Posted on 08/15/2023 7:36:55 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Older adults who play digital puzzle games have the same memory abilities as people in their 20s, a study has shown.
The study also found that adults aged 60 and over who play digital puzzle games had a greater ability to ignore irrelevant distractions, but older adults who played strategy games did not show the same improvements in memory or concentration.
It is known that as humans age, their mental abilities tend to decrease, particularly the ability to remember a number of things at a single time—known as working memory.
"It instead seems to be the strategy elements of the games—planning and problem solving for example— that stimulates better memory and attention in young people. We don't see this same effect in older adults, however, and more research is needed to understand why this is. We can't yet rule out that the strategy games played by older people are not as difficult as the games played by younger people and that the level of challenge might be important in memory improvement."
The study included older and younger adults playing digital games that they would normally play in their "real lives." This resulted in a wide range of games to be tested alongside a digital experiment that required participants to memorize images, while being distracted.
"Puzzle games for older people had this surprising ability to support mental capabilities to the extent that memory and concentration levels were the same as a 20 year-olds who had not played puzzle games."
Older people were however more likely to forget elements committed to memory while being distracted if they only played strategy games, and young people were less successful at focusing attention if they played only puzzle games.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Is Wordle a digital puzzle game?
I am into Mephisto, which will teach your more about words than you ever want to know:
If you take the last B off zebub, you get zebu, an Ethiopian fly.
Mahwa, an alcoholic drink, is a wham upside down.
Laager, a South African camp, is regal upside-down with an A inserted.
Pride of place is an anagram of a crippled foe.
Tsuba, an ornamental plate on a samurai sword, is a bust backwards.
Ignorance is an anagram of one caring.
Now that’s mental agility! Not to mention a lot of searching the dictionary.
This will keep your brain sharp!
I am fairly well addicted to variant sudoku. The variants add interesting logic above and beyond the traditional puzzles. The harder the better The website Cracking the Cryptic is a good place to start.
Putin keeps his mind flexible by playing a game he had comissioned just for himself.
Its called Game of Drones.
“Older people were however more likely to forget elements committed to memory while being distracted if they only played strategy games”
I like to play Hearts, Backgammon and Chess. Hearts requires a lot of short-term memorization. You have to memorized the three cards you passed, who you passed them to (left, right or across), the three cards passed to you, and who passed them to you. To be really good, you have to memorize all the cards played and know which cards are still outstanding. You can succeed to a lesser extent if you can remember how many cards of each suit have been played. I’m so bad I frequently can’t even remember the three cards I passed! A hand takes a couple minutes, so that is real short-term memory.
Backgammon is good because nothing is hidden from you and no memorization is needed. It’s a combination of chance and good strategy. Plus you can only get good if you know basic statistics.
Chess is pure strategy - no rolls of the dice or random cards. Nothing is hidden — it is all out in the open. It’s one of the few games with those characteristics (Go and Checkers come to mind).
My only problem is I’m not great at any of them — solidly in the bottom quartile, no matter how hard I play or how often I play.
I hope they are helping my brain.
Yikes! That looks really tough! Do you play against others? Are the games timed?
I play Mahjong 3D on my tablet. It’s addicting.
You need Mephisto remedial training after stating this, bro:
“Mahwa, an alcoholic drink, is a wham upside down.”
Backwards, okay. Upside down, not okay. 🤣
There’s Sudoku book right next to my toilet. It gets used every day.
I use to be hooked on crossword puzzles and still do them from time to time. I play a lot of solitaire on line but my favorite is Zuma. I was addicted to the game and when my puter crashed the new computer wouldn’t accept the old version. The company who made the game is long gone so I can’t purchase another. If anyone knows if I can actually retrieve the game again, please let me know.
I play digital word puzzles (and other puzzle games) every day. I’ve noticed an improvement in my game playing, but no real-life benefits.
Never retire. Always have new ch allenges and projects to make money to give away before you kick the bucket. Set difficult accomplishment goals in business areas you have never ventured into .. .Games are not reality. Your brains always dealt with reality, not make believe. Make believe is for kids whose brains are growing. Old brains need new realtime real life complex problems to solve...Games what games? I don need no stinkin’ games. I deal with real concrete problems and try to solve them. If you just play games, you will wind up with the brain of a 3 year old kid. Your brain uses immaterial thoughts to solve material problems. Who thought this stupid game thing anyway? Look at William Shatner... He don’t sit around playing no stinkin’ games.. He takes a rocket into space...life is not a game..it’s serious stuff. Who invented this retirement baloney anyway.You are working then one day you suddenly stop? That will give you brain freeze and it’s all downhill from there.
I don't know about an Ethiopian fly, but a zebu is a breed of cattle with a large hump.
Zebub is the fly. You see it in the word “beelzebub” or “lord of the flies” the first part, “beel” is a cognate of the word “Baal” a middle-eastern god.
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