Research Paper Rough Draft

Action video games that have been in studies have been found to enhance many cognitive skills. Developing an action video game to reveal the importance of bats and their conservation will benefit bats, the environment, and the user playing. Therefore, it the game can be an attempt at saving bats from extinction and will benefit the user’s cognitive skills long-term. Video games enhancing cognitive skills is not a new concept, there have been many studies already done on different skills and different areas of the brain being exercised with certain games. Most studies have been done on users who play action video games. Action video games are known to improve attentional skills, reaction times, the ability to rotate objects more accurately, and make better decisions under pressure. In one study inside the Scientific American by Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green, psychological tests were done on individuals who were instructed to play action video games. The game in the test consists of items flashing on the screen in intervals, less than a blink of the eye. The individuals who do not play action video games found more difficulty identifying the first item and even more the second item, experiencing the phenomenon of attentional blink. On the other hand, the individuals who were action video gamers caught every item flashed. Brain scans were done and found the differences between gamers and non-gamers. Gamers brain scans found that the cerebral cortex, which regulates attention had more activity. Also, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which aids in sustaining attention, parietal cortex which helps focus on switching back and forth among different items, and the cingulate cortex, which is responsible for monitoring one’s behavior all showed more activity (Bavelier & Green, 2016). Since action video games are very rewarding, they will promote learning by providing a rewarding experience for every obstacle and every answer that is answered correctly. These skills can be useful later on in science and math classes due to the improvement in mental rotation (Bavelier & Green, 2016). 

Image from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26047025