Are gamers better crossers? An examination of action video game experience and dual task effects in a simulated street crossing task.

OBJECTIVE: A high-fidelity street crossing simulator was used to test the hypothesis that experienced action video game players are less vulnerable than non-gamers to dual task costs in complex tasks. BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that action video game players outperform nonplayers on many single task measures of perception and attention. It is unclear, however, whether action video game players outperform nonplayers in complex, divided attention tasks. METHOD: Experienced action video game players and nongamers completed a street crossing task in a high-fidelity simulator. Participants walked on a manual treadmill to cross the street. During some crossings, a cognitively demanding working memory task was added. RESULTS: Dividing attention resulted in more collisions and increased decision making time. Of importance, these dual task costs were equivalent for the action video game players and the nongamers. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that action video game players are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task. APPLICATION: Perceptual and attentional benefits associated with action video game experience may not translate to performance benefits in complex, real-world tasks.

Role of childhood aerobic fitness in successful street crossing.

UNLABELLED: Increased aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognition, brain health, and academic achievement during preadolescence. PURPOSE: In this study, we extended these findings by examining the relationship between aerobic fitness and an everyday real-world task: street crossing. Because street crossing can be a dangerous multitask challenge and is a leading cause of injury in children, it is important to find ways to improve pedestrian safety. METHODS: A street intersection was modeled in a virtual environment, and higher-fit (n = 13, 7 boys) and lower-fit (n = 13, 5 boys) 8- to 10-yr-old children, as determined by V˙O(2max) testing, navigated trafficked roads by walking on a treadmill that was integrated with an immersive virtual world. Child pedestrians crossed the street while undistracted, listening to music, or conversing on a hands-free cellular phone. RESULTS: Cell phones impaired street crossing success rates compared with the undistracted or music conditions for all participants (P = 0.004), a result that supports previous research. However, individual differences in aerobic fitness influenced these patterns (fitness × condition interaction, P = 0.003). Higher-fit children maintained street crossing success rates across all three conditions (paired t-tests, all P > 0.4), whereas lower-fit children showed decreased success rates when on the phone, relative to the undistracted (P = 0.018) and music (P = 0.019) conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness may attenuate the impairment typically associated with multitasking during street crossing. It is possible that superior cognitive abilities of higher-fit children play a role in the performance differences during complex real-world tasks.