Action video game experience affects oculomotor performance

• DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.08.005
• Publication Date: 2012-12-06T08:47:21Z
• Authors: Greg L. West; Naseem Al-Aidroos; Jay Pratt
• Keywords: Male; Eye Movements; Video Games; 05 social sciences; Reaction Time; Humans; Attention; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance

Action video games have been show to affect a variety of visual and cognitive processes. There is, however, little evidence of whether playing video games can also affect motor action. To investigate the potential link between experience playing action video games and changes in oculomotor action, we tested habitual action video game players (VGPs) and non-video game players (NVGPs) in a saccadic trajectory deviation task. We demonstrate that spatial curvature of a saccadic trajectory towards or away from distractor is profoundly different between VGPs and NVGPs. In addition, task performance accuracy improved over time only in VGPs. Results are discussed in the context of the competing interplay between stimulus-driven motor programming and top-down inhibition during oculomotor execution.