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

Abstract

The growing popularity of electronic sports (esports) prompted the authors of this paper to examine their effects on cognitive skills, specifically attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility among gamers. A total of 40 undergraduate physical education students with no prior experience in esports participated in this study. The students were randomly assigned to two groups: Single Players and Co-Players. Both groups played the esports game FIFA in either single-player or co-player mode over a period of eight weeks. Attention was assessed using the Stroop task, working memory was measured through the N-back task, and cognitive flexibility was evaluated with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In addition, a paired-sample t-test was used to assess changes within each group, while differences between the two groups were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA. The results indicated that FIFA can improved attention and working memory in both the single-player and co-player groups. However, improvements in cognitive flexibility were observed only in the co-player group. These findings suggest that esports can enhance several cognitive skills, including attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, and that such activities may be applied to diverse objectives such as learning and instruction.