Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Aug 2020)

Action Real-Time Strategy Gaming Experience Related to Enhanced Capacity of Visual Working Memory

  • Yutong Yao,
  • Yutong Yao,
  • Yutong Yao,
  • Ruifang Cui,
  • Ruifang Cui,
  • Yi Li,
  • Yi Li,
  • Lu Zeng,
  • Lu Zeng,
  • Jinliang Jiang,
  • Jinliang Jiang,
  • Nan Qiu,
  • Nan Qiu,
  • Li Dong,
  • Li Dong,
  • Diankun Gong,
  • Diankun Gong,
  • Guojian Yan,
  • Guojian Yan,
  • Weiyi Ma,
  • Tiejun Liu,
  • Tiejun Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00333
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Action real-time strategy gaming (ARSG)—a major genre of action video gaming (AVG)—has both action and strategy elements. ARSG requires attention, visual working memory (VWM), sensorimotor skills, team cooperation, and strategy-making abilities, thus offering promising insights into the learning-induced plasticity. However, it is yet unknown whether the ARSG experience is related to the development of VWM capacity. Using both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements, this study tested whether ARSG experts had larger VWM capacity than non-experts in a change detection task. The behavioral results showed that ARSG experts had higher accuracy and larger VWM capacity than non-experts. In addition, the ERP results revealed that the difference wave of the contralateral delay activity (CDA) component (size 4–size 2) elicited by experts was significantly larger than that of non-experts, suggesting that the VWM capacity was higher in experts than in non-experts. Thus, the findings suggested that prolonged ARSG experience is correlative with the enhancement of VWM.

Keywords