Effects of violent and non-violent computer game content on memory performance in adolescents

Effects of excessive violent video game playing on verbal memory: an event-related brain potentials study

The goal of the study was to investigate temporal dynamics of excessive violent game playing. We compared behavioral data and event-related potentials (ERPs) of excessive video game players (EVGPs, n = 21) and non-players (NPs, n = 21) using a classical learning, cued recall and recognition paradigm, featuring violent and non-violent words. During the recognition phase, EVGPs performed better for violent words, but worse for non-violent words compared to NPs. Also, EVGPs showed slower reaction times than NPs when responding to new violent words. We found significant group differences in parietal P300 and FN400 amplitudes. The EVGP group showed larger P300 amplitudes for violent words, and more negative FN400 amplitudes for new violent words compared to NPs. The results imply that EVGPs differ from NPs in their cognitive and ERP responses to violent and non-violent verbal stimuli. The cognitive processes of EVGPs are consistent with a model of attention and memory bias rather than with desensitization to violence.

Single night video-game use leads to sleep loss and attention deficits in older adolescents

The present study investigated adolescent video-game use prior to bedtime and subsequent sleep, working memory and sustained attention performance. Participants were 21 healthy, good-sleeping adolescents (16 male) aged between 15 and 20 years (M = 17.6 years, SD = 1.8). Time spent video-gaming and subsequent sleep was measured across one night in the sleep laboratory. There were significant correlations between time spent video-gaming and sleep and between video-gaming and sustained attention, but not working memory. Sleep duration, in turn, had a significant negative association with sustained attention performance. Mediation analyses revealed that the relationship between video-gaming and sustained attention was fully mediated by sleep duration. These results indicate that video-gaming affected the ability to sustain attention only in as much as it affected sleep. In order to minimise negative consequences of video-game playing, video-games should be used in moderation, avoiding use close to the sleep period, to obviate detriments to sleep and performance.