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Abstract

The current study used a video game-based vigilance task in which participants viewed a dynamic environment filled with objects and elements from a real-world environment. Participants were to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during a “patrol route” through a generic Afghanistan village. There was motivation to compare performance measures between participants who play video games and those who do not due to rising popularity in video game culture and the ubiquitous market on serious games as training platforms. Analysis reveals that action video game players (AVGPs) show significant advantages over non-video game players (NVGPs) as it relates to vigilance performance (i.e. proportion of correct detections, response time, false alarms, etc.). Additionally, workload analysis indicated AVGPs do find certain facets of the task to be demanding (Physical and Mental demand) but overall, AVGPs rate the task lower than NVGPs in terms of total or global perceived workload.

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Action Video Game Players and Vigilance Performance

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