The Effects of Video Games on Cognitive

Functions of Frequent Users

Brett Knecht
North Dakota State University

Introduction
Over the last few decades video games have become a larger and
more popular industry with 155 Million people in the US alone playing video
games in 2015. That is nearly 60% of Americans playing a video game (R7).
They appear on nearly all electronic devices at this point and are never far
from reach. Like any new product that becomes widely used, questions arise
about the effects of these products, mainly questions concerning what kind
of impact the products have on our health. What physical and psychological
impacts are a result of these products? As well as the much broader question
of, is it bad for us? In other words are the positives and advantages of
playing a video game outweighed by the negative effects and
disadvantages. Others inquire about how society is impacted as a whole by
these products. The questions about psychological health are the questions
that we take interest in and will be the basis of our research.
Our research groups goal is to answer these questions concerning
health. We will take a more focused look at mainly the psychological impacts
of video games. How they impact memory, perception, attention or focus,
problem solving, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination. The Adult age
groups will be the focus of this research as there are many studies conducted
on adolescents already and there is not a lot on this age group. A preexperiment test and post-experiment will be used to determine the results of
the experiment for each participant. We hope to uncover what areas are
affected positively and what areas are affected negatively by video games.
These results can help to determine where improvements can be made to
future video games to make them more beneficial to play. We believe that we
may find video games to have a high psychologically impact on frequent
users. We will find out if they are stimulating and promote mental health or
are detrimental to a users mental state.

Literature Review

A large amount of literature and research is on the subject of how

video games affect aggression and violent behavior in children and teens.
While there is less research on the subjects of memory, perception,
attention, problem solving, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination. Almost
all of these research studies are focused on adolescents and very little is
done in regards to adults. There is little to no research on how an adult is
affected psychologically by video games or if they are affected differently
than an adolescent. This is where there is a lack of research. This is the gap
our research team would like to start to fill. Better understanding the affects
a video games have on adults is important information we should know.
The impact of video games on an individuals psychological health has
been a controversial subject over the last few decades with many conflicting
findings and mixed positive and negative benefits. There are arguments that
video games promote violence and reinforce them as being socially
acceptable. A research study on the effects of video game violence found
that there is a link to aggressive behaviors stating that "violent video games
may increase aggression in the short term by increasing aggressive thoughts
(R1)." This does not support that there is an affect on long term behaviors.
While other arguments for video games say that they are mentally
stimulating and have many benefits ranging from social benefits to attention
and detail benefits. Another study found that action games have benefits
showing " long-lasting positive effects of video games on basic mental
processes--such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making
(R9)."A lot of these arguments stem from concerned parents worried about
their childrens growth and what video games may be doing to it. As well as
the video game industry portraying them as stimulating to improve public
appeal and increase sales.

Methodology
Experiment 1
Get a large group of people to participate in the research experiment. This
should consist of 300 or more people who do not play video games or play
them infrequently, less than 2 hours a week.
Preliminary tests to document memory skills, multitasking capabilities,
attention to detail and hand-eye coordination.
A video game will be chosen by the research group for participants to play.
One third of participants will play the video game chosen for two 2 hour

sessions for a total of 4 hours a week for 2 months. While another third of
participants will play the same video game twice as much, four 2 hour
sessions a week totaling 8 hours a week for 2 months. The last third of
participants will not play the video game and serve as the control group.
After the 2 months another test to evaluate memory skills, multitasking
capabilities, attention to detail and hand-eye coordination will be given to all
of the participants.
Data will be analyzed to see if there are improvement over all from the
original tests. Secondly the two groups that played the video game will be
compared to the group that didn't. To see if there are any improvements. The
two groups that played different amounts will also be compared to see if any
changes are affected proportionally to the amount of time spent playing the
game. All data will be plotted into graphs for ease of reading and to be
inspected for trends.

Analysis
Results will be compiled and statistics will be generated from the data
received from testing. These statistics will be used to determine where there
are significant changes in memory skills, multitasking capabilities, attention
to detail and hand-eye coordination. Each category will be analyzed for
positive and negative trends.
All findings will be published to open source and free access journals and
shared freely. By sharing our findings freely we hope to encourage further
research into developing video games based on these findings. We hope that
this information will be taken advantage of to develop more mentally
stimulating video games so as to provide health benefits for those that play
them.

Time Line
March 10 Research team meats to decide on a video game for the
participants to play that will stimulate memory skills, multitasking
capabilities, attention to detail and hand-eye coordination. As well as decide
on preliminary and post experiment testing methods.
March 14-18 - Team will meet with participants and conduct preliminary
testing and inform participants of what they will have to do as a participant.
May 16-20 Participants will be tested for changes in each of the key areas.

May 23-25 Data will be compiled and analyzed.

May 27 Final findings will be submitted.

References
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