Reduced attentional capture in action video game players

Chisholm, Joseph D.; Hickey, Clayton; Theeuwes, Jan; Kingstone, Alan · 2010 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/app.72.3.667

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Summary

This study investigates whether experience with action video games (AVGs) primarily enhances endogenous (top-down) or exogenous (bottom-up) attentional control. While previous research established that action video game players (AVGPs) outperform non-players on various attention-based tasks, it remained unclear whether these benefits stemmed from increased sensitivity to salient stimuli or improved voluntary control over attention. To resolve this, the authors employed an attentional capture task based on the additional singleton paradigm, designed to isolate the effects of task-irrelevant distractors on visual search performance. The experiment involved 30 participants categorized as either AVGPs (playing at least 3 hours per week of action games) or non-video game players (NVGPs). Participants performed a visual search task where they identified the orientation of a line within a unique shape target. In half of the trials, a salient, task-irrelevant distractor (a differently colored item) was present. The researchers hypothesized that if AVGPs had heightened exogenous sensitivity, they would show increased attentional capture (slower responses due to the distractor). Conversely, if they possessed superior endogenous control, they would exhibit reduced capture. The results demonstrated that AVGPs responded significantly faster than NVGPs in both distractor-absent and distractor-present conditions. Crucially, AVGPs exhibited a substantially smaller attentional capture effect than NVGPs. The presence of the distractor slowed NVGPs by 162 milliseconds, whereas AVGPs were slowed by only 93 milliseconds. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant interaction between video game experience and distractor presence, indicating that AVGPs were less disrupted by the salient distractor. Accuracy rates did not differ significantly between groups, ruling out a speed-accuracy trade-off. The findings suggest that extensive action video game experience enhances top-down attentional control, allowing players to better modulate the negative effects of bottom-up attentional capture. The authors argue that AVGPs likely possess a superior ability to rapidly recover from capture or discard irrelevant stimuli, rather than being less sensitive to salience. This improved endogenous control is adaptive for gaming, which requires ignoring irrelevant visual information while maintaining rapid responses. The study concludes that the primary benefit of AVG training lies in enhanced voluntary attentional control rather than increased sensitivity to exogenous cues.

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• attention selective divided