Washington, Feb 23 (ANI): Playing online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may help improve cognitive functioning for some older adults, researchers suggest.
A new study from North Carolina State University has found that playing WoW actually boosted cognitive functioning for older adults - particularly those adults who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game.
"We chose World of Warcraft because it has attributes we felt may produce benefits - it is a cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations," said Dr. Anne McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study.
"We found there were improvements, but it depended on each participant's baseline cognitive functioning level," she noted.
The researchers from NC State's Gains Through Gaming laboratory first tested the cognitive functioning of study participants, aged 60 to 77, to set a baseline. The researchers looked at cognitive abilities including spatial ability, memory and how well participants could focus their attention.
An "experimental" group of study participants then played WoW on their home computers for approximately 14 hours over the course of two weeks, before being re-tested. A "control" group of study participants did not play WoW, but were also re-tested after two weeks.
Comparing the cognitive functioning test scores of participants in the experimental and control groups, the researchers found the group that played WoW saw a much greater increase in cognitive functioning, though the effect varied according to each participant's baseline score.
"Among participants who scored well on baseline cognitive functioning tests, there was no significant improvement after playing WoW - they were already doing great," said McLaughlin.
"But we saw significant improvement in both spatial ability and focus for participants who scored low on the initial baseline tests," she stated.
Pre- and post-game testing showed no change for participants on memory.
"The people who needed it most - those who performed the worst on the initial testing - saw the most improvement," added Dr. Jason Allaire, an associate professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study.
The finding has been published online in Computers in Human Behavior. (ANI)
|
|
Read More: World Bank | North Korea | North Delhi | North West Delhi | North Goa | North 24 Parganas | North Dinajpur | North Sikkim | North Tripura | North Avenue | Charkhari State | Sarila State | Mahdaiya State | State Bank Of Hyderabad | State Bank Of India | State Bank Of Mysore Colony | World University Centre | State Bank Colony | State Farm Colony | North Bengal University So | Jaso
Comments:
