Effects of Electronic Sports on the Cognitive Skills of Attention, Working Memory, and Cognitive Flexibility

Abstract

Abstract Increasing popularity of electronic sports (esports) prompted the authors of this paper to explore the effects of esports in the cognitive skills of attention, working memory, and cognitive skills among gamers. A total of 40 undergraduate physical education students with no history of playing esports participated in this study. The students were randomly assigned to two groups, namely Singe Players and CO-Players. The two groups played the esport FIFA in single player and co-player modes for a period of eight weeks. Stroop task was used to assess changes in attention while working memory was assessed through N-back task and cognitive flexibility was explored using Wisconsin card test. In addition, paired sample t-test was used to evaluate changes in both single-players and co-players while potential variations between the two groups were analyzed using two-way ANOVA. The findings suggested that FIFA can improve attention and working memory in both single-player and co-player groups. However, cognitive flexibility was only improved for the co-player group. These findings show that esports can improve a number of cognitive skills such as attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility and that these techniques can be used towards different goals including learning and instruction.