Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

School

School of Psychology and Social Science

Faculty

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

First Supervisor

Professor Craig Speelman

Second Supervisor

Dr Guillermo Campitelli

Abstract

the effects of cognitive fatigue. Despite this, there remain advantages to regularly playing action video games. In Study 1, VGPs were significantly better at multitasking on the MATB-II compared to the NVGPs. Further, VGPs also demonstrated superior multitasking when driving, as they made significantly fewer traffic violations compared to NVGPs when not fatigued. VGPs demonstrated eye-movements similar to those of expert drivers; however, this did not result in any difference in performance between the two groups. There was also some evidence of a positive effect of video game training, although there was no advantage of one training technique over the other. In Study 2, participants experienced the effects of cognitive fatigue to a lesser extent after video game training than compared to before training. Further, there was a significant improvement in multitasking performance after video game training, though as participants continued improving even at the three-month follow up test, it is unknown whether this was due to the video game training or due to practice effects on the MATB-II. Overall, despite improvements in sustained and divided attention performance from regular action video game playing or training, VGPs and trained-NVGPs are just as susceptible to the effects of cognitive fatigue as NVGPs.

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