In neurophysiological studies of lateralized VWM, stimuli are presented peripherally, and the subject’s task is to attend and maintain in VWM only the items presented in a cued visual hemifield. Previous research has shown that participants with higher VWM capacity are more effective in ignoring unnecessary items during task performance ( Vogel et al., 2005).
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It is suggested that the limitation of VWM capacity is associated with visual search and multiple-object tracking performance ( Drew et al., 2011 Luria and Vogel, 2011). Change detection accuracy mirrors a participant’s limitation of VWM capacity and is usually limited to 3–4 items ( Vogel and Awh, 2008). The number of items presented (memory load) is manipulated, and performance (working memory capacity, an estimate of the number of items stored in WM measured by K calculated according to Pashler’s formula in our study) is compared between trials of different loads. Studies on VWM have relied on a well-established paradigm that measures VWM capacity-the change detection task ( Luck and Vogel, 1997, 2013), where participant maintains a visual image in memory over a short delay interval and answers if any item (or items) in a later probe image have changed compared to the sample image. Previous research (including neuroimaging studies) has shown that VWM capacity is highly limited ( Luck and Vogel, 1997 Todd and Marois, 2004), differs across individuals ( Rouder et al., 2008), and predicts fluid intelligence in adults ( Fukuda et al., 2010 Unsworth et al., 2014). The capacity of VWM relates to the amount of visual information, which can be maintained in memory simultaneously and accessible if needed ( Luck and Vogel, 2013). VWM is an important cognitive function in our daily life and is essential for many higher-level cognitive processes, like problem-solving, learning by observation, or reading ( Fukuda et al., 2010 Shipstead et al., 2012). Visual working memory (VWM) allows us to maintain visual information over short periods of time for manipulation or later access ( Baddeley, 2003 D’Esposito and Postle, 2015). We think that the strength of the psychophysiological indicator of VWM capacity might be a marker of the future success in video game acquisition. And, last but not least, we have found that we can predict the amount of improvement in the RTS video game by looking at the psychophysiological indices (CDA amplitude) recorded at baseline (before training), but only in the experimental group. We have also found a correlation between average visual working memory capacity (calculated as K) and mean CDA amplitude no matter which group we are looking at. Our results showed that working memory capacity (K calculated according to Pashler’s formula) increases after training in both experimental groups, but not in a control group.
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Participants took part in two EEG sessions (pre- and post-training) during which they performed the VWM task. Training consisted of 30 h of playing the StarCraft II game. Experimental and active control groups differed in the type of training received. Participants were randomly assigned to either experimental (Variable environment), active control (Fixed environment), and passive control groups. Sixty-two participants (non-players) were recruited to the experiment. We also asked a question whether individual differences in behavioral and psychophysiological indices of VWM can predict the effectiveness of video game training. In our study, we used two indices of visual working memory capacity: the behavioral estimate of capacity (K) and contralateral delay activity (CDA) in order to check whether training in a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) video game StarCraft II can influence the VWM capacity measured by the change detection task. Visual working memory (VWM) is the ability to actively maintain visual information over short periods of time and is strongly related to global fluid intelligence and overall cognitive ability.