The effects of video game experience and time pressure on hiding and searching behaviour

Abstract

Many video games include the need to hide objects or a character to prevent being found by an enemy, and to search for objects or characters that have been hidden to receive rewards or advance in the game. As such, understanding how people hide and search for objects, and how environmental and situational conditions may impact such behaviour, is of broad interest and importance. Research suggests that experience with video games broadly affects how we navigate our surroundings. It is, therefore, reasonable to suspect that experience playing video games may affect people’s hiding and searching behaviour and strategy, although no studies have been conducted on this topic to date. Furthermore, research has consistently shown that people’s decision-making processes can be adversely affected by time pressure and the associated stress it creates. Time pressure is also a frequent characteristic of many video games, and some research suggests that video gamers are less impacted by overwhelming time pressure than non-gamers. Therefore, our study is the first to assess how video game experience and time pressure interact and impact hiding and searching behaviour in a spatial task. This research will be important for broadly understanding people’s hiding and searching behaviour, and may lead to improvements in hiding/searching training programs (e.g., police training programs for illicit substance search and seizure).

Department: Psychology 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Legge