Play video games To Improve Cognitive Skills

Disorders Cure

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, December 12, 2008, 15:23

Gaming is recommended for older adults in order to improve cognitive skills according to the latest study. The study involved adults in their 60s and 70s and reveled that strategic video games that rewards nation-building and territorial expansion improved cognitive functions.

The study was carried out by Illinois psychology professor Arthur Kramer and postdoctoral research Chandramallika Basak. "When you train somebody on a task they tend to improve in that task, whatever it is, but it usually doesn't transfer much beyond that skill or beyond the particular situation in which they learned it. And there are virtually no studies that examine whether there's any transfer outside the lab to things people care about," he said.

The researchers wanted to analyze whether th gaming improved cognitive functions that declined with age. "Older people tend to fare less well on things that are called executive control processes. These include things like scheduling, planning, working memory, multitasking and dealing with ambiguity," said Kramer.

The researchers chose "Rise of Nations," which gives gamers points for building cities and "wonders," feeding and employing their people, maintaining an adequate military and expanding their territory. "You need merchants. You need an army to protect yourself and you have to make sure you're spending some of your resources on education and food. This game stresses resource management and planning, which I think for older adults is important because many of them independently plan and manage their resources," said Basak, lead author on the study.

The study involved a group of 40 adults that was divided into two groups, half were trained on the game and the other half were not. The groups were assessed before, during and after the video game training on a variety of tests designed to measure executive control functions.

The tests included measures of their ability to switch between tasks, their short-term visual memory, their reasoning skills and their working memory, which is the ability to hold two or more pieces of information in memory and use the information as needed. There were also tests of the subjects' verbal recall, their ability to inhibit certain responses and their ability to identify an object that had been rotated to a greater or lesser degree from its original position.

It was concluded that video games did improve improve the participants' performance on a number of these tests. As a group, the gamers became significantly better and faster at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group.

It was found that their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved. Their reasoning ability was enhanced. To a lesser extent, their short-term memory of visual cues was better than that of their peers, as was their ability to identify rotated objects.

The training had not affect on their ability to recall a list of words in order, their enumeration ability or their ability to inhibit certain responses. Kramer revealed that there was a correlation between improvement on certain cognitive tests and performance in the game. Those who performed well also did better in switching between tasks and did better on tests of working memory.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.