Cognitive effects of videogames on older people

In these days the percentage of older people in the population is growing worldwide. It is therefore urgent to decrease the morbidity resulting from biopsychosocial losses associated with old age. The preservation and recovery of cognitive functions and of physical, psychological and social autonomy are provided through new mental and physical activities. As have other activities, the use of video games has shown benefits for this ageing population, in particular at the cognitive level. Although there are only few studies which studied this videogames’ application. In this study we studied the cognitive effects of videogames on the elderly people. And we also studied these effects on self-concept and on the quality of life. The instruments used are the Cognitive Sub-scale of Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale, the Clinical Inventory of Self-Concept and the WHOQOL-Bref. The study involved the participation of 43 elderly people distributed between 3 experimental conditions (n = 15 used videogames, n = 17 relaxation and n =11 had no intervention). There were two moments of assessment, before the intervention (Pre-test) and after eight weeks of it (Post-Test). Old people shows to be able to use videogames as well as to like to use it. Although they faced some difficulties using key board and mousse. They show to prefer games without time challenge and without fast and exact movements. They also show to prefer videogames with a real story behind the play activity. It was found that the videogames participants showed a decline in cognitive deterioration from the pre to post intervention tests (t (14) = 3,505, p =. 003, r = .68), unlike the control groups. The self-concept deteriorated up significantly under relaxation condition (t (16) = 2.29, p = .036, r = .50) and on passive control group (t(10) = 3.44, p = .006, r = .74). The quality of life did not show any differences from the start to the end of the study. Nor were any correlations found between the time of use of videogames and larger effects. The mediator effect of self-concept on differences obtained in the ADAS-Cog (rS = .57, p = .014) and in the ICAC (rS = -.47, p = .039