Do action video games have an effect on spatial skills? I've just watched a TED talk by Daphne Bavelier, who seems to be a major researcher on plasticity and video games. In it she presents results from a controlled lab study in which participants needed to perform mental rotations (around 14 minutes into the video), before and after having played 10 hours of action video games over a period of 2 weeks. She demonstrates results which show an improvement up to 5 months after having gotten the 'training'.



I'm interested in finding out more about this research and the methodologies it followed. So my first question is whether somebody could link me to the original research.


Did they take into account learning effects?
Did they use a control group?


My skepticism comes from a previous question on video games in which D. Bavelier is mentioned often. It has gotten some concerned responses involving methodological flaws.
The concept of mental rotation was introduced by Shepard &amp; Metzler (1971). The 3D assemblages of cubes were part of their original experiment. Vandenburg and Kuse (1978) later developed a paper-and-pencil test based on this prior experiment, named the Vandenberg and Kuse’s Mental Rotation Test (VMRT).

The study which Bavelier most likely refers to is one done by Feng et al. (2007). [PDF]


  In Experiment 2, we compared spatial attention and cognition in men
  and women before and after 10 hr of action-video-game training. A
  control group trained for 10 hr with a non-action game. [...] In
  addition, we assessed higher-level spatial abilities using a mental
  rotation test (MRT; see Fig. 1b). We expected to ﬁnd enhanced MRT
  performance as a by-product of improvements in spatial attentional
  capacity after training.


The games played were Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault by the experimental group, and Ballance, a 3-D puzzle game by the control group.


  We had not originally
  planned a follow-up testing session; however, we were able to contact
  and retest all 20 subjects after an average interval of about 5 months
  (16–24 weeks).


Results


  Both males and females in the experimental group improved, but there
  was no signiﬁcant change from pretest to posttest in the control group
  [...] furthermore, the improvement in the experimental group was larger
  for females (2.0 to 2.7) than for males (2.9 to 3.2), F(1, 8) 5
  5.193, prep 5 .87, Z 2 5 .39, and the performance of the females on the posttest was indistinguishable from that of the males in the
  control group. Although the gender difference on the MRT was not
  eliminated, its size was much reduced (see Fig. 3, lower left panel).




Although not the exact study which Bavelier demonstrated, a study done by Isabelle D. Cherney (2008) demonstrates similar results using the VMRT test. A huge section of the paper reviews existing relevant research which might be interesting to look into. The focus of this particular study is to ...


  ... examine whether the type (3-D vs. 2-D) and
  delivery (massed vs. distributed practice) affect the degree of
  improvement of males’ and females’ mental rotation performance and how
  individual differences such as anxiety, prior spatial experiences such
  as computer game play, and mathematical performance might affect
  performance. Two existing visuospatial tests, Vandenberg and Kuse’s
  (1978) mental rotation test and the card rotation test (CRT;
  Educational Testing Services Sanders et al. 1982) that have shown
  gender differences and that are of different levels of difficulty,
  were used.


Tested games were The 3-D Antz© racing computer game, the 2-D Tetrus© computer game, or several paper-and-pencil logic games.


  An equal number of men and women were then randomly assigned to [the games] for a half hour. Participants returned to the laboratory for
  another three times for 1 h of practice each. About half of the
  participants in each practice condition were randomly exposed to
  either: (a) distributed practice sessions (they completed the three
  1-h practice sessions over more than 2 weeks) or (b) massed practice
  sessions (they completed the three 1-h practice sessions within 3
  days). During the final session, after a half hour of practice,
  participants completed the two mental rotation tests as a posttest.
  Participants were exposed to a total of four training hours. They were
  asked to abstain to play any computer games between the practice
  sessions.


Practice effect analyses


  Bonferroni adjusted paired sample t-tests on both mental rotation
  pre-and posttest scores showed that, for the VMRT there were
  significant improvements for women, t(30)=−3.6, p=.001, but not for
  men





Shepard, R. N., &amp; Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science 171, 701-703.
Steven, G. V., &amp; ALLAN, R. (1978). Mental rotations, a group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual and motor skills, 47(2), 599-604.
Cherney, I. D. (2008). Mom, let me play more computer games: They improve my mental rotation skills. Sex Roles, 59(11), 776-786.
Feng, J., Spence, I., &amp; Pratt, J. (2007). Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in spatial cognition. Psychological Science, 18(10), 850-855. [PDF]