Video Game Training and Effects on Executive Functions
In the present chapter, we reviewed studies investigating the effects of video game training (particularly action video games) on the executive functions shifting, dual tasking, updating, and inhibition. These studies provide evidence that video game trai
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Introduction The video game industry expands as the number of its clients constantly increases. Surveys show that 58 % of the Americans play video games and 25 million Germans play games several times a month; this frequent use of video games is independent of gender, education, and income (e.g., BIU 2012). Cognitive research provided evidence in recent years that experienced video gamers outperform non-experienced people in a number of basic cognitive functions (e.g., Bavelier et al. 2012; see also Green and Bavelier this volume). These positive effects in video gamers led us to focus on the particular effects of video game experience on executive functions. Executive functions typically control our behavior when we perform in demanding and complex situations including situations in which the management of different tasks or task sequences is required. These functions define a set of general-purpose control mechanisms, often linked to the prefrontal cortex of the brain, that modulate the operation of various cognitive subprocesses and thereby regulate the dynamics of human cognition (Baddeley 1986; Miyake et al. 2000). Different types of executive functions have been classified by different authors, e.g., shifting, dual tasking, updating, and inhibition. While their processing can be time-consuming and inefficient under unpracticed conditions, recent studies suggest that executive functions can be improved as a result of extensive training and training-induced gains can even be transferred to non-practiced situations (Strobach et al. 2014). This trainingrelated plasticity is particularly relevant when aiming to compensate for the strong T. Strobach (*) Department of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected] T. Schubert Department of Psychology, Martin Luther University Halle, Halle, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T. Strobach, J. Karbach (eds.), Cognitive Training, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42662-4_11
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age-related declines in executive functions and frontal lobe tasks (Raz 2000; Strobach et al. 2015). The present chapter includes a concise review of studies investigating the potential optimization and transfer of different types of executive functions as a result of video game experience. Here, we primarily focus on studies within the action video game genre. So far, many studies have been concerned with assessing the impact of action games on executive function as action video game playing seems highly adequate for training executive control skills. In action video games, gamers have to control and conduct multiple simultaneous tasks at a high speed. Important information, such as interim targets and assignments, must be updated all the time (Spence and Feng 2010), and gamers need to adapt their actions and action goals under permanently changing task conditions (Bavelier et al. 2012). The most prominent action games are first-person shooters such a
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