Implicit learning in intensive videogame players

Abstract

This study aimed to relate the available evidence on implicit learning and the potential role of videogames as a vehicle for such learning. Specifically, it was intended to inquire whether having an intense and long experience with videogames would grant some advantage over the absence of such experience, in situations where appropriate conditions for implicit learning were presented. Hence, the study compared the performance of intensive players (n=18), moderate players (n=15) and non-players (n=15), on two specially designed implicit learning tasks: The Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task, and the Directional Response Induction (DRI) task. Even though the results from both tasks are not robust, they showed that intensive, as well as moderate players, were favored for capturing the implicit (subliminal) regularities present in these tasks. These results are discussed in terms of recent developments in the implicit learning literature, as well as in terms of videogames potential to become learning tools.