Researchers at Duke University say people who play video games regularly tend to see more around them. A recent studyused a fast-paced visual memory test on gamers who often play action games like first-person shooters, and compared the results to non-gamers. It found the gamers consistently scored better, meaning they were able to gather more information in a short amount of time.
Duke assistant professor Greg Appelbaum says the results are consistent with previous research, which says gamers also respond more quickly to visual cues.
"In the very salient world of video gaming, and also in the very salient world of non-video gaming, being able to identify friends and foes very, very quickly is the analogy of what we think is going on," Appelbaum says.
Appelbaum says researchers need more data to identify what exactly is different in the brain of a gamer. The study appears in this month's edition of the journal "Attention, Perception and Psychophysics."