Adam Eichenbaum’s research while affiliated with University of California System and other places

Neural plasticity, or the ability of the brain to reorganize its structure and activity, is of critical importance. For nearly 50 years, the dominant framework in the field of learning and neural plasticity held that the brain was capable of truly large-scale changes only early in life. However, emerging evidence suggests that plasticity that had assumed to be “lost” due to age, injury, or disease may be at least partially re-established via genetic, pharmacological, and/or behavioral means. Yet, while it is true that humans retain a significant capacity to learn throughout the life span, a second roadblock frequently stands in the way of translating learning gains into practical real-world benefits. This obstacle is the “curse of specificity.” While it is true that, given appropriate training, humans will tend to improve on almost any task, the improvements that are observed are often confined to the exact training task, with little to no benefits of the training being observed for even seemingly very similar tasks. This chapter discusses the trend toward task-specific training on one working memory task, as well as the finding that action video game training does appear to lead to more generalizable improvements in cognitive performance.

In a recent report, Unsworth and his colleagues (2015) suggested that no relation exists between playing video games and cognitive skills. In this Commentary, we briefly summarize the substantial issues with their study— in particular, with the statistical approach and overall research methodology—that together cast serious doubt on their conclusions.

Research indicates that a small subset of those who routinely play video games show signs of pathological habits, with side effects ranging from mild (e.g., being late) to quite severe (e.g., losing a job). However, it is still not clear whether individual types, or genres, of games are most strongly associated with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). A sample of 4,744 University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates (Mage=18.9 years; SD=1.9 years; 60.5% female) completed questionnaires on general video game playing habits and on symptoms of IGD. Consistent with previous reports: 5.9-10.8% (depending on classification criteria) of individuals who played video games show signs of pathological play. Furthermore, real-time strategy and role-playing video games were more strongly associated with pathological play, compared with action and other games (e.g., phone games). The current investigation adds support to the idea that not all video games are equal. Instead, certain genres of video games, specifically real-time strategy and role-playing/fantasy games, are disproportionately associated with IGD symptoms.

Background and Objectives: Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is characterized by a pattern of video game playing that results in significant issues with daily life (e.g. problems with inter-personal relationships or poor academic/job performance), and where the gaming persists despite these negative outcomes. Here we tested the hypothesis that the prevalence of IGD depends on the types of games a child plays. Methods: A sample of 2,982 children from Singaporean primary and secondary schools were recruited for the current study. They filled out questionnaires related to IGD symptoms, general video game play habits, as well as other measures of daily life function. Games were categorized into five genres (Role-playing, Strategy, Action, Puzzle, Music) and the prevalence of IGD was examined as a function of each individual’s favorite genre of game. Results: Not all genres were equally associated with IGD. The highest rates of IGD were associated with players of Role-playing games followed by players of Action, Music, Strategy, and Puzzle games, respectively. However, this pattern was only found in secondary school-age children with primary school-aged children showing no differentiation by genre. Conclusion: Consistent with previous work, respondents’ favorite game genres predicted differential probabilities of IGD. However, this was only true in older children, not in younger children. Future work is needed to determine if this is because young children are not susceptible to the differential influence of various genres or because the games that young children play within these genres lack the critical ingredients that exist in these game types played by older children and adults.