The influence of video game types on inhibiting interference stimuli under different perceptual loads

Abstract

The effects of video game experience on cognitive functioning have been extensively studied; however, differences in inhibitory control between different types of video game players at high and low perceptual loads have yet to be explored. This study aimed to examine the inhibitory control of two types of video game players using distracting stimuli with different perceptual loads. Therefore, 35 action video game (ACT) players and 35 strategy video game (STG) players were recruited via a video game questionnaire and were studied using flanker tasks with different perceptual loads. The results showed that ACT players could attend to the distribution of distracting stimuli and inhibit them better than STG players could. Furthermore, players with ACT game experience obtained better task performance when the perceptual load was high. The current findings highlight the relevance of inhibitory control in high perceptual load conditions to the game genre and discuss the reasons for this phenomenon.

Keywords

• Video game
• Perceptual load
• Selective attention
• Flanker
• Action video game
• Strategy video game