action video game (Unreal Tournament) or a puzzle-solving video game (Portal).
The participants also performed a task in which both speed and accuracy were emphasized, both before and after their gaming sessions.
Nelson said: “People who played the action video game did tasks faster, but at the cost of being less accurate. Those who played the strategy game did things more accurately, but more slowly.
“If they’re playing an action game and then switch to homework, they may try to blaze through their homework at the cost of making mistakes.
“In fact, it is striking how dramatically these strategies can be shifted by a single hour of video-game play.
“Workers who play action video games during their lunch hour may find that it affects the accuracy of their work soon after.
“Action and puzzle video games prime different speed/accuracy tradeoffs.
“While there has been a great deal of [research] focused on performance differences between non-video-game players and avid video-game players, we were interested in looking at the affects of playing different types of video games,”
He added: “Results convincingly demonstrate a priming effect for two different types of video games.
“Playing Unreal Tournament, an action video game, resulted in faster reaction times and lower accuracy on a location task, while playing Portal, a puzzle game, resulted in slower reaction times and higher accuracy.”
“Different genres affect perception and strategy in very different ways.
“However, it is misleading to base conclusions about video games in general on a single genre, just as it would be misleading to base one’s conclusions about the effects of television by considering only crime shows.”
The study has been published in the latest edition of the academic journal Perception. (ANI)
- Video games 'help us make right decisions faster' - Sep 14, 2010
- Video games improve shooting accuracy - May 01, 2012
- Hindus urge video-games developers not to drag religions into games - Oct 28, 2010
- Fighter pilots' brains are smarter - Dec 20, 2010
- Puzzle solving helps infants pick up math skills - Feb 17, 2012
- Video games may impair kids' academic achievement - Mar 16, 2010
- Video gamers no better at multi-tasking - Jun 14, 2012
- Video-game ownership may impair kids' academic achievement - Mar 11, 2010
- Brain images can predict your video game performance - Jan 14, 2011
- Are science-based films, TV shows accurate? - Mar 28, 2011
- How video games can enhance our visual attention - Nov 18, 2010
- Video games help sharpen one's visual, cognitive skills - Dec 18, 2009
- Violent video games do not desensitize players: Study - Feb 20, 2011
- Video game lends cutting edge to genetic research - Dec 07, 2011
- Women's depression can erode their intimate relationships - Mar 31, 2011
Tags: action game, different kinds, game play, game portal, gaming sessions, human visual perception, impact players, lunch hour, norton mass, performance differences, playing video games, priming effect, psychology professor, puzzle game, rolf nelson, speed accuracy, strategy game, tradeoffs, video game players, wheaton college