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Yes, this is one of those I-told-you-so stories and yes, we all know that too much video gaming isn’t that great for you. But just in case you need scientific evidence, here is a new study that shows yet another link between too much video game time and attention deficit disorder (ADD).
According to researchers from Iowa State University, high volume action video game players – those who play around 40 hours per week – have more difficulty keeping focused on tasks requiring longer, more proactive attention than those who played video games less than a couple of hours a week.
The study suggests that those who are addicted to video games may have a substantial disadvantage in tasks that require attention over a longer period of time over those who do not play that much. “So if they’re engaged in some activity that doesn’t really capture their attention – like maybe a classroom lecture, or studying in a quiet space – they’re going to have difficulty maintaining attention on their own,” said Rob West, one of the study’s authors, an associate professor of psychology and director of the cognitive psychology program at Iowa State.
West also said that the results of this study contrast with research published over the last six years that has found beneficial effects of action video game play on some aspect of visual processing. High volume gamers’ reactions to stimuli that appear very quickly had been found to be enhanced by playing action video games in those studies.
In the most recent study, data was collected from 51 Iowa State undergraduate men with ages between 18 to 33 who were nearly evenly divided between those who reported playing less than a couple of hours of video games per week, and those who played video games at an average of 43 hours per week.
“It’s not clear what the effects would be if we tested people who were playing 10 or 20 hours a week,” West said. “So we don’t know if it’s a graded effect or threshold effect – like maybe 10’s OK, but 20’s not. We don’t have those kinds of data yet.”
The researchers said they are collecting data for another study that extends on this research and explores working memory in video game players – keeping information in mind for 10 or 20 seconds. They are also exploring whether non-gamers produce the same attention results as those found in frequent players when they’re asked to play action video games for approximately 10 to 20 hours over several sessions.
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