Hello, my name is Shannon. This PhD research project aims to understand and evaluate the effects of different video game genres on frequent gamers cognitive abilities.
This will be a multi-year study with 3 main phases of research, conducted during the first semester of the University term. The research focuses on these genres: First-Person Shooter, Puzzle, Real-Time Strategy, Role-Playing Game, and a Control.
Participants, who are university students who play games for over 5hrs a week, will be assessed over a 10 week period to see how these games affect their attention, ability to switch tasks and memory span.
Each session will involve participants playing games for an hour, and completing tests to assess the above areas. I hope that this research will yield results that are a significant and original contribution to knowledge in the video game research space such as; players of First-Person Shooters show a shorter reaction time in the attention task than other players, and players of Real-Time Strategy games are more successful at task switching than other players.
As an avid gamer myself I am very excited to have the privilege to conduct this research in pursuit of my Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Lancashire. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in participating in this study or have any questions about it.
You can reach me at sbarrett6@lancashire.ac.uk