Moderation is best: Examination of the effects of videogaming skills and frequency on everyday cognition across adulthood.

Digital games can shape everyday cognition, yet the roles of player skill, videogame genre, and play frequency across adulthood remain unclear. We studied 507 adult gamers of 3 age-groups (18–35, 36–55, 56+ years) to test how gaming skill and frequency relate to everyday memory and executive functioning. Participants completed the Gaming Skills Questionnaire (GSQ) and measures of everyday cognition: the Executive Skills Questionnaire–Revised, Everyday Memory Questionnaire–Revised, and Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the GSQ’s validity and reliability. Mixed-effects models estimated main and interaction effects of skill, frequency, age, and videogame genre. Higher skill was linked to fewer difficulties—especially for strategy and role-playing games—with advantages in planning, emotion regulation, and prospective/retrospective memory. In contrast, higher frequency was linked to more difficulties, particularly among younger adults. Puzzle play showed mixed associations: better organisation/time management but greater behavioural-regulation challenges. Age moderated several effects, with benefits attenuating from young to middle-aged and older groups. Findings specify conditions for genre-specific links with everyday memory and executive control: skill appears beneficial, whereas excessive frequency may undermine control processes. The GSQ offers a genre-sensitive measure for profiling gaming skill and frequency and can support research and practice on everyday memory across the lifespan.