Technology consumption and cognitive control: Contrasting action video game experience with media multitasking

Article Article scientifique Article Technology consumption and cognitive control: Contrasting action video game experience with media multitasking eng 2016 author Cardoso Leite Pedro Michel 762537 author Kludt Rachel author Vignola Gianluca 697233 author Ma Wei Ji author Green C. Shawn author Bavelier Daphné 737548 218-241 10.3758/s13414-015-0988-0 1943-3921 http://link.springer.com/10.3758/s13414-015-0988-0 Technology has the potential to impact cognition in many ways. Here we contrast two forms of technology usage: (1) media multitasking (i.e., the simultaneous consumption of multiple streams of media, such a texting while watching TV) and (2) playing action video games (a particular subtype of video games). Previous work has outlined an association between high levels of media multitasking and specific deficits in handling distracting information, whereas playing action video games has been associated with enhanced attentional control. Because these two factors are linked with reasonably opposing effects, failing to take them jointly into account may result in inappropriate conclusions as to the impacts of technology use on attention. Across four tasks (AX-continuous performance, N-back, task-switching, and filter tasks), testing different aspects of attention and cognition, we showed that heavy media multitaskers perform worse than light media multitaskers. Contrary to previous reports, though, the performance deficit was not specifically tied to distractors, but was instead more global in nature. Interestingly, participants with intermediate levels of media multitasking sometimes performed better than both light and heavy media multitaskers, suggesting that the effects of increasing media multitasking are not monotonic. Action video game players, as expected, outperformed non-video-game players on all tasks. However, surprisingly, this was true only for participants with intermediate levels of media multitasking, suggesting that playing action video games does not protect against the deleterious effect of heavy media multitasking. Taken together, these findings show that media consumption can have complex and counterintuitive effects on attentional control. Electronic supplementary material Action video games Media multitasking Task-switching Filter task N-back AX-CPT Dewey 150 Swiss National Science Foundation Which aspects of attention should be fostered to lead to broad behavioral benefits? 140676 CH Project funding Autre Office of Naval Research MURI Grant Numbers N00014-07-1-0937 and N00014-14-1-0512 108 Section de psychologie 71 false 1373 Brain & Learning Lab Attention, perception & psychophysics 78 1 eaafd29d-3331-4fcb-b107-1dc70d76ef8d Article (Published version) Restricted CardosoKluViWeGreBavelierTechno.pdf 3383106 application/pdf restrictedAccess Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation / Section de psychologie

Title	Published in	Year	Views	Downloads

Technology consumption and cognitive control: Contrasting action video game experience with media multitasking	Attention, perception & psychophysics	2016	749	29
How technology shapes cognition : action video game experience, cognitive control and category learning		2015	267	2

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Vignola, Gianluca