SYDNEY, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- People who frequently play violent video games can have a different perception of the world and become more immune to disturbing images, according to an Australian study on Friday.
While investigating the phenomenon of emotion-induced blindness - a condition that occurs when a person's emotional response can impact their perception of their environment - a University of New South Wales (UNSW)-led team found that those with greater levels of game consumption and exposure to violent media were less impacted by emotional disruptors.
The experiment was conducted by showing participants a flashing sequence of 17 photographs at a rapid pace of 100 milliseconds per image.
Subjects were then given the task of finding a "target image" and discerning whether it was rotated 90 degrees to the left or right.
However, in some sequences, a "distractor" image appeared 200 or 400 milliseconds before the rotated target, which was either emotionally neutral and non-threatening or extremely graphic and emotionally negative.
"When people rapidly sift through images in search of a target image, a split-second emotional reaction can cause some of them to be unable to see the target," author of the study and cognitive psychologist at UNSW Dr Steve Most explained.
"This occurs even if you're looking right at the target. It's as if the visual system stops processing the target in order to deal with the emotional imagery it's just been confronted with."
While people who did not play video games mostly had trouble identifying the target image after a disturbing photo had appeared, those who played violent video games frequently had greater accuracy identifying the rotated image.
"This study suggests that, depending on the situation, people with different levels of violent media and game consumption can also have different perceptions of the environment," Most said.
"We found that a high degree of violent video game playing was accompanied by less sensitivity to these emotional images, so players were able to preserve their perception of other things around them."
"This suggests a link between violent video game exposure and a person's perception, that is, how they process information."
The research team now plans to use the same experiment on emergency responders to find out whether their exposure to extreme situations and graphic scenes will correlate with the responses of video gamers.
