Video Games Boost Visual Attention but Reduce Impulse Control

A person playing a first-person shooter video game like Halo or Unreal Tournament must make decisions quickly. That fast-paced decision-making, it turns out, boosts the player's visual skills but comes at a cost, according to new research: reducing the person's ability to inhibit impulsive behavior. This reduction in what is called "proactive executive control" appears to be yet another way that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior.

[BlackBusterCritic]

Well, I'm glad it reduced my impulse control. My reflexes were vastly improved by video games. Saved my life once when I fell through a ceiling, my body unconsciously grabbed two beams on both sides of me.

[Kydawg]

Damn that's awesome! I know for a fact it has improved my driving skills and hand/eye coordination. I believe playing games has way more of a positive effect on the brain than a negative effect, but everyone's different. In many cases like yours BlackBuster, it can save lives.

[memots]

I can tell you that Video does improve many things.
Years of sim Racing saved my life and most likelly my wife.
A car pulled out from drive way and was not looking our way because a truck was turning in that parking and she could not see us coming on her left. When she saw us she hit the brakes right in the middles of the road in front of us. I surprisingly didn't even panic, i was coming down at about 80km/h, had enough time to look at the incoming lane for traffic and saw that i had room to avoid them by going in the incoming traffic lane, my wife said we avoided their car by a few inches.

Violent behavior is in people, i find it hard to believe that video game is any worst than a Tarantino movie lol.

[OhMyGandhi]

I just wish there was more chest-high cover in real life.

[MikeyDucati1]

^I'm voting this post of the year. You are the one Neo.

[jc48573]

they are only talking FPS. what about other genres?

[Kydawg]

Did you read the article or the other posts? It applies to all types of games.

"In one of the studies, Anderson's team had participants -- none of whom were frequent gamers -- either play the fast-paced and violent video game Unreal Tournament (2004), the slow-paced game Sims 2, or nothing for 10 sessions, each 50 minutes long over the course of 11 weeks. His team tested the participants' proactive cognitive control and visual attention before and after the video game playing. They found marked decreases in proactive cognitive control among the action game players versus the Sims players or non-game players. At the same time, there were marked increases in the visual attention skills of action gamers."

Racing sims saved both Memots and his wife's lives and there's probably countless other cases where racing games have also saved lives, you just don't hear about them.

[Lord_Sloth]

Wouldn't a reduction in impulse control be both good as well? It can make some1 shy be much more outspoken like it has done with me over the last decade.

[dcj0524]

FOX NEWS: " Video Games reduce impulse controls. Is this the cause for rapes and shootings? More at 11"

OT:Games made me more.... assertive. As in instead of starring at the girl I like I go up and talk to her.

[Lord_Sloth]

Exactly! It's helped me get over many of my inhibitions!

[Donnywho]

People adapt. Things change. What pushed things to the limit yesterday might never come close to pushing it too far ever again. Or maybe you'll go ballistic tomorrow and ruin your life. I don't know, and neither do they.

[Kydawg]

I agree. Everyone is different, with different life experiences, and different day to day encounters with many different people that have the same deal for them. It's how you apply the skills you have learned over your life to the situation you are in depending on who you are. Have I confused anyone yet?