On the perceived memory, cognitive benefits of playing casual video games

Psy­chol­o­gists Find the Per­ceived Ben­e­fits of Casu­al Video Games Among Adults (press release):

“New research from psy­chol­o­gists at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mass­a­chu­setts Amherst finds that while a major­i­ty of adults cite the abil­i­ty to com­pete with friends as their pri­ma­ry rea­son for play­ing online casu­al video games, they report dif­fer­ing per­ceived ben­e­fits from play­ing the games based upon their age…In terms of per­ceived ben­e­fits, the youngest set of adults report­ed that play­ing the game helped them feel “sharp­er” and improved their mem­o­ry, but the per­cent­age of respon­dents claim­ing these ben­e­fits decrease with each sub­se­quent age group. Instead, with each pro­gres­sive­ly old­er age group, the per­ceived age-sen­si­tive cog­ni­tive func­tion ben­e­fits of improved visu­ospa­tial abil­i­ty and reac­tion time became more prominent.”

Sur­vey: Rea­sons for Play­ing Casu­al Video Games and Per­ceived Ben­e­fits Among Adults 18 to 80 Years Old (requires subscription)

To Learn More:

• Learn­ing with Video Games: A Rev­o­lu­tion in Edu­ca­tion and Training?
• Brain Train­ing Pro­gram Eval­u­a­tion Checklist