Cognitive abilities are your core mental attributes. They determine how you perceive and interact with the world around you, and directly influence how we perform - from the simplest of tasks to the most complex. The good news is, like your physical abilities, the better you understand and develop your cognitive abilities the more you can get out them. Stats buff anyone?
When we think about improving performance it tends to be the physical elements that come to mind first. Perhaps because they are less obvious, cognitive abilities tend to get less attention than physical, but for gaming (and our lives in general) they are just as important, if not more so.
Psychology and cognitive research are complex and diverse disciplines, but we have attempted to distill and break down below in simple terms what your cognitive abilities are, why they are critical to your gaming performance, and some quick wins to help improvement. The good new is, in some cases the science is showing gaming can actually enhance cognitive abilities!
So what are the cognitive abilities in your toolkit?
Quick Links:
1. Attention (focus)
2. Communication (language)
3. Memory (recall)
4. Motor Skills (movement, hand-eye coordination & reflexes)
5. Perception (understanding)
6. Visual and Spatial Processing (visualising the world in three dimensions)
7. Executive Functions (Goal-oriented behavior enablers)
1. Attention (focus)
Your ability to selectively focus and concentrate on something, or multitask a limited number of things, while filtering out other perceivable information.
Why it's important
Your ability to focus, multitask, and prioritise actions, goals or targets in-game is the difference between winning and losing. Lack of attention reduces your ability to make optimal decisions and increases the chances of missing threats or opportunities, or letting down the team.
Quick wins
Be aware. Simple as it sounds, being aware of the need to pay attention and focus on the task at hand and take a moment to center yourself and focus before each round.
Clear your mind. If you have other things on your mind, i.e. chores, study, a workout, family responsibilities, errands etc - either go and get them done first so they are out of the way (you'll feel better for it!), or commit to a time to do them so you can put them to one side and focus more easily.
Practice Prioritisation. You have a finite capacity to pay attention to multiple things at once. Good players learn to quickly prioritise where their focus (i.e. which target is the most immediate threat) is required first at any given time.
'Don't panic'. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy had it right, and this is a great founding principle that separates the average gamer from the good/great. In high intensity moments, practice keeping a cool head, focus, prioritise, and don't forget to breath!
Remove distractions. Distractions literally take your eye off the prize. Turn your phone alerts off, turn off the TV/radio, close that extra tab with YouTube open, schedule time to specific things to lessen the likelihood of interruptions.
2. Communication (language)
Your ability to effectively exchange information by speaking, writing/typing, or using some other medium.
Why it's important
In anything you do with others, clear and effective communication is fundamental to performance and outcomes. Providing clear and effective updates on threats, positions, opportunities, strategies etc are critical in-game, as is simply having positive interactions with other players and building contacts, connections, relationships and trust with other players.
Quick wins
Turn your microphone on (for the love of god! :) ). If you want to play a team game and don't have a mic, go and get yourself a decent gaming headset. Enough said.
Communicate clearly, specifically, effectively. If for example you are calling out a target, what sounds better: "I see a target!..." or "Target, north/12 o'clock, 200 meters moving east"? The best players and teams are effective communicators. Communicate better, get better results. It can vary game to game, but this seems to be an area a lot of gamers can benefit form improving.
If there are reasons you can't communicate effectively (i.e. you have others in the room, the kids are watching TV in the background etc) let your team know so they can accommodate/adjust accordingly.Don't be 'that' person. You actively reduce your chances of enjoyment or success if you play team games but aren't a team player. Have fun, have banter (and all team are different and will have their own norms) but don't be toxic, unhelpfully critical, insulting or otherwise unpleasant to be around - people don't want to play with people who are negative/toxic.
Be positive and humble! Constructive criticism is a great way to learn, don't miss the opportunity to get better and 'miss the message' because you don't like the way it was delivered (that also means thinking about how you deliver constructive criticism).
Don't forget to have fun. Between the action, friendly chat/banter is a really important part of enjoying games, but also building constructive relationships with other gamers.
3. Memory (recall)
Your short-term and long-term ability to store and recall information.
Why it's important
Your ability to store and recall game rules, character/tool/weapon roles and attributes, maps and positions, strategies, lessons learnt, team mate playing styles etc. These are all fundamental not only to how well you both enjoy and play, but how we apply those learnings to continuously improve.
When we think of memory as it relates to gaming, it almost always relates to your hardware's memory/RAM. However as with your hardware, improving and more effectively applying your mental memory can reap significant rewards.
