Made for English 211C in the Summer semester of 2025.

Conner Robinson

705 Hazel Grove Way

July 4th, 2025

Professor Norris

BAL 5006

Old Dominion University

Norfolk, Virginia 23529

Professor Norris,

Research Proposal: How video games affect reaction speed and focus on children and young adults

It’s no secret that the vast majority of children born in the modern age play some sort of video game, and these games affect their minds in many different ways. Video games in the past 10-15 years have continued to become more complex and mechanically intensive for people to play. Children and young adults that play these games almost every day must have some sort of change happening in their brain chemistry to allow them to continuously improve at these tasks. This research proposal is designed to see if these games have improved the fine motor skills, reaction times, and even focus of these children and young adults, and if these changes carry over into their day to day lives.

Personal Interest, Background, and Importance

I have played rhythm games most of my life and have played fighting and action games for the past decade; I have had many people point out my seemingly fast reaction speed, ability to multitask, and go into short periods of extreme focus. I’ve noticed these same attributes in others with similar game choices during their formative years. Even today, many parents and adults believe that video games are a waste of time and energy and only cause your brain to become less focused and worse over time. At the very least, some parents believe that video games are just hobbies and have no benefit at all and, therefore, are detrimental to their child’s growth. Having this kind of research done could allow some of these people to change their minds and view these games as more than just a hobby and potentially even good for their child’s physical and mental development. 

Academic Resources

This is a topic people have been looking into since the late 2000s and many people continue to look into how video games affect our reaction times and focus even today. Many of these studies were initially conceived due to the increase in popularity and accessibility of fighting games and their tournaments. Seeing so many people having what seemed to be lighting fast reaction speeds and immense focus even through screaming crowds surrounding them would inevitably catch the attention of someone. Not only that, but the rise in popularity of rhythm games created an entirely new look into how our brains function. A study done many years ago concluded that a phenomenon known as the “flow state” is present almost every time someone plays a rhythm game “seriously.” Without going too in depth, the “flow state” is when the brain enters a state of hyper focus that is hard to break and can lead to enjoyment depending on what is being done to cause the state, and, in a rhythm game’s case, one study showed that it led to increased perception and prediction. 

Here are two links for some basic background information if you would like to know a bit about video games and how they affect us:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2871325/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6826942/

Thank you in advance for considering this research proposal.

Conner Robinson