\u201cWe chose World of Warcraft because it has attributes we felt may produce benefits \u2013 it is a cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations<\/strong>,\u201d says Dr. Anne McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study. \u201cWe found there were improvements, but it depended on each participant\u2019s baseline cognitive functioning level<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers from NC State\u2019s Gains Through Gaming laboratory first tested the cognitive functioning of study participants, aged 60 to 77, to set a baseline. The researchers looked at cognitive abilities including spatial ability, memory and how well participants could focus their attention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n An \u201cexperimental\u201d group of study participants then played WoW on their home computers for approximately 14 hours over the course of two weeks, before being re-tested. A \u201ccontrol\u201d group of study participants did not play WoW, but were also re-tested after two weeks.<\/p>\n Comparing the cognitive functioning test scores of participants in the experimental and control groups, the researchers found the group that played WoW saw a much greater increase in cognitive functioning, though the effect varied according to each participant\u2019s baseline score.<\/p>\n \u201cAmong participants who scored well on baseline cognitive functioning tests, there was no significant improvement after playing WoW \u2013 they were already doing great<\/strong>,\u201d McLaughlin says. \u201cBut we saw significant improvement in both spatial ability and focus for participants who scored low on the initial baseline tests<\/strong>.\u201d Pre- and post-game testing showed no change for participants on memory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who needed it most \u2013 those who performed the worst on the initial testing \u2013 saw the most improvement,\u201d says Dr. Jason Allaire, an associate professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study.<\/p>\n The paper, \u201cIndividual differences in response to cognitive training: Using a multi-modal, attentionally demanding game-based intervention for older adults,\u201d is published online in Computers in Human Behavior<\/em>. Lead author of the paper is Laura Whitlock, an NC State Ph.D. student. The research was supported by NC State\u2019s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the North Carolina State University press release: For some older adults, the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may provide more than just an opportunity for escapist adventure…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[16,18,227,12,225,237],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/SeniorComputerUser.jpg\" "\\"senior")
For some older adults, the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may provide more than just an opportunity for escapist adventure. Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that playing WoW actually boosted cognitive functioning for older adults \u2013 particularly those adults who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game<\/strong>.<\/p>\n