A study from the School of Psychology at the University of Leicester suggests that first-person shooters can help players better perceive motion, at least when walking backwards.
"Selectively enhanced motion perception in core video gamers"was published in the journal Perception, and studied the effects of playing video games on motion perception. Researchers tested 16 people who played more than 10 hours per wee of "action video games" and 16 people who played less than an hour a week.
The only "significant difference," according to the university, was in the perception of radial monition, which happens when we're traveling backwards and our surroundings appear to get smaller as they get father away.
"Our study suggests playing a lot of action video games does not really have much effect on motion perception," Dr. Claire Hutchinson said.
"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."