The Joy(stick) of Learning

Video gamers test system that predicts learning skills with incredible accuracy.

University of Illinois psychologist and Beckman Institute director Art Kramer and his colleagues developed a new way to predict how well study subjects would do on a strategic video game. The new method can predict 55 to 68 percent of the variance in learning between individuals--before they even start to play the game. (Photo by L. Brian Stauffer)
University of Illinois psychologist and Beckman Institute director Art Kramer and his colleagues developed a new way to predict how well study subjects would do on a strategic video game. The new method can predict 55 to 68 percent of the variance in learning between individuals--before they even start to play the game. (Photo by L. Brian Stauffer)

Who would have thought that your ability to obliterate a fortress in outer space could tell you something about your ability to learn? But it did just that in a recent University of Illinois study.

Arthur Kramer, an LAS psychology professor and director of the Beckman Institute, led a team that developed a new system for analyzing brain activity, and they found that it predicts a person’s ability to master complex tasks with “unprecedented accuracy.” To test the new approach, they used the old Space Fortress video game, Kramer says.

To predict learning ability, researchers analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity in the basal ganglia, a group of brain structures important for procedural learning, coordinated movement, and feelings of reward. Then they tested the system on people playing the Space Fortress video game and found it may even be able to predict learning better than traditional methods, such as standardized tests.

“There are many, many studies, hundreds perhaps, in which psychometricians try to predict from SATs, GREs, MCATs, or other tests how well you’re going to succeed at something,” Kramer says. These methods have had some success, he adds, “but never to this degree in a task that is so complex.”

Participants in the study had MRIs taken of their brain before spending 20 hours learning to play Space Fortress, a video game developed at the U of I. In the game, with its 30-year-old graphics, players try to destroy a fortress without losing their ships. The game is not easy to learn, Kramer says, and none of the subjects had much experience with video games prior to the study.

According to Kramer, the research team was able to predict between 55 and 68 percent of the differences in video game performance among participants, which is three times more effective than predicting learning differences with traditional performance measures. What’s more, they tested their results against other measures and replicated the findings in new trials with different study subjects. Kramer worked on the study with Ohio State University psychology professor Dick Bernhardt-Walther, Illinois electrical and computer engineering graduate student Loan Vo, and U of I psychology professors Monica Fabiani, Gabriele Gratton, and Dan Simons.

By shedding light on the brain structures behind the learning process, this research could help in the development of training strategies tailored to a person’s strengths and weaknesses. However, Kramer cautions that differences in brain activity do not mean people are destined to succeed or fail at a given task or learning challenge.

“We know that many of these components of brain structure and function are changeable,” he says.