Looking behind the score: Skill structure explains sex differences in skilled video game performance.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Large sex differences in visuospatial abilities are often attributed to genetic factors and societal roles.
• Alternative explanations involving behavioral and acquired skills remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if behavioral variations and skill acquisition can account for sex differences in complex spatial video game performance.
• To examine how training impacts visuospatial skills and control behaviors in a video game context.

Main Methods:

• Participants (men and women with limited video game experience) underwent 30 hours of training in the Space Fortress video game.
• Latent curve analyses were used to track changes in ship control performance and joystick behaviors over time.
• Analysis differentiated between initially high and low performers to explore varied developmental trajectories.

Main Results:

• Men initially outperformed women in ship control, but this performance gap significantly reduced after training.
• Initial differences in joystick control behaviors between sexes diminished with training, explaining the reduced performance gap.
• When behavioral differences were controlled, post-training sex effects on performance became non-significant.
• Lower-performing women exhibited distinct control strategies compared to men and higher-performing women.

Conclusions:

• Acquired skills and behavioral adaptations, rather than solely innate differences, significantly influence sex differences in spatial video game performance.
• Treating male and female performance as homogenous groups may obscure the nuanced ways individuals develop spatial abilities.
• Findings suggest that training and strategy development are crucial for understanding and potentially mitigating sex differences in spatial tasks.