Do video games cause attention problems in children?

© 2010 Gwen Dewar, all rights reserved

Do video games cause attention problems? Or are kids with attention problems more likely to seek out video games?

More research is needed to answer these questions. So far, the evidence suggests that video games may both hurt and help.

Video games may enhance certain visual attention skills.

But when it comes to paying attention in school, "high volume" video gamers seem to have more trouble.

Here are the details.

Playing action video games may enhance some visual attention skills

In a study of American kids, researchers Matt Dye and colleagues compared the visual attention skills of avid gamers with those who don’t play at all (Dye et al 2009).

The kids, aged 7-18 years, were tested on three specific visual attention skills

• the ability to scan efficiently for a target

• the time required to “snap” attention back after finding a target, and

• the number of objects that a child can pay attention to at once

One of the tasks looked like this: A line-up of fish, with one fish at the center and two “flankers” on each side.

The results were consistent with other studies of visual attention in gamers.

In all three areas tested, the kids who played action video games performed better than the kids lacking video game experience.

So perhaps action video games hone visual attention skills.

But these visual attention skills aren’t the same skills kids need to pay attention in school.

Kids who play video games may be good at reacting to sudden changes in their visual fields.

They may not be so good at reading or paying attention to “talking heads.” Listening to the teacher before he says something unexpected or exciting.

This proactive sort of attention seems crucial for studying and following directions. And it’s what many avid gamers seem to have trouble with.

Playing video games may cause attention problems at school

The kids, in grades 3-5, were asked to keep track of how much time they spent playing video games.

These tallies were cross-checked against their parents’ reports.

Researchers also asked teachers to evaluate each child’s attention skills at 4 different points over the 13-month study.

The results revealed a weak, but statistically significant, link between video games and teacher-reported attention problems.

And the pattern was consistent with the idea that playing video games causes attention problems:

Kids who played more video games at the beginning of the study experienced increased attention problems at the end. This was true even after controlling for prior student attention problems. Teachers said the kids got worse over time.

What about heavy use?

Video games, attention problems, and the brain

The young college men were presented with the Stroop task, a standard psychology test that asks a person to identify the color of a word that is flashed on a screen.

What makes the Stroop task particularly difficult is that the meaning of the word conflicts with the color. For example, the word “red” might be written in green letters.

The researchers compared the performance of two groups:

• “Low volume” gamers (who played video games less than 2 hours per week)

• “High volume” gamers (who played video games more than 40 hours per week)

As the undergraduates worked, researchers timed their responses and recorded their brain ERPs, or event-related potentials.When it came to reacting after a word flashed on the screen, both groups performed similarly.

But there was a fascinating difference in brain activity just before the words were flashed on the screen.

The “low volume” gamers showed evidence of paying more attention during these “wait and see” moments.

By contrast, the “high volume” gamers seemed to have trouble sustaining their attention.

Their brain activity resembled someone who has less “proactive control,” i.e., more trouble keeping his mind focused on what is about to happen.

Bailey and colleagues note that their study doesn’t demonstrate causation. It’s possible that people with less proactive control are more attracted by video games.

But given the implications of the Swing study--which found that kids’ attention skills worsened over time if they played more video games--the new research is worrying.

Why might video games make kids less attentive?

According to Edward Swing, “It is still not clear why screen media may increase attention problems, but many researchers speculate that it may be due to rapid-pacing, or the natural attention grabbing aspects that television and video games use.”

Swing’s coauthor, media expert David Gentile agrees.

"Brain science demonstrates that the brain becomes what the brain does," Gentile said in recent press release.

"If we train the brain to require constant stimulation and constant flickering lights, changes in sound and camera angle, or immediate feedback, such as video games can provide, then when the child lands in the classroom where the teacher doesn't have a million-dollar-per-episode budget, it may be hard to get children to sustain their attention."

References: Video games and attention problems

Dye MWG, Green CS, and Bavelier D. 2009. The development of attention skills in action video game players. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1780-1789.

Swing EL, Gentile DA, Anderson CA, and Walsh DA. 2010. Television and video game exposure and the development of attention problems. Pediatrics. 126(2):214-21.

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