Abstract
A visual search task was employed to investigate whether and how action video game players (AVGPs) surpass non-video game players (NVGPs). The methods were similar to Chisholm et al. (2010) with additional factors. In each trial, several green or red shapes were presented on the computer screen. Shapes were either circle (3.5° in diameter) or square (3.2° per side). Each shape contained a white line segment (1.5° x 0.2°). Three factors were manipulated to investigate the nature of difference between AVGPs and NVGPs: 1) the presence of distracter; all the shapes were the same color (distracter absent) or one shape was a different color than all the other shapes (distracter present), 2) spatial configuration; shapes were aligned on an imaginary circle of 14° radius or randomly located, 3) the total number of shapes was 4, 8, or 16. The participant’s task was to judge the orientation of the line segment (vertical or horizontal) in a target shape that is unique and different from all the others as soon as possible. Reaction time and response accuracy were recorded. Each of 34 AVGPs and 34 NVGPs ran 960 trials. The results of a 2 (AVGPs vs. NVGPs) x 2 (distracter presence) x 2 (spatial configuration) x 3 (number of shapes) mixed ANOVA indicated that AVGPs responded significantly faster than NVGPs [F(1,66) = 2988.42, p=.014]. All the three within-subject factors were also significant. However, we did not find any interaction between video game experience and the distracter presence as Chisholm et al. (2010) did. Video game experience did not show an interaction with the spatial configuration or the number of shapes, either. Accuracy percentage was not different between AVGPs and NVGPs [F(1,66) <1]. These results suggest that AVGPs can perform visual task faster than NVGPs overall, but do not show any less attentional capture.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013