Spatial representation in the haptic domain has been shown to be prone to systematic errors. When participants are asked to make two bars haptically parallel, their performance deviates from what would be veridically parallel. This is hypothesized to be caused by the bias of the egocentric reference frame. Stimulating the use of an allocentric reference frame has previously been shown to improve performance in haptic parallelity matching. The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of action video game experience on parallelity performance. We hypothesized that participants who extensively play action video games with a so-called ‘bird’s-eye view’ are likely to process spatial information more allocentrically, resulting in better performance in haptic parallelity matching. This was tested in two groups of male participants, 10 participants with extensive action video gaming experience (AVGPs) and 10 participants without or hardly any action video gaming experience (NAVGPs). Additionally, the effect of visual–haptic practice on haptic parallelity performance was tested. In the haptic blocks, blindfolded participants had to feel the orientation of a reference bar with their non-dominant hand and had to match this orientation on a test bar with their dominant hand. In subsequent visual–haptic blocks, they had full view of the set-up and visually paralleled both bars. As hypothesized, AVGPs performed significantly better in haptic blocks than NAVGPs. Visual–haptic practice resulted in significantly better performance in subsequent haptic blocks in both groups. These results suggest that playing action video games might enhance haptic spatial representation, although a causative relationship still needs to be established.

事实表明，触觉域中的空间表示容易出现系统错误。当要求参与者使两个小节在触觉上平行时，他们的表现将与在垂直方向上平行。假设这是由以自我为中心的参照系的偏差引起的。先前已证明刺激使用同心圆参考系可以改善触觉平行度匹配的性能。当前研究的目的是调查动作视频游戏体验对并行性能的影响。我们假设，使用所谓的“鸟瞰图”广泛玩动作视频游戏的参与者可能会更加同心地处理空间信息，从而在触觉平行度匹配中获得更好的性能。在两组男性参与者中进行了测试，10位参与者具有丰富的动作视频游戏体验（AVGPs），并且10位参与者没有或几乎没有任何动作视频游戏体验（NAVGP）。此外，还测试了视觉触觉练习对触觉平行度性能的影响。在触觉区中，被蒙住眼睛的参与者必须用非惯用手来感觉参考条的方向，并且必须用惯用手来匹配测试条上的方向。在随后的视觉触觉区中，他们可以看到整个设置，并在视觉上平行于两个条。如假设的那样，AVGP在触觉阻滞中的表现明显优于NAVGP。视觉触觉练习在两组的后续触觉障碍中均具有明显更好的表现。这些结果表明，玩动作视频游戏可能会增强触觉空间的表现力，