Improved probabilistic inference as a general learning mechanism with action video games

By Shawn C. Green, Alexandre Pouget, Daphne Bavelier. Current Biology, 2010

345 citations recorded by the source corpus.

SUMMARY Action video game play benefits performance in an array of sensory, perceptual and attentional tasks that go well beyond the specifics of game play [1-9]. That a training regimen may induce improvements in so many different skills is notable as the majority of studies on training-induced learning report improvements on the trained task but limited transfer to other, even closely related tasks [10, but see also 11-13]. Here we ask whether improved probabilistic inference may explain such broad transfer. Using a visual perceptual decision making task [14, 15], the present study shows for the first time that action video-game experience does indeed improve probabilistic inference. A neural model of this task [16] establishes how changing a single parameter, namely, the strength of the connections between the neural layer providing the momentary evidence and the layer integrating the evidence over time captures improvements in action-gamers behavior. These results were established in a visual, but also in a novel auditory task, indicating generalization across modalities. Thus, improved probabilistic inference provides a general mechanism for why action video game playing enhances performance in a wide variety of tasks. In addition, this mechanism may serve as a signature of training regimens that are likely to produce transfer of learning.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Developmental and Educational Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/50f7b68e51be29dec373aa87a8f1fea1c21cbf61

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Brain plasticity through the life span: learning to learn and action video games. (2012, background): “This feature may explain, in part, why VGPs seem to maximize reward rate in a variety of tasks (A.F. Anderson, C.S. Green, D. Bavelier, manuscript in preparation; Green et al. 2010).”
Meta-Analysis of Action Video Game Impact on Perceptual, Attentional, and Cognitive Skills (2018, methodology): “Using neural models of the behavioral impact documented, we have shown how changes in network connectivity in those neuronal networks known to mediate performance on the task of interest may account for the behavioral benefits noted (see Bejjanki et al., 2014; Green, Pouget, & Bavelier, 2010).”
Improving Methodological Standards in Behavioral Interventions for Cognitive Enhancement (2019, background): “Some groups have used off-theshelf commercial video games that were designed with only entertainment-based goals in mind (Basak et al. 2008; Green et al. 2010), while others have utilized video games designed to mimic the look and feel of such commercial games, but with the explicit intent of…”
Effects of video-game play on information processing: A meta-analytic investigation (2013, background): “…the cognitive effects of video-game play is important, given reports of negative correlations between the amount of video-game play and academic achievement in children and adolescents (e.g., C. A. Anderson & Dill, 2000; Jackson, von Eye, Fitzgerald, Witt, & Zhao, 2011; Sharif & Sargent, 2006).”
Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: from molecular to behavioral interventions (2010, background): “…period can be safely and noninvasively recapitulated by behavioral training such as perceptual learning (Levi and Li, 2009b), video game play (Green et al., 2010a), targeted pharmacological manipulation (Fluoxetine), or even brain stimulation to alter E/I balance directly (Fregni and…”