First-Person Shooters Can Help You Perceive Motion Better While Walking Backwards
A study by the School of Psychology at the University of Leicester suggests that playing an FPS can help you walk backwards better, as it will improve your motion perception.
Researchers tested 16 people who played more than 10 hours per week of "action video games," and 16 who played less than an hour for their experiment, known by the relatively small title of "Selectively enhanced motion perception in core video gamers."
"Our study suggests playing a lot of action video games does not really have much effect on motion perception," Dr. Claire Hutchinson said.
Of the differences recorded, the only significant one was in the perception of radial monition, your perception of motion when traveling backwards, seeing your surroundings appear to get smaller as they go further away.
"I probably would have expected people who play a lot of games to do better at these tests - but if you think about it, when you walk and drive a car you experience the same movements in daily life.
"The fact that gamers were significantly better at radial contraction does show that games to have the ability to train your visual system. The next step will be to look at the effect of other games," Dr. Hutchinson concluded.
