The use of Video Game Technology for Investigating Perceptual and Cognitive Awareness in Sports

This paper describes a framework for investigating and manipulating the attentional components of video game play in order to affect learning transfer across different task environments. Several groups of video game players (VGP) and non video game players – both hockey and non-hockey groups (NVGPH, NVGP) will be tested at baseline on several aspects of visual processing skill. The NVGP and NVGPH groups will then train for one week in an action video game playing environment. They will then be re-tested for attentional efficiency. The hockey group will also be tested before and after training on a pattern and cue recognition sport video test. We intend to show that, not only does video game play alter basic components of visual attentional resources, but that it can also enhance perceptual learning transfer across unrelated task domains.