Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore.
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School.
Cogn Sci. 2022 Feb;46(2):e13106. doi: 10.1111/cogs.13106.
The goal of this study was to examine activities and experiences where enhanced cognitive states (ECSs), characterized by dramatic boosts in focused attention, could be elicited under specific gaming contexts. In Experiment 1, expert gamers were tested on the attentional blink task before and after playing games of different genres, varying on four game design dimensions (perspective, "adrenaline-rush," immersivity, and collaborative vs. individual context) and two cognitive dimensions (speed of processing and attentional focus). In Experiment 2, using ECG-HRV methodology, we examined the physiological markers of gaming dimensions found to be critical for accessing ECSs in Experiment 1. The findings suggest that ECSs are a universal phenomenon that demands focusing one's attention on a single task from the egocentric perspective, and ought to involve an adventurous "adrenaline-rush" type of activity. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that an underlying physiological mechanism of ECSs includes parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) withdrawal-associated arousal. Specifically, the gaming dimensions leading to greater PSNS withdrawal-associated arousal resulted in greater improvements on the attentional blink task during ECSs. These findings suggest that individuals can transcend what was hitherto assumed to be a limitation of human cognition, granting new prospects for eliciting exceptional human performance.
本研究旨在探讨在特定游戏情境下，增强型认知状态（ECS），即注意力高度集中的戏剧性提升，可以在何种活动和体验中产生。在实验 1 中，对专家游戏玩家进行了注意力眨眼任务测试，然后在不同类型的游戏之前和之后进行了测试，这些游戏在四个游戏设计维度（视角、“肾上腺素冲击”、沉浸感以及协作与个人情境）和两个认知维度（处理速度和注意力焦点）上有所不同。在实验 2 中，我们使用 ECG-HRV 方法，研究了在实验 1 中被发现对访问 ECS 至关重要的游戏维度的生理标记。研究结果表明，ECS 是一种普遍现象，需要从自我中心的角度集中注意力在单一任务上，并且应该涉及冒险的“肾上腺素冲击”型活动。此外，结果表明，ECS 的潜在生理机制包括副交感神经系统（PSNS）撤退相关的唤醒。具体来说，导致 PSNS 撤退相关唤醒更大的游戏维度导致 ECS 期间注意力眨眼任务的改善更大。这些发现表明，个体可以超越迄今为止被认为是人类认知局限性的限制，为激发人类非凡表现提供新的前景。
