Abstract
High-skilled First-Person Shooter (FPS) game players are known to have superior attentional control—the ability to select information relevant to a task (selective attention) and maintain an appropriate response (sustained attention). However, it is unclear whether the attentional control strategies between high- and low-skilled FPS players differ, and whether these differences are related to FPS performance. Therefore, we investigated differences in attentional control between low- and high-skilled FPS players using electroencephalography, as well as correlations between gaming performance and attentional control. In addition, as an exploratory aim, we examined the characteristics of older FPS players. We recruited 11 high- and 11 low-skilled FPS players (under 25 years) and five older FPS players (over 65 years). Participants completed a task responding to colors regardless of the semantic meaning (Stroop task), clicked on targets quickly and accurately (aiming task), and played an FPS (esports task), respectively. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) during the Stroop task to evaluate attentional control. In addition, we examined the relationship between ERP components and performance on the aiming and esports tasks. As a result, high-skilled players showed significantly smaller ERP amplitude in the 150-250 ms time window and greater ERP amplitude in the 280-380 ms time window (parietal region) during the Stroop task. These results suggest that high-skilled FPS players allocated attentional resources to relatively later stages of stimulus evaluation and processing. Furthermore, ERP amplitude showed a significant correlation with performance on aiming and esports tasks. Notably, older adults performed comparably to highly skilled young players on the FPS task, despite exhibiting smaller ERP amplitudes than young adults. These results suggest that attentional control is related to FPS performance and may be different with age.