A recent study from the University of York showed that older adults who participated in a number puzzle game had memory skills comparable to those in their 20s. In addition, research also shows that adults aged 60 and above who are addicted to digital puzzle games are better at ignoring irrelevant distractions. However, no such improvements in memory or attention were observed in older adults who played strategy games.
New research finds that older adults who play number puzzle games have memory skills comparable to those in their 20s and an increased ability to ignore distractions. Still, playing strategy games did not lead to the same cognitive improvements, so further research is needed to understand the differential effects of different game types on memory and attention at different ages.
It is known that as people age, their thinking abilities tend to decline, especially the ability to remember multiple things at the same time - the so-called working memory. Working memory is thought to peak between the ages of 20 and 30, then slowly declines with age.
However, previous research has shown that the way we retain information in our brains changes as we age, so York's team looked at whether certain types of mental stimulation, such as games, might also have different effects as we age.
Dr Fiona McNab, from the Department of Psychology at the University of York, said: "A lot of research has focused on action games because it is thought that quick reactions, tracking goals, etc. improve attention and memory, but our new analysis shows that action elements do not seem to bring significant benefits to young people. Instead, strategic elements in games - such as "Things like planning and problem solving seem to stimulate better memory and attention in younger people. However, we don't see the same effect in older people, and more research is needed to understand why. We can't rule out that the level of challenge may be important in improving memory."
The study included older and younger adults playing digital games they would normally play in 'real life'. So, while testing various games, a digital experiment was also conducted in which participants were asked to memorize images while distracted.
Dr Joe Cattin, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of York, said: "Generally speaking, people are pretty good at ignoring irrelevant distractions, which we call 'encoding distractions'. For example, we would expect a person to be able to remember the name of a street when distracted by children or dogs, but this ability declines with age."
"Puzzle games for older adults have this amazing ability to support mental abilities, to the point where memory and attention levels are the same as for a 20-year-old who hasn't played puzzle games."
However, older adults who played only strategy games were more likely to forget what they remembered when distracted, while younger adults who played only puzzle games were less likely to focus.
The researchers say future studies could focus on why players of different ages are differentially affected by different types of games, and whether this has something to do with how the brain stores information as we age.