Accessing the States of Enhanced Cognition in a Gaming Context: The Importance of Psychophysiological Arousal

The goal of this study was to examine activities and experiences where enhanced cognitive states (ECSs), characterized by dramatic boosts in focused attention, could be elicited under specific gaming contexts. In Experiment 1, expert gamers were tested on the attentional blink task before and after playing games of different genres, varying on four game design dimensions (perspective, "adrenaline-rush," immersivity, and collaborative vs. individual context) and two cognitive dimensions (speed of processing and attentional focus). In Experiment 2, using ECG-HRV methodology, we examined the physiological markers of gaming dimensions found to be critical for accessing ECSs in Experiment 1. The findings suggest that ECSs are a universal phenomenon that demands focusing one's attention on a single task from the egocentric perspective, and ought to involve an adventurous "adrenaline-rush" type of activity. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that an underlying physiological mechanism of ECSs includes parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) withdrawal-associated arousal. Specifically, the gaming dimensions leading to greater PSNS withdrawal-associated arousal resulted in greater improvements on the attentional blink task during ECSs. These findings suggest that individuals can transcend what was hitherto assumed to be a limitation of human cognition, granting new prospects for eliciting exceptional human performance.