Motor Behavior Laboratory, The Academic College at Wingate, 4290200, Netanya, Israel.
Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 26;12(1):6798. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10986-3.
The purpose of this pre-registered study was to examine whether asking gamers and non-gamers about their video game playing habits before or after they performed computerized cognitive-motor tasks affects their performance of those tasks. We recruited 187 participants from an online participants' recruitment platform. Out of those participants, 131 matched our criteria as gamers or non-gamers. They were then divided to two subgroups, and performed a choice-RT task, a Simon task, an alternate task-switching task, and a digit span memory task either before or after answering a video-game playing habits questionnaire. The results showed that gamers who completed a video-games questionnaire before performing the tasks had faster reaction times (RTs) in the Simon task compared with gamers who answered the questionnaire after performing the tasks. In contrast, non-gamers who answered the questionnaire before the task had slower RTs in the Simon task and the alternate task-switching task compared with non-gamers who answered the questionnaire after performing the tasks. The results suggest that answering a video-games questionnaire before the start of a study can lead to a response expectancy effect-positive for gamers and negative for non-gamers. This may bias findings of studies examining video games and the performance of cognitive-motor tasks.
这项预先注册的研究旨在探讨在参与者进行计算机化认知-运动任务之前或之后询问他们的视频游戏习惯是否会影响他们完成这些任务的表现。我们从一个在线参与者招募平台招募了 187 名参与者。其中 131 名参与者符合我们的游戏玩家或非游戏玩家的标准。然后，他们被分为两组，在回答视频游戏习惯问卷之前或之后执行选择 RT 任务、Simon 任务、交替任务转换任务和数字跨度记忆任务。结果表明，在执行任务之前完成视频游戏问卷的游戏玩家在 Simon 任务中的反应时间（RT）比在执行任务后回答问卷的游戏玩家更快。相比之下，在执行任务之前回答问卷的非游戏玩家在 Simon 任务和交替任务转换任务中的 RT 比在执行任务后回答问卷的非游戏玩家更慢。结果表明，在研究开始前回答视频游戏问卷可能会导致反应期望效应——对游戏玩家产生积极影响，对非游戏玩家产生消极影响。这可能会影响研究视频游戏和认知-运动任务表现的结果。
