While playing a fast paced action game, the gamer’s brain collects small bits of visual and auditory information, gathering enough in a limited period of time for the person to make what they believe is an accurate decision.
Action game players’ brains are practiced at this process and are better and faster collectors of information, enabling them to reach the threshold of information sooner and therefore to come to a decision much faster than non-gamers.
The research was tested on groups of 18-25 year olds. They were split into two groups. Each group played 50 hours of games. One group played “Call of Duty 2” and “Unreal Tournament” while the other group played the slow paced strategy game “The Sims 2”. After this they were all given various visual, auditory and decision making tasks. The group who played the action games came to accurate conclusions 25% faster than the others.
"It's not the case that the action game players are trigger-happy and less accurate: they are just as accurate and also faster," Bavelier said.
