**2. Video games and mental fitness**

Video games, particularly the multitasks ones, involve all kinds of dynamic transformations of fictitious action the player encounters on his way, ranging from the shape and size of objects to the placement and location in time and environment. The games represent a highly variable stimulation of one's senses and put a demand on cognitive performance, which makes them obvious candidates for improving brain adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, reports on the enhancing effects on brain prowess of video games are, at best, scanty and confusing. A criticism often is raised that games used for the assessment of one's cognitive performance are created for the purpose of a study, subjects are recruited from the population of 'non-often players' and the time and intensity of 'training' is set by the researcher (Maclin et al., 2011), all of which being biases. In an attempt to sidestep this criticism, we performed a series of studies which seek to determine the effects of a computer-based action game on psychological fitness of habitual game players recruited from their community environment. We chose a video game called *Counter Strike*, because of its widespread popularity (Remo, 2008). This, created only for entertainment, game is set in a fictive violent battlefield and enables a player to impersonate a member of a military unit on a mission that requires players to shoot missiles, attack an enemy, or defend the player's position; the actions requiring the engagement of various cognitive and psychomotor skills. The rationale was to ensure strong mental stimulation and to make the optimal use of brain neuronal networks. We addressed the issue by examining the ability to control and switch attention between multiple gaming tasks, visual-spatial skills, memory, decision making, perceptual skills, and emotional and personality features of young adults who were habitual video game players and by comparing the results with those obtained in a matched control group of never-players.

124 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

unfavorable affected.

Boot et al., 2008).

task are used on a repetitive basis.

**2. Video games and mental fitness** 

On the health front, there is considerable evidence that excessive use of video games may lead to elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and poorer general health status in both younger (Schmit et al., 2011) and older adults (Weaver et al., 2009; Mentzoni et al., 2011). Interestingly, sexually-oriented content of video games may give rise to sexual stereotypes. In a study by Behm-Morawitz & Mastro (2009) undergraduate students were assigned to play a game containing a sexualized female character or no such character. The sexualized fable gave rise to unfavorable beliefs about women and the female player's self-esteem was

On the other side, evidence accumulates that video games may have an overall positive influence, particularly in young persons, in such domains as health and physical education, and social attitude, to the extent that games might be considered a useful incorporation in healthcare programs (Papastergiou, 2009). Playing action video games may improve a variety of visual and attentional skills, and the processing of multitask information or, in other words, of multiple sensory signals arriving from the periphery (Green & Bavelier 2003;

Relatively little is known whether video games can be used to improve our brain, to enhance intellectual performance, or to alter one's psychological characteristics. Recent advances in neuroscience give us strong support it might be so. Video games offer a unique, still untapped opportunity to gain insight into the neural mechanisms underlying cognition, as they approach a real life-like environment in terms of problem solving complexity. Cognitive and emotional capacity comes from having more synapses in the hypothalamic areas of amygdala and hippocampus. Multitask training leads to the recruitment of new neuronal circuits which are used more efficiently and flexibly (Maclin et al., 2011). The brain may get a functional boost or even be physically altered and restructured, as the regions involved in specific sensory inputs expand, particularly if the

Video games, particularly the multitasks ones, involve all kinds of dynamic transformations of fictitious action the player encounters on his way, ranging from the shape and size of objects to the placement and location in time and environment. The games represent a highly variable stimulation of one's senses and put a demand on cognitive performance, which makes them obvious candidates for improving brain adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, reports on the enhancing effects on brain prowess of video games are, at best, scanty and confusing. A criticism often is raised that games used for the assessment of one's cognitive performance are created for the purpose of a study, subjects are recruited from the population of 'non-often players' and the time and intensity of 'training' is set by the researcher (Maclin et al., 2011), all of which being biases. In an attempt to sidestep this criticism, we performed a series of studies which seek to determine the effects of a computer-based action game on psychological fitness of habitual game players recruited from their community environment. We chose a video game called *Counter Strike*, because of There were 30 game players (F/M – 3/27; age range 20-25 years), who confirmed a regular use of the game *Counter Strike*, and 30 never-users entirely naïve to video gaming (F/M – 4/26; age range 20-25 years) enrolled into the study. The regular use was considered as playing the games at least 3 days per week for 2 hours or more each time, and at least for the six months preceding the study time. All participants were university students. The game players were all using a standard PC computer with a keyboard and mouse as the main accessories for playing and all of them declared using the multiplayer mode to interact with other players. Participation in all tests and tasks was anonymous and voluntary.

Cognitive functions were investigated using sets of neuropsychological assessment tools that consisted of various thinking, memory, intelligence, and visual-spatial ability measures, such as the RehaCom (Hasomed GmbH, Magdeburg, Germany), the Vienna Test System version 6 (Dr. G. Shuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria), and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Polish adaptation-WAIS-R PL) (Brzezinski & Hornowska, 1998). Specifically, episodic memory was tested with a WAIS-R Digit Span which assesses the number of digits remembered, and visual working memory with a RehCom BILD test, in which the person should recognize whether among many flashing names of objects on the screen is that that corresponds to one of the objects shown some time before. In the latter test, three arbitral break periods were used of 5-25, 26-55, and 56-85 sec; the longer the break and sustained good object recognition, the better is the visual memory.

Conceptual thinking, in turn, was tested with a WAIS-R Similarities test, logical reasoning with a RehaCom LODE test in which the subject has to add missing elements to the logically-structured column of symbols, perception of details with a WAIS-R Picture Completion test, perceptive processing with a VTS ATAVT Adaptive Tachistoscopic Traffic Perception test in which the respondent is quickly presented with a series of traffic pictures and then asked to report noticed details, and decisiveness and impulsiveness with a VTS AHA Attitudes to Work-Comparing Surfaces test in which the subject decides which of the two presented shapes is larger.

Emotional and personality aspects were assessed with the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) (Endler & Parker, 1999) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R) (Eysenck et al. 1985).

The computerized paradigms and psychometric tools above outlined are all well standardized and sanctioned for the assessment of executive-control and emotional functioning.

Psychological Fitness in Young Adult Video Game Players 127

**Figure 2.** Panel A - Visual working memory of video games players *vs.* non-players assessed with a RehCom BILD Test (*χ***²**=30.5; P<0.001); Panel B - Logical reasoning assessed with a RehaCom LODE Test

**Figure 3.** Differences between the video games players and non-players in the WAIS-R Similarities Test

(data distributed on 3-degree Likert scale, *χ***²**=33.3; P<0.001).

for conceptual thinking (data are means±SD; \*P<0.001, ANOVA).
