title: Computer games: a double-edged sword?
abstract: Excessive computer game playing (ECGP) has already become a serious social problem. However, limited data from experimental lab studies are available about the negative consequences of ECGP on players' cognitive characteristics. In the present study, we compared three groups of participants (current ECGP participants, previous ECGP participants, and control participants) on a Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) task. The previous ECGP participants performed significantly better than the control participants, which suggested a facilitation effect of computer games on visuospatial abilities. Moreover, the current ECGP participants performed significantly worse than the previous ECGP participants. This more important finding indicates that ECGP may be related to cognitive deficits. Implications of this study are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences, Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: De-Lin
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Xang-Chuan
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Da-Ren
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*