Moderating Effects of Visual Attention and Action Video Game Play on Perceptual Learning

摘要

In recent years there has been substantial controversy regarding the reliability of observed patterns of perceptual learning. A number of factors have been suggested to account for individual differences in what subjects learn and when, although many of these factors have been studied with small sample sizes. We present a large perceptual learning study including 112 subjects in two experiments in which we examine effects of visual attention and action video game play on baseline performance, learning, and transfer in a Texture Discrimination Task. In Experiment 1 stimulus difficulties were randomly intermixed throughout training, in Experiment 2, different stimulus difficulties were presented in sequential blocks. In each Experiment, we examined learning for a trained stimulus configuration as well as transfer to an untrained background orientation. We find subjects with better visual attention skills, as measured by the Useful Field of View task, demonstrate superior overall performance on the TDT (F(2,104) = 6.75; p = 0.002). In contrast, action video game experience was unrelated to performance on this task (F(2,104.16) = 0.229 p = 0.796) and unrelated to performance on the UFOV (F(2,106) = 1.69; p = 0.190). This latter finding stands in contrast to previously reported research. We failed to find statistically robust support for the hypothesis that visual attention skill interacts with the amount learned (F(2,104) = 2.08; p = 0.130) or the degree of transfer (F(2,104) = 2.32; p = 0.103). The relationship between action video game play and learning was not significant (F(4,100) = 0.77; p = 0.530), and there was no interaction with transfer (F(4,100) = 0.68; p = 0.608). Together these results suggest that Attention Skill and Action Video Game have less consistent impact on Perceptual Learning than previously suggested.