The Effects of Video Game Play on Visual Attention

The Global Games Market Report estimates that, as of 2019 there are 2.2 billion people worldwide that engage in video game play creating a global market with a valuation of $135 billion (Batchelor, 2018). Much of the current literature focuses on the negative psychological and physiological effects of video game play whilst the body of literature surrounding potential cognitive benefits is still lacking despite an increase in recent years. This study’s primary aim was to investigate if video game play has a positive effect on an individual's visual attention abilities. This study used a Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) task in order to measure participants visual attention abilities. The study used a sample of young adults aged 18 - 23 (n = 40). The participants were separated into two groups; video game players (VGPs) and non-video game players (NVGPs) in order to see if video game players would perform better. Statistical analysis found video game players (M = 271.35) to perform statistically significantly (p < .001) better than their non video game playing counterparts (M = 240.30). The magnitude of the effect size led to a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.34). Gender differences in visual attention were also assessed, with no significant difference being found between males and females (p = .53). These results were found in a public setting with no effort being made to reduce outside stimuli. Future studies should attempt to replicate these findings within a laboratory setting