The effects of multitasking training in Star Craft II

This study explored the relationship between general or real-world multitasking and task specific multitasking as related to the real time strategy game Star Craft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard, 2010). In addition to exploring this relationship, the research also attempted to examine the effect task specific multitasking training had within Star Craft II.;Data for the current research were collected in two phases. Phase one consisted of a pre/post-test design, with random assignment to either the gamer-control or experimental group. Participants in the experimental group were asked to complete 10 to 11 hours on the Star Craft II based Multitasking Trainer (stet_tcl, 2010) in between two, five trial blocks of the SynWin (Acivity Research Services, 2000); a computer based general multitasking measure. Participants in the gamer-control group were asked to complete 10 to 11 hours of one-versus-one Star Craft II ladder matches, and complete the same pre/post-test SynWin battery. Both groups were asked to send the researcher their three most recent one-versus-one ladder matches prior to starting the assigned protocol, and three more upon completion.;Phase two participants only completed the pre-test SynWin battery, and were assigned to either the non-gamer control or gaming-control groups based on their weekly use of PC/console games and Star Craft II play. Inclusion in the non-gamer control group required less than one hour of PC/console gaming per week. Participants in the gaming-control group were asked to submit their three most recent one-versus-one Star Craft II ladder replays.;For the purpose of this research, the operational definition for Star Craft II multitasking was effective actions per-minute (EAPM), a subset of actions per-minute (APM). Analysis of the gathered data from both phases of recruitment indicated a moderately strong positive relationship between SynWin scores and EAPM values (r = 0.636, p = 0.014). An evaluation of the effectiveness of the multitasking trainer was not completed due to a lack of adequate participation.