Michael D. Patterson

Enhancing Cognition with Video Games: A Multiple Game Training Study

Background Previous evidence points to a causal link between playing action video games and enhanced cognition and perception. However, benefits of playing other video games are under-investigated. We examined whether playing non-action games also improves cognition. Hence, we compared transfer effects of an action and other non-action types that required different cognitive demands. Methodology/Principal Findings We instructed 5 groups of non-gamer participants to play one game each on a mobile device (iPhone/iPod Touch) for one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks (20 hours). Games included action, spatial memory, match-3, hidden- object, and an agent-based life simulation. Participants performed four behavioral tasks before and after video game training to assess for transfer effects. Tasks included an attentional blink task, a spatial memory and visual search dual task, a visual filter memory task to assess for multiple object tracking and cognitive control, as well as a complex verbal span task. Action game playing eliminated attentional blink and improved cognitive control and multiple-object tracking. Match-3, spatial memory and hidden object games improved visual search performance while the latter two also improved spatial working memory. Complex verbal span improved after match-3 and action game training. Conclusion/Significance Cognitive improvements were not limited to action game training alone and different games enhanced different aspects of cognition. We conclude that training specific cognitive abilities frequently in a video game improves performance in tasks that share common underlying demands. Overall, these results suggest that many video game-related cognitive improvements may not be due to training of general broad cognitive systems such as executive attentional control, but instead due to frequent utilization of specific cognitive processes during game play. Thus, many video game training related improvements to cognition may be attributed to near-transfer effects.

The effects of acute stress on human prefrontal working memory systems

We examined the relationship between acute stress and prefrontal-cortex (PFC) based working memory (WM) systems using behavioral (Experiment 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; Experiment 2) paradigms. Subjects performed a delayed-response item-recognition task, with alternating blocks of high and low WM demand trials. During scanning, participants performed this task under three stress conditions: cold stress (induced by cold-water hand-immersion), a room temperature water control (induced by tepid-water hand-immersion), and no-water control (no hand-immersion). Performance was affected by WM demand, but not stress. Cold stress elicited greater salivary cortisol readings in behavioral subjects, and greater PFC signal change in fMRI subjects, than control conditions. These results suggest that, under stress, increases in PFC activity may be necessary to mediate cognitive processes that maintain behavioral organization.

Playing a puzzle video game with changing requirements improves executive functions

We trained college students to play one of four video games.Games ranged from action, puzzle, strategy and arcade type games.Only the puzzle game led to transfer on all executive function tasks. Recent research suggests a causal link between action video game playing and enhanced attention and visual-perceptual skills. In contrast, evidence linking action video games and enhanced executive function is equivocal. We investigated whether action and non-action video games enhance executive function. Fifty-five inexperienced video game players played one of four different games: an action video game (Modern Combat), a physics-based puzzle game (Cut the Rope), a real-time strategy game (Starfront Collision), and a fast paced arcade game (Fruit Ninja) for 20h. Three pre and post training tests of executive function were administered: a random task switching, a flanker, and a response inhibition task (Go/No-go). Only the group that trained on the physics-based puzzle game significantly improved in all three tasks relative to the pre-test. No training-related improvements were seen in other groups. These results suggest that playing a complex puzzle game that demands strategizing, reframing, and planning improves several aspects of executive function.

Are videogame training gains specific or general

Many recent studies using healthy adults document enhancements in perception and cognition from playing commercial action videogames (AVGs). Playing action games (e.g., Call of Duty, Medal of Honor) is associated with improved bottom-up lower-level information processing skills like visual-perceptual and attentional processes. One proposal states a general improvement in the ability to interpret and gather statistical information to predict future actions which then leads to better performance across different perceptual/attentional tasks. Another proposal claims all the tasks are separately trained in the AVGs because the AVGs and laboratory tasks contain similar demands. We review studies of action and non-AVGs to show support for the latter proposal. To explain transfer in AVGs, we argue that the perceptual and attention tasks share common demands with the trained videogames (e.g., multiple object tracking (MOT), rapid attentional switches, and peripheral vision). In non-AVGs, several studies also demonstrate specific, limited transfer. One instance of specific transfer is the specific enhancement to mental rotation after training in games with a spatial emphasis (e.g., Tetris). In contrast, the evidence for transfer is equivocal where the game and task do not share common demands (e.g., executive functioning). Thus, the “common demands” hypothesis of transfer not only characterizes transfer effects in AVGs, but also non-action games. Furthermore, such a theory provides specific predictions, which can help in the selection of games to train human cognition as well as in the design of videogames purposed for human cognitive and perceptual enhancement. Finally this hypothesis is consistent with the cognitive training literature where most post-training gains are for tasks similar to the training rather than general, non-specific improvements.

Enhancing perceptual and attentional skills requires common demands between the action video games and transfer tasks

Despite increasing evidence that shows action video game play improves perceptual and cognitive skills, the mechanisms of transfer are not well-understood. In line with previous work, we suggest that transfer is dependent upon common demands between the game and transfer task. In the current study, participants played one of four action games with varying speed, visual, and attentional demands for 20 h. We examined whether training enhanced performance for attentional blink, selective attention, attending to multiple items, visual search and auditory detection. Non-gamers who played the game (Modern Combat) with the highest demands showed transfer to tasks of attentional blink and attending to multiple items. The game (MGS Touch) with fewer attentional demands also decreased attentional blink, but to a lesser degree. Other games failed to show transfer, despite having many action game characteristics but at a reduced intensity. The results support the common demands hypothesis.

