Gaming and its association with working memory and inattention

Gaming has become one of the most common activities for children and adolescents, and it is therefore of interest to investigate effects of gaming on cognition and behavior. The present study investigates if gaming is related to working memory capacity (WMC) or inattentive symptoms. We distinguished between three categories: action games, strategy games and non-gamers. The present study hypothesized that games involving higher cognitive functions, such as strategy games, could have an enhancing effect on working memory. A total of 211 children (age 5-16) participated. Gaming and inattentive behaviour was measured through parental assessment. WMC was measured with one verbal and one visuospatial task. No relation between gaming and inattentional symptoms was found. Strategy gamers performed better on the visuospatial and the verbal WM-tasks, but more time spent playing strategy games was not associated with significantly higher WMC, which indicates that this finding could be due to self-selection rather than being an causal effect of playing