Quick wins
Learn to value sleep. Sleep may seem like the nemesis of late night gaming sessions, but research shows the vital link between sleep and memory performance (not to mention a whole range of mind/body functions). Regardless of when you schedule it, make sure you prioritise sleep and it will pay dividends throughout your waking hours.
Diet and exercise impact brain function. Research shows poor hydration, diet (especially excess sugar and diets laden with high-glycemic foods) negatively impact memory performance.
Cognitive performance has also shown to improve with as little as 15 minutes moderate exercise. When we consider the positive impacts of exercise on brain function and the additional cognitive benefits associated with maintaining a healthy weight, it's clear that time spent wisely away from games can improve your time in them. Exercise your mind. Research shows memory training exercises/games can be an effective and fun way to build memory capability. We touch on several resources in the Executive Functions section below.
Mindfulness and Meditation. Mindfulness is simply focus and awareness on your present situation, surroundings and feelings. Research has shown mindfulness can be effective at improving concentration and memory, as well as lowering stress.
Meditation and similar relaxation techniques have been shown to improve memory as well as a raft of other benefits for both mind and body.
4. Motor Skills (movement, hand-eye coordination & reflexes)
Your ability to control your body and optimally interact physically with your environment.
Why they are important
Reaction time, coordination and precision are huge factors in performance. In gaming, success is measured in milliseconds, so your ability to increase your speed, control and accuracy of movement directly influences your in-game results.
Quick wins
Boost your dexterity and twitch speed. As is true with any other part of your body, training your wrists/hands/fingers will improve your reaction speed, control and effectiveness.
Perfect the art of practice. Playing a game itself, while useful, doesn't necessarily translate to optimal practice. Running specific drills and practicing speed and accuracy techniques in game (or practice/training mode if your game has it) can pay huge dividends when its game time. This includes working on your weak points.
Optimise your settings. This is the one of the easiest gain for gamers and is often overlooked. Check out our guide on boosting your performance by optimising gaming settings or Optimise your PC gaming mouse performance and injury prevention.
Juggling and playing catch. While they may not seem obvious boosters for gamers, both improve hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision and awareness (and can be scaled up in complexity as you get better at them).
Remove distractions. As with 'attention/focus', distractions literally take you eye off the prize. Again, turn your phone alerts off, turn off the TV/radio, and carve out time to lesson the likelihood of interruptions.
5. Perception (understanding)
Your ability to receive, recognise, interpret and process different sensory inputs (sight, sound, touch, taste etc).
"What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken."
- Morpheus, The Matrix.
Why it's important
How you perceive, understand and process the in-game environment, threats, opportunities and rewards determine your ability to effectively navigate and master the game.
Quick wins
Generally, it takes time to explore, absorb and master all the elements of a game, but there are some fundamental principals to apply to any game to speed that process up.
Do your research before you play. Mastering a game takes time, and there are a LOT of games vying for your attention. Save time (and money) by researching before you play (or listen to the recommendations of other players you trust the opinion of) to ensure you only invest time exploring games you are likely to enjoy.
Play with more experienced players. There is no faster way to get to grips with a game and all its elements than by playing with experienced players who can show you the ropes, tips and tricks to accelerate your mastery.
Be curious and ask (lots of) questions. Leave your pride at the door - everyone is a noob when they start :). The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.
Clock up game time (when you know you want to invest it). There is no substitute for experience, except perhaps the satisfaction from giving back and sharing that experience with others new to the game.
6. Visual and Spatial Processing (visualising the world in three dimensions)
Your ability to process and interpret visual environments in three dimensions, the relationship and distance between shapes and objects within that environment, and anticipate and action movement within that environment.
Why it's important
The immersive and three dimensional nature of most games only continues to develop as technology, graphics and particularly virtual reality (VR) improve. Navigating effectively within those worlds and interpreting and understanding the spatial mechanics of a game is key to your ability to perform within it. Even in two dimensional games, understanding the rules of movement and the relationship between objects and actions within that environment is a critical part of mastery.
Quick wins
- Practice in-game and with team mates. Gaming actually provides several opportunities to improve your spatial processing skills:
1. Navigating within game environments themselves helps improve your skills in doing so;
2. Providing verbal descriptions of where objects are within an environment (also a key skill of in-game communication as discussed above) can be an effective way to develop spatial processing skills.
3. As with perception, playing with more experienced players can help you master the game environment much quicker by drawing on their experience to guide you within that environment.
- Visual and spatial exercises. Building and creating in 3D (Lego, Meccano, Minecraft for example), obstacle courses, practicing completing patterns and movement games are all good ways (especially for youngers gamers) to develop your spatial skills and their trajectory.