Visual working memory for global, object, and part-based information

We investigated visual working memory for novel objects and parts of novel objects. After a delay period, participants showed strikingly more accurate performance recognizing a single whole object than the parts of that object. This bias to remember whole objects, rather than parts, persisted even when the division between parts was clearly defined and the parts were disconnected from each other so that, in order to remember the single whole object, the participants needed to mentally combine the parts. In addition, the bias was confirmed when the parts were divided by color. These experiments indicated that holistic perceptual-grouping biases are automatically used to organize storage in visual working memory. In addition, our results suggested that the bias was impervious to top-down consciously directed control, because when task demands were manipulated through instruction and catch trials, the participants still recognized whole objects more quickly and more accurately than their parts. This bias persisted even when the whole objects were novel and the parts were familiar. We propose that visual working memory representations depend primarily on the global configural properties of whole objects, rather than part-based representations, even when the parts themselves can be clearly perceived as individual objects. This global configural bias beneficially reduces memory load on a capacity-limited system operating in a complex visual environment, because fewer distinct items must be remembered.

The Brain Basis of Syntactic Processes: Architecture, Ontogeny, and Phylogeny

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the architecture, ontogeny, and phylogeny of syntactic processes. It examines neuropsychological and neuroimaging data, concerning the neural substrates of syntactic processing in adults. To identify the genetic predispositions for syntax, the neural and environmental requirements for children to acquire syntax are descried, and the syntactic abilities of humans and other animals are compared. The revelation of studies about the architecture of the neural substrates of syntax is also reviewed, along with a discussion on theories of brain adaptation and the evolution of the brain basis of syntax in humans. Studies of the architecture of the neural substrates of processing in adults can help to refine hypotheses of the kind of previous processing that is performed by areas involved in syntactic processing before being re-appropriated. Studies in language acquisition can also be used to test the link between the development of syntactic processing and other processes, as well as to determine the amount of detail encoded about syntactic processing in the genome. New more precise evolutionary theories about origin of syntax can help in defining the breakdown of syntactic processing and cognitive processing into smaller subprocesses in the brain.

The Brain Basis of Syntactic Processes

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the architecture, ontogeny, and phylogeny of syntactic processes. It examines neuropsychological and neuroimaging data, concerning the neural substrates of syntactic processing in adults. To identify the genetic predispositions for syntax, the neural and environmental requirements for children to acquire syntax are descried, and the syntactic abilities of humans and other animals are compared. The revelation of studies about the architecture of the neural substrates of syntax is also reviewed, along with a discussion on theories of brain adaptation and the evolution of the brain basis of syntax in humans. Studies of the architecture of the neural substrates of processing in adults can help to refine hypotheses of the kind of previous processing that is performed by areas involved in syntactic processing before being re-appropriated. Studies in language acquisition can also be used to test the link between the development of syntactic processing and other processes, as well as to determine the amount of detail encoded about syntactic processing in the genome. New more precise evolutionary theories about origin of syntax can help in defining the breakdown of syntactic processing and cognitive processing into smaller subprocesses in the brain.

How feature information affects the retrieval of object location

In a series of experiments, we investigated how retrieving object features affects the precision of memory for their location. Participants viewed 6 objects randomly located on a display for 2.5 seconds. Each object was made up of a combination of one of 6 colors, 6 shapes, and 6 patterns for a total of 216 possible combinations. After a delay of approximately 4 seconds, participants were shown one feature (color, shape, or pattern) and asked to indicate the location on the screen of the object that contained that feature. After responding, participants were asked to indicate another feature the object contained. Participants were significantly more accurate to indicate the location of the object when they were given a color property, than a shape, or pattern. In addition, location accuracy was positively correlated with feature accuracy. In a second set of experiments, 3 of the objects had the same color, shape, and pattern (duplicate objects), and 3 had unique combinations (unique objects). Memory for spatial location and features was significantly more accurate for duplicate than unique objects. The overall spatial accuracy of both the 3 unique and 3 duplicate objects was also significantly higher than 6 unique objects. This indicates that participants may be able to chunk together similar objects to reduce total memory load. These results have important theoretical implications for how feature and spatial information are bound and used to reference each other. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Chapter 6 – The Brain Basis of Syntactic Processes: Architecture, Ontogeny, and Phylogeny

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the architecture, ontogeny, and phylogeny of syntactic processes. It examines neuropsychological and neuroimaging data, concerning the neural substrates of syntactic processing in adults. To identify the genetic predispositions for syntax, the neural and environmental requirements for children to acquire syntax are descried, and the syntactic abilities of humans and other animals are compared. The revelation of studies about the architecture of the neural substrates of syntax is also reviewed, along with a discussion on theories of brain adaptation and the evolution of the brain basis of syntax in humans. Studies of the architecture of the neural substrates of processing in adults can help to refine hypotheses of the kind of previous processing that is performed by areas involved in syntactic processing before being re-appropriated. Studies in language acquisition can also be used to test the link between the development of syntactic processing and other processes, as well as to determine the amount of detail encoded about syntactic processing in the genome. New more precise evolutionary theories about origin of syntax can help in defining the breakdown of syntactic processing and cognitive processing into smaller subprocesses in the brain.