Brain and Mind Fitness and Casual Games: survey results

Good arti­cle on the results from a poll on demo­graph­ics and atti­tudes on Casu­al Gamers, spon­sored by Pop­Cap Games.

High­lights:

-“the study revealed that of the esti­mat­ed 150 mil­lion con­sumers that play casu­al titles, 47 per­cent are age 50 or old­er and 19 per­cent are age 60 or older.”

-“For those 50 or old­er, 74 per­cent said they felt that play­ing games gave them good cog­ni­tive work­outs, 62 per­cent said play­ing strength­ened their mem­o­ry, and an even high­er 86 per­cent cit­ed stress relief as a major fac­tor. In addi­tion, almost a third (32 per­cent) not­ed that play­ing helped to dis­tract them from chron­ic pain or fatigue and almost a tenth even believed that play­ing actu­al­ly con­tributed to pain relief directly.”

- The most pop­u­lar genre choic­es for play­ers age 50 and up were Puz­zle (84 per­cent), Word (66 per­cent) and Card games (57 percent).

I could­n’t find the poll results direct­ly, but you can check more infor­ma­tion in the arti­cle above and in this press release.

Casu­al Games may be a great way to exer­cise our cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties. Now, when some of our Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­sors and I eval­u­at­ed some of the most pop­u­lar ones, we weren’t very impressed about their design from a cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science and neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy point of view, so it would be nice to see peer-reviewed stud­ies about their real, direct, impact on cog­ni­tion and how play­ing trans­fers to “real” life. In the mean­time, they are no doubt a fun way to get some distraction.

The field will evolve to incor­po­rate more sci­ence-informed and sci­ence-val­i­dat­ed games.

About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

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