title: Gaming to see: action video gaming is associated with enhanced processing of masked stimuli.
abstract: Recent research revealed that action video game players outperform non-players in a wide range of attentional, perceptual and cognitive tasks. Here we tested if expertise in action video games is related to differences regarding the potential of shortly presented stimuli to bias behavior. In a response priming paradigm, participants classified four animal pictures functioning as targets as being smaller or larger than a reference frame. Before each target, one of the same four animal pictures was presented as a masked prime to influence participants' responses in a congruent or incongruent way. Masked primes induced congruence effects, that is, faster responses for congruent compared to incongruent conditions, indicating processing of hardly visible primes. Results also suggested that action video game players showed a larger congruence effect than non-players for 20 ms primes, whereas there was no group difference for 60 ms primes. In addition, there was a tendency for action video game players to detect masked primes for some prime durations better than non-players. Thus, action video game expertise may be accompanied by faster and more efficient processing of shortly presented visual stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany ; Hospital for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine Lohr am Main Lohr am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pohl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kunde
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences Esslingen Esslingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ganz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conzelmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pauli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kiesel
keywords: action video gaming; expertise; masked priming; prime visibility; unconscious processing