7. Executive Functions (Goal-oriented behavior enablers)
A collection of abilities necessary to enable strategy and goal-oriented behavior, such as planning and executing to achieve desired outcomes.
Anticipation: Your ability to make predictions based on recognition of patterns or other information.
Decision making: Your ability to make decisions based on information (complete or incomplete) and emotions (yours and others).
Emotional self-regulation: Your ability to identify and control your emotions to enable good performance.
Flexibility: Your ability to adapt and switch quickly between mental modes to suit the situation.
Inhibition: Your ability to manage internal urges or distractions.
Problem-solving: Your ability to identify and define problems or opportunities and create effective solutions to solve or exploit them.
Sequencing/Prioritisation: Your ability to break down the necessary actions to achieve something into manageable parts, and then prioritise them in the right order to get the desired outcome.
Theory of mind: Your ability to perceive and understand other people’s thinking, their drivers, their likes or dislikes, their goals or plans.
Working Memory: Your capacity to store, manage and access information in real time.
Why they are important
They are called executive functions for good reason. They essentially manage and bring together your arsenal of cognitive skills, and determine how you apply and maximise your abilities to engage, enjoy and succeed in game (and life). Your capacity and capability to form and deploy strategies, how you understand, interact and collaborate with (or dominate!) other players, and how you manage your focus and procrastination all stem from your executive functions.
Quick wins
Your brain has the capacity to develop, recover, and restructure in response to different stimuli (i.e. training, environment etc), this is known as neuroplasticity. There is improvement potential in all of us, how much potential you unlock or maximise depends on training and developing your base attributes.
Order out of chaos...
- Commit to committing. Taking ownership for your direction, effort, accountability, and the basic act of 'starting' your journey can be very empowering, but also help supports important connected behaviors like self-monitoring and ongoing commitment/drive.
If you are a procrastinator, check out our guide on dominating procrastination.
- Think ahead. The simple (well, in theory!) act of managing your time well is a great ways to help improve and structure your executive functions.
- Divide tasks or goals into more manageable parts. Planning is a great way to develop cognitive flexibility by exercise your executive functions.
- Learn to love lists! Lists help you plan goals, prioritise, sequence, track and motivate you to nail activities efficiently. This a is a great life hack, but can also a great way to exercise executive functions that will benefit you in-game.
Enter the brain dojo...
- Learn something new. Teaching yourself things can help with impulse control, planning, and exercises your cognitive flexibility. It also feels pretty great when you make a point of learning something then master it!
- Work outs for your brain. There are plenty of great resources for exercising our minds out there, for example Lumosity, Cognifit, Peak Brain Training to name a few. Find one that resonates with you and commit to working out your mind as you would your body!
- Exercise the body. The connection between physical and mental fitness and valuing working out both body and mind is what Match Fit Gamer is all about. Exercise, especially competitive sports, is a great work out for your executive functions as well as your body.
- Music, sweet music. Music can have benefit a number of your executive functions, and this is even more true if you are learning to play an instrument, sing or dance.
- Play games. Wait, what!? That's a freebie! :) Games, especially those requiring strategy and teamwork can be a great way to exercise and develop your executive functions. It's important to note though that developing executive functions is complex, so while playing games may help, it alone is not a magic bullet!
Teach yourself discipline...
- Impulse control. Whether its taking a moment to breath before speaking or taking action, the basic principle of 'thinking before you act' can be really powerful. In game, it could be the difference between making an error or over-reaching, or saying something in chat you regret. Practice the art of impulse control, it can have wide reaching benefits not only to improve your gaming, but in all facets of your life.
- Emotional control. Like with impulse control, being mindful of your emotions and keeping them in check is a really valuable and often under-appreciated part of optimising your play. If you lose control of your emotions, you are more easily distracted, more prone to making mistakes, or worse, it can escalate to a full melt down or rage-quit. Don't be that guy/girl...aside from impacting others enjoyment of playing with you, it feels crap when your emotions get the better of you :) Take a breath, and remember, it's just a game.
- Roll with the punches. Being more flexible in your thinking makes you more likely to avoid frustration (and makes you more fun to be around!).
It helps build your capability to adapt and react to unexpected situations while maintaining balance and control.
Important note:
People with genuine executive function impairment or disorders are unlikely to benefit from all of the above, due to the fact their impairment/disorder prevent them from doing some or all of these things in the first place. Support and development work for people with these challenges require professional help and supervision.