University of Twente Student Theses
Competitive Action Video Games’ Effect on Cognitive Abilities : The Case of Overwatch
Grothues, Jasper Silas (2017) Competitive Action Video Games’ Effect on Cognitive Abilities : The Case of Overwatch.
|
PDF
1MB |
| Abstract: | Research into the effects of video game play on performance in psychophysical tasks has seen a surge in the last decade. The type of players studied however might not have been the optimal population. This study focuses on the effects of playing one particular, competitive, multiplayer, action video game. The game examined is Overwatch, a highly popular action video game. Participants playing Overwatch are compared with a non-action video game playing control group. Additionally was the possibility of Overwatch player’s in-game rank having an influence on their performance examined. Participants were measured using a spatial Stroop task, the attentional blink task, change detection task and a useful field of view task. Significance analysis revealed no effects of playing Overwatch or Overwatch rank on the performance on any of the psychophysical tests. A Bayesian information criterion analysis did reveal an effect of Overwatch rank on visual working memory capacity. Shortcomings of the study, reasons for the lack of finding the hypothesized results and implications for future research are discussed. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/72598 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page