The xCIT team develops cognitive training video games for research (http://behaverse.org/cognitive_training.html). The goal is to understand what game features and training modes improve cognitive abilities.
Why do video games improve cognitive abilities? It has been shown that playing certain video games can have a positive impact on cognition, yet the underlying mechanisms behind these effects are not clear. We spoke to Dr Pedro CardosoLeite about his research into which features of video games help improve cognitive performance, which could then inform the development of new games designed to boost learning capacity. A large body
of evidence suggests that playing certain types of video games can have a positive impact on cognitive performance, and researchers are investigating how they can be applied in education and training. Work by Professor Daphne Bavelier and Professor Shawn Green a few years ago pointed to the potential of using video games in cognitive training. “A group of friends came to the lab and their performance on certain cognitive tests were way above those of normal people. They started to investigate, why did they perform so well? And they realised that they were part of a group that regularly played action video games. These were first or thirdperson shooter games,” explains Dr Pedro Cardoso-Leite, Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Luxembourg. This raises the question of why action video games have these effects, a topic Dr Cardoso-Leite is exploring in his research. “There are some features of these video games that people think are leading to these effects,” he outlines.
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These games are typically quite fastpaced and players have to make lots of decisions, while at the same time they need to distribute their attention. A player needs to monitor everything that’s happening in the virtual environment around them, but they might also have to rapidly switch from that mode of distributed attention to focus more intently on a particular location. “An enemy might be lurking somewhere for example, and then you would need to focus your gun and shoot. There’s also prediction involved – you want to behave unpredictably, and to predict the behaviour of your opponents,” says Dr Cardoso-Leite. It has been suggested that these features lead to improvements in attentional control, which Dr Cardoso-Leite says is central to many cognitive tasks. “One of the hallmarks of the attentional control system is the ability to focus your attention and not get distracted,” he explains. “Video games tend to be quite complex, and a player may be involved in multiple tasks in parallel operating at different timescales.”
Action video games A number of features or ingredients of action video games have been listed as possible causes for the positive impact of playing certain games on cognitive performance. However, it is unclear how to map those features to both theories in cognitive psychology and to actual game mechanics. Now researchers are looking to build a fuller picture. In Dr Cardoso-Leite’s lab, researchers are working on a theory of cognitive training and are aiming to identify experimentally which game features are effective in enhancing cognitive performance and learning capacity. “We create games that have properties we think are interesting from a theoretical point of view,” he outlines. By developing different versions of video games which include some of these ingredients and exclude others, researchers aim to identify which have a positive impact on cognitive performance. “We are trying to go from those features and theories to the development of alternative, well-controlled versions of video games, where some of the features are present
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