Effects of action video game play on cognitive skills: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

The possibility that playing action video games is associated with enhancements in certain aspects of cognitive function has attracted significant interest from researchers in education, psychology, and neuroscience.Previous meta-analyses indicated an overall positive relationship between action video game play and cognitive skills. However, follow-up to this previous work is warranted, not only because the amount of data has grown significantly since previous meta-analyses were conducted, but also because previous work left several issues unresolved (e.g., certain meta-analytic procedures). We conducted a literature search using predefined keywords and inclusion criteria to identify studies that examined the relationship between action video game play and cognitive skills. Data from (a) 105 cross-sectional studies (221 effect sizes) and (b) 28 intervention studies with an active control group (91 effect sizes) were analyzed separately via meta-analytic models for dependent effect sizes with robust variance estimates for correlated and hierarchical effects (CHE) and small-sample corrections. Consistent with our hypotheses, action video game players outperformed nonvideo game players in the cross-sectional meta-analysis (large effect, g = 0.64, 95% CI [0.53, 0.74]). Action video game play was causally related to improvements in cognitive skills in the intervention meta-analysis (small effect, g = 0.30, 95% CI [0.11, 0.50]). Publication bias was detected in the cross-sectional data set, with sensitivity analysis showing high heterogeneous estimates of the average unbiased effect. Publication bias was not detected in the intervention data set, but sensitivity analyses also point to heterogeneity. No significant moderators were found for either data set; however, this may be limited by small sample sizes.

Emotions and individual differences shape foraging under threat

“…Women may be more pessimistic about objective probabilities when gains are at stake [108], [109]. Alternatively, male participants might have had more experience with this type of task in the form of video games, with previous work finding increased playing times, especially of ego-shooter games [110], which have been linked to increased performance across various cognitive tasks [111]. Though of note, the task did not require difficult finger movements (e.g.…”

Supplemental Material for Effects of action video game play on cognitive skills: A meta-analysis.

“…All analyses were conducted in R using the metafor (Viechtbauer & Viechtbauer, 2015) and clubSandwich (Pustejovsky, 2017) packages, as well as robumeta (Fisher et al, 2016). Both data sets as well as analysis code are available at (https://osf.io/3xdh8/; Bediou et al, 2020). Analyses and hypotheses were preregistered on OSF (https://osf.io/6qpye), and any deviations from the analysis plan are summarized in the deviation documentation.…”

Editorial: The dark and the light side of gaming

“…In spite of these ongoing discussions, there has been a notable shift in the last decades and interest in the light side of gaming has increased. For example, studies have examined the positive potentials of games in terms of skill development (e.g., Bediou et al, 2023 ), learning (e.g., Clark et al, 2016 ), and stress reduction (e.g., Pallavicini et al, 2021 ).…”