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Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that playing action video games is related to improvement in many cognitive domains, especially visual cognitive functions beyond specific impact on game performance. Taking a domain-general view of the effects of video gaming, we examined the relationship between gaming experience and cognitive skills in both the auditory and visual domain. Since action video game has been narrowly defined in previous research, this study included another game genre (i.e. multiplayer online battle arena [MOBA]) in addition to 1st/3rd person shooter games and non-action games. In this study, 60 young adults were categorized into 3 gaming groups based on their gaming experience. They then completed two online tests --- an auditory working memory test and a visual attention test. In the auditory test, they were presented with a series of auditory stimuli and had to hold those stimuli in mind. In the visual test, participants kept track of moving dots amidst distractors. The results showed that individuals with more experience in 1st/3rd person shooter games or MOBA games outperformed non-action gamers on both tests, suggesting that playing these two types of video games might be associated with improved visual attention and auditory working memory skills, although it is possible that people who play these games do so because of their superior memory skills. In addition, there was a gender difference in which we observed a better performance for males on the visual attention test, but not on the auditory working memory test. Limitations and future research directions were discussed.

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