Research Article Action-Video-Game Experience Alters the Spatial Resolution of Vision

ABSTRACT—Playing action video games enhances several different aspects of visual processing; however, the mech-anisms underlying this improvement remain unclear. Here we show that playing action video games can alter fun-damental characteristics of the visual system, such as the spatial resolution of visual processing across the visual field. To determine the spatial resolution of visual pro-cessing, we measured the smallest distance a distractor could be from a target without compromising target iden-tification. This approach exploits the fact that visual processing is hindered as distractors are brought close to the target, a phenomenon known as crowding. Compared with nonplayers, action-video-game players could tolerate smaller target-distractor distances. Thus, the spatial resolution of visual processing is enhanced in this popu-lation. Critically, similar effects were observed in non-vid-eo-game players who were trained on an action video game; this result verifies a causative relationship between video-game play and augmented spatial resolution. Video-game players appear to outperform non-game players on several different visual tasks (Castel, Pratt, & Drummond, 2005