Strategic video game improves critical cognitive skills in ol...(ploying their people maintaining an adeq...),Health
ploying 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," said postdoctoral researcher Chandramallika Basak, lead author on the study. "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."
The study included 40 older adults, half of whom received 23.5 hours of training in Rise of Nations. The others, a comparison group, received no training in the game.
Both 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.
The researchers found that training on the video game did 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. 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 video game training had no effect on their ability to recall a list of words in order, their enumeration ability or their ability to inhibit certain respons
'/>"/>
| Contact: Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor diya@illinois.edu 217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Source:Eurekalert |
Related medicine news :
1. National Pharmaceutical Council Announces New Strategic Focus, Search for New Leadership
2. Martopia(R) Forms Strategic Alliance With Modern Healthcare Magazine
3. LehmanMillet Continues Expansion with Strategic Hires
4. Stille and Enova Form Strategic Partnership to Introduce Worlds Brightest LED Cordless Surgical Headlights Into Europe and Japan
5. Benjamin England, Former FDA Regulatory Counsel, to Testify on FDA Import Strategic Plan Before House Appropriations Subcommittee
6. Diet.com Enters Strategic Collaboration To Support Microsoft HealthVault
7. Lumenis Ltd. Announces Senior Leadership Appointments Strengthening the Companys Strategic Businesses
8. Avantium and BP Extend Strategic Partnership
9. 40 86 Strategic Income Fund Declares Dividend
10. Medco, LabCorp Strike Strategic Agreement for Research on Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics
11. Cogon Systems Supports the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce with the Strategic Health Intelligence Summit
 Strategic video game improves critical cognitive skills in older adults |
| Copyright © 2003-2009 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |