Abstract
Action video game play benefits performance in an array of
sensory, perceptual, and attentional tasks that go well
beyond the specifics of game play 1–9. That a training
regimen may induce improvements in so many different
skills is notable because the majority of studies on traininginduced learning report improvements on the trained task
but limited transfer to other, even closely related, tasks
(10, but see also 11–13). Here we ask whether improved
probabilistic inference may explain such broad transfer. By
using a visual perceptual decision making task 14, 15, the
present study shows for the first time that action video
game experience does indeed improve probabilistic inference. A neural model of this task 16 establishes how
changing a single parameter, namely the strength of the
connections between the neural layer providing themomentary evidence and the layer integrating the evidence over
time, captures improvements in action-gamers behavior.
These resultswere established in a visual, but also in a novel
auditory, task, indicating generalization across modalities.
Thus, improved probabilistic inference provides a general
mechanism for why action video game playing enhances
performance in awide variety of tasks. In addition, thismechanism may serve as a signature of training regimens that are
likely to produce transfer of learning.
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