Brian Verdine at Vanderbilt is in the middle of a study exploring the link between videogaming and situational awareness. The core of the study involves taking participants through a number of outdoor navigational exercises, which are then repeated a week later. During the intervening week, some participants will be asked to accumulate 10 hours with a particular videogame. A control group will do nothing. The study will explore whether there's a noticeable improvement among the folks who played videogames as opposed to the control group.

Whereas Mr. Verdine is actually gathering data, my own personal experience is that videogaming is a huge help. A lot of us who play videogames have an excellent sense of direction. We notice and remember landmarks. We think in terms of ninety-degree turns. From RPGs that had to be mapped out on graph paper, to finding our way in Ultima Underworld, to learning the layout of Liberty City (pictured), to figuring out levels in a first-person shooter, we've had a lot of experience.

I was particularly interested in what games Mr. Verdine was going to use. He told me they're actually using two games -- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Portal -- and they're expecting different results based on which game is played.

Elder Scrolls we specifically expect to help with the map reading and navigation tests we give and help the other spatial tests we're giving to a lesser extent. Elder Scrolls uses a large open world, players are motivated to navigate quickly and accurately to prevent dying and to progress quickly through the game, and a paper map as well as an in-game map accompany the game.

Portal, on the other hand, does not have a strong navigational component due to the linear style of the game and a lack of any kind of real navigation aids. Therefore, we don't expect that game to help with the scores on navigational testing we are doing. It does, however, require participants to figure out and predict character movements through the portals, requires better timing, and a thorough understanding of the characters orientation in relation to specific objects and obstacles in the space. We think that players successfully dealing with these parts of that game provides more experience with the kinds of basic-level spatial abilities we are testing (e.g., mental rotation). Therefore, we are expecting that Portal will have a greater effect on the scores on those tests.

If you're interested in helping out, you can take an online survey here. But no fair trying to take the real-world test since you're already a videogamer who has excellent navigational skills and would just mess up Mr. Verdine's sample group.