Vision
Action video game training enhances several aspects of vision. One aspect involves contrast sensitivity, or the ability to detect small incremental changes in shades of gray. This ability is considered one of the primary building blocks of all vision. If an individual cannot detect differences in luminance between two adjacent parts of the visual world, he or she could not detect edges and.
Testing the efects of action video game play on perception and cogniti Video Games 57 thus object boundaries, background, and foreground. Li and colleagues (2009) first performed the “natural experiment”—assessing contrast sensitivity in AVGPs and NVGPs. When they found that AVGPs substantially outperformed NVGPs (meaning AVGPs were able to detect smaller changes in gray compared to NVGPs), the researchers then established a causal role of action gaming via a training study.
Individuals who underwent fifty hours of action video game training (spaced out over ten to twelve weeks) improved their contrast sensitivity abilities by significantly more than individuals who underwent fifty hours of control video game training. Similarly, Green and colleagues (2007) determined that action gaming improves another key aspect of vision—crowded acuity. Here, action gaming improved an individual’s ability to resolve small visual details in the presence of visual distractors.