The Future of Action Video Games in Psychological Research and Application

In recent years, much research has been conducted in order to understand the effects of action video games on mind and behavior. For example, it has been tried to investigate potential links between playing action video games and aggressive behavior (Anderson and Bushman, 2001; Ferguson, 2011), visual selective attention (Green and Bavelier, 2003) or gender differences in spatial cognition (Feng et al., 2007). What we see is that playing certain types of video games in the right doses might enhance several cognitive skills. This can be used in the long run to help those with deficits in these areas, for example the elderly. This article shall emphasize the importance of a holistic and unbiased view in regards to the impact of video games and their possible use. Therefore, it is essential that we desist from antiquated concepts of “typical gamers,” understand the advantages and disadvantages of playing action video games and try to step up efforts in application-oriented research. From our understanding, any physically challenging video game in which reaction time plays a crucial role can be described as an action video game. While there is no generally accepted definition, others define action video games as characterized by the use of violence within these games.