Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills.
Level 1 - systematic review of randomized trials
Meta-analysis of intervention and cross-sectional studies (graded by design analogy for non-clinical cognitive research)
PubMed 29172564 · doi:10.1037/bul0000130
What was done
Meta-analysis of studies published between 2000 and 2015 assessing the impact of action video games on cognitive, attentional, and perceptual skills. The authors analyzed cross-sectional studies comparing habitual action video game players to non-players, as well as long-term intervention studies that tested action video games against active control groups playing other commercial video game genres. Moderator analyses and publication bias assessments were performed.
What was found
Cross-sectional studies showed habitual action game players performed better on cognitive measures with an average effect size of g = 0.55. Long-term intervention studies confirmed a causal improvement in cognition with an average effect size of g = 0.34 compared to other game genres. Top-down attention and spatial cognition demonstrated robust enhancements, with encouraging signs for perception. Publication bias was identified as a notable threat, with effect sizes in the published literature estimated to be 30% larger than in the full literature.
Why it matters
It provides quantitative meta-analytic evidence that action video game play causally enhances specific cognitive domains beyond non-action game controls, while directly measuring the degree of publication bias in the literature.
Limits
The abstract does not state the total number of participants or included studies. Effect sizes in the published literature suffer from an estimated 30% inflation due to publication bias, and existing intervention studies are limited by training duration, leading authors to call for larger cohorts and interventions exceeding 30 hours of training.
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