An action video game modifies visual processing.

In a recent paper, Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier show that playing an action video game markedly improved subjects performance on a range of visual skills related to detecting objects in briefly flashed displays. This is noteworthy as previous studies on perceptual learning, which have commonly focused on well-controlled and rather abstract tasks, found little transfer of learning to novel stimuli, let alone to different tasks. The data suggest that video game playing modifies visual processing on different levels: some effects are compatible with increased attentional resources, whereas others point to changes in preattentive processing.