ENHANCED COGNITIVE STATES: ATTENTIONAL ENHANCEMENT OR ATTENTIONAL NARROWING?

Abstract

Enhanced Cognitive States (ECS) was termed to operationalize transient enhancements in temporal and visual-spatial aspects of attention that is accompanied by PSNS withdrawal associated arousal. It was claimed that the enhancements were due to said arousal, but it was possible that it was instead due to attentional narrowing. Furthermore, the dissipation period of ECS is still inconclusive. We elicited ECS in expert videogamers through a first-person shooter videogame that provides active involvement, optimal challenge and is arousing. To assess temporal attention and PSNS withdrawal associated arousal, we used the attentional blink task before, immediately after and 45 minutes after videogaming with concurrent electrocardiogram recordings for heart-rate variability measurement. Attentional narrowing was assessed using the Useful-Field-of-View task before and after videogaming. Results show that participants in ECS did not experience attentional narrowing whilst the enhancements in temporal attention and associated changes in heart-rate variability were still present at 45 minutes after videogaming. We conclude that ECS is due to attentional enhancements resulting from PSNS withdrawal associated arousal and that the state’s dissipation period was longer than 45 minutes. However, due to the infancy of the research on ECS, further research must be undertaken in order to utilize it for critical periods.