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If you’re looking for innovative ways to keep your mind sharp in 2009, consider playing strategy games, especially if you’re 60 years old or older. That’s the conclusion reached by Dr. Arthur Kramer and his colleagues in their studies.
The two studies are:
- Basak C, et al “Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?” Psychol Aging 2008; DOI: 10.1037/a0013494.
- Boot, W. R., Kramer, A. F., Simons, D. J., Fabiani, M. & Gratton, G. (2008) The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica, 129, 387-398.
Let’s first examine the initial study, which was a groundbreaking experiment that demonstrated significant cognitive benefits in adults over 60 who played a strategy video game (Rise of Nations) for 23 hours.
A team at the University of Illinois recruited 40 adults over the age of 60, with half of them asked to play a computer game called Rise of Nations, a role-playing game where players must build their empire. They have to construct cities, manage resources, employ people, maintain a military, and expand their territory.
Both the test and control groups were assessed before, during, and after the video game training using a variety of tests, and the “gamers” showed significant improvements in task-switching abilities compared to the comparison group. Their working memory, as demonstrated in the tests, also showed significant improvement, along with an increase in their reasoning ability.
These were remarkable results.
In contrast, the second study found no similar cognitive benefits for university students in their early 20s who played the same game for the same number of hours, regardless of whether they were regular video game players or not. Why this discrepancy?
To better understand this, I approached Dr. Arthur Kramer, one of the researchers involved in both studies, and asked a few questions.
Question: In your opinion, what can explain the different impact of the video game Rise of Nations on non-gamers, as observed in both studies?
Answer: The most notable difference between our two studies was the age of the participants – young adults in the Acta Psychologica paper and older adults in the Psychology Artists Psychology - Here's an interesting exclusive article Roland d’Humières, 56 years old psycho-analyst from Aix en Provence (France) has written for our Weblog. I think it to be a very interesting writing about the artists psychology, or maybe "arts psychology", what's behind an artists mind. Artists Psychology Whatever is his/her Art, painting, music, dance, writing, or any… & Aging study. We observed training benefits for older adults but not for young adults. There could be several reasons for this. First, older adults perform worse on the specific abilities we were attempting to train – executive control processes – compared to young adults. So it’s possible that video game training benefits are more evident for cognitive processes that are somewhat impaired. Second, while it’s relatively easy to find older adults who have not played games (especially strategy-based games like Rise of Nations), it is much more difficult to find completely inexperienced young adults (although the young adult subjects in our study played games for less than 1 hour per week). Therefore, it’s conceivable that the gains from video game training may be more easily observed in individuals with less gaming experience When Gaming Fatigue Sets In: Navigating the Burnout - In the world of video games, an immersive escape from reality, it's not uncommon to encounter a paradoxical phenomenon: gaming fatigue. This state, often overlooked, emerges when the joy of gaming wanes, replaced by a sense of weariness or even aversion. It's an experience that, ironically, can stem from the very passion that draws players… . These appear to be the likely factors contributing to the different effects observed in the two studies.
Question: What is the main implication of combining both studies? What have we learned now that we didn’t know three months ago?
Answer: Firstly, our findings indicate that there is promise in playing video games for the cognitive abilities of older adults. However, it should be noted that this may be the first attempt to enhance the executive control abilities of older adults through strategy-based video game playing. Further research is necessary to delve deeper into this relationship, especially in terms of real-world tasks and their transferability. Secondly, the results from our study involving young adults suggest caution when assuming that video game training can improve perceptual, attentional, and cognitive abilities in young individuals. Clearly, there are significant boundary conditions and limitations to these relationships that we have yet to fully understand.
In conclusion, regardless of age, the mind benefits from novelty and challenge. Video games such as Rise of Nations can provide that necessary novelty and challenge, especially for adults who are not already engaged in playing video games.
Manuel Marino is a seasoned Senior Producer, Music Composer, and Artist with over a decade of experience. He specializes in branded entertainment across various mediums, including video games, films, and advertising campaigns. With 20+ years as a game music composer, Manuel has worked on numerous platforms, creating diverse orchestral soundtracks. HIRE ME
