A new study from Ebuyer, the UK’s largest independent retailer, has shown that gamers have better reaction times and hand-eye coordination than non-gamers.
Ebuyer devised two games in order to compare how well gamers and non-gamers perform at basic tasks.
In the first game, users had to hit arrow keys when the corresponding shape reached the top of a circle. The game was designed to test hand-eye coordination. The second game tested reaction speeds, and users had to click a green circle and wait for the colour to change.
The results showed that the gamers performed better. In the first game, they achieved an average score of 293 compared to the non-gamers who scored 162 on average. In the second game, gamers reacted within 699 milliseconds, and non-gamers reacted within 731 milliseconds.
Psychology researchers at the University of Toronto conducted a similar study in 2014. They concluded that those who play action video games appear to learn new sensorimotor skills—such as riding a bike or typing—quicker than non-gamers.
In one of the tests, participants had to keep a cursor in the middle of a target that moved in a complex pattern. Although there was little difference between how the gamers and the non-gamers performed at the start of the experiment, by the end, the gamers were able to follow the repetitive motion more accurately.
Ebuyer’s games are still available to play on their website., and users can compare their scores against the leader-board.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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