Does video-game playing enhance cognitive processes?

Abstract

Green and Bavelier (2003) provided evidence to indicate a relationship between regular video-game playing and improved attentional skills. This study attempted to replicate the findings of Green and Bavelier (2003) and extend this work by examining the impact of regular video-game playing on attention, executive function and short-term memory. It was predicted that expert and trained novice video-gamers would show superior performance across all of the attention tasks compared to control participants, replicating the results of Green and Bavelier (2003). It was further predicted that these group differences would be apparent on measures of executive function and short-term memory if regularly playing video-games impacts on higher-order cognitive processes. The results of the study provided some evidence of a relationship between video-game playing and cognitive processes. The implications of video-game playing and cognition will be discussed.