Expert Counter-Strike players could make ideal candidates for fast-paced emergency service response jobs requiring split-second decision making, according to a new University of Sheffield study aiming to debunk myths about video games.

Played by millions - from complete novices to seasoned professionals - Counter-Strike is one of the biggest and most influential first-person shooter games of all time. Despite the game becoming a global phenomenon in the 26 years since its initial launch, there have been limited academic studies examining its impact on players' cognitive abilities.

In a first of its kind study, published in Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, University of Sheffield scientists have uncovered evidence suggesting that expert players with over 5,000 hours of gameplay demonstrate faster mental processing speed than novices. Over 300 Counter-Strike players, ranging from novice to expert level, were tested to measure the speed at which they process and react to visual information.

Researchers found that expert players were, on average, 90 milliseconds faster at reacting under test conditions than novices. The study also evaluated players' ability to multitask, though expert players showed no multitasking advantage over their novice counterparts.

“Although it may not sound like a lot, 90 milliseconds could be the difference between life and death in situations requiring rapid reactions, such as stopping quickly to avoid a road traffic collision,” said Eleanor Hyde, a PhD student at the University of Sheffield’s School of Psychology and lead author of the study.

“However, at this stage, we don’t have the data to determine whether this reaction speed is a result of playing the game for hours or end, or if people with naturally faster processing abilities gravitate towards these games.

“If it’s the former, it may be that training people in middle age or later life on such games could improve cognitive performance. If it's the latter, reaction speed could serve as a useful indicator of skills crucial for high-stakes professions such as emergency response, air traffic control and driving.”

Using a mathematical technique to explain how quickly the brain makes snap decisions called Drift-Diffusion Modelling (DDM), researchers split reaction speed into distinct stages. They found that those with faster reaction times were faster at both absorbing visual information and physically pressing the corresponding decision button. Additionally, when presented with complex, multitasking scenarios, expert players accumulated the necessary evidence to determine the correct course of action more quickly.

“There is a common misconception that playing video games is a fun hobby that doesn’t have any positive impacts on your brain,” Eleanor added.

“We’re working to test this stereotype by developing a robust evidence base on the cognitive implications of gaming. Once we fully understand these impacts, it opens the door to designing games that directly benefit society.”

Building on this research, the Sheffield team is now collaborating with Dr Benoit Bediou and Naima Gradi at the University of Geneva to compare the cognitive profiles of Counter-Strike players with those of League of Legends players - a game played by over 150 million people worldwide. Fast-paced first-person shooters (FPS) like Counter-Strike or strategic multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games like League of Legends have different gameplay mechanics that may engage different cognitive abilities. This study compares experienced players of both games to investigate any differences in their cognitive profiles.

Future phases of the project will focus on tracking brain activity and visual movements during gameplay using eye-tracking technology and electroencephalograms (EEGs), which use non-invasive scalp sensors to monitor neural activity.

Professor Claudia von Bastian, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Sheffield, said: “One of the big questions in gaming research is whether the skills that make someone good at a game are useful beyond the game itself.

“Our findings suggest that expert players are not necessarily better at juggling several things at once, as you might expect, but are faster at processing information and responding to it.

“This gives us a more precise understanding of what distinguishes expert players, and an important starting point for investigating whether these skills extend to other fast-paced situations outside gaming. The next challenge is to understand where these differences come from, and whether they can be developed through experience.”