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Study Shows RTS Gaming Makes Seniors Sharper
Posted 12/12/08 at 03:15:41 PM | by Paul Lilly
According to a new study by the psychology department at the University of Illinois-Urbana, senior citizens should trade in their Bingo nights and fire up an RTS game instead. By doing so, over-60 seniors have a good chance of improving their cognitive functions.
The test consisted of 40 seniors playing Rise of Nations, a turn-based real-time strategy game with a heavy focus on building cities. Half of the test group received 23.5 hours of training in the game, while the other half did not. Each participant was assessed before and after playing on a variety of tests designed to "measure executive control functions," such as the ability to switch tasks, short-term memory, and other cognitive functions.
Senior gamers who underwent a training session were found to be "significantly better -- and faster -- at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group" with no training. Working memory, short-term memory of visual cues, reasoning abilities, and the ability to identify rotated objects was also improved after playing Rise of Nations.
Now you know what to buy your grandparents for Christmas if you're having trouble coming up with a gift idea.
Image Credit: Funny-potato.com
Comments Print Email Playing Rise of Nations with
Submitted by zioburosky13 on Sat, 2008-12-13 03:28
Playing Rise of Nations with a joypad!? Blasphemy! :P
Just like you will be some day.
Submitted by Talcum X on Mon, 2008-12-15 13:36
And the rest of us....all too quickly.
***********
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Submitted by dethdeks on Fri, 2008-12-12 15:24
sorry but to me this doesnt really prove anything. the part where it says
"Half of the test group received 23.5 hours of training in the game, while the other half did not"
gives it away. any one who has training on something 99.9% of the time is gonna be better at something then some one who doesnt have any training at all. so really this doesnt prove nothing. all it proves is that people with training do better then people with out
unless i missed something i think they didnt prove nothing but feel free to correct me if im wrong
Submitted by worm8199 on Tue, 2008-12-16 22:07
Seems to me that everyone is totally missing the point. It has nothing to do with being better at the game. The game is just the tool they used in this study. In some other study they may use chess, logic games, whatever. BTW you shouldn't use double negatives in your sentences. Unless of course you are trying to say that they did prove something.
Submitted by shellpc on Sat, 2008-12-13 00:39
I really doubt the tests themselves involved Rise of Nations as that would be completely stupid and self defeating. Its common sense that if a person practices a specific thing alot, chances are they're going to be better at it than someone who doesn't.
Its more likely they tested them on things that would involve skills picked up from playing an rts - "switching between tasks.... Working memory, short-term memory of visual cues, reasoning
abilities, and the ability to identify rotated objects"If you do logic puzzles every day you're likely to be better at solving logic problems in general than the average person who doesn't. That's not counting the fact some people just happen to be smarter than you or just have a natural gift for it.
Submitted by urdead4g on Fri, 2008-12-12 14:54
This pretty much confirms my believes, RTS games are an advanced form of chess, which is also good for the brain.
Kev.
Leaderboards
Submitted by FenixSS on Fri, 2008-12-12 14:31
Now we wait for a new geriatric champ :D
JK, I love my grandparents, still trying to have them get used to using a computer for email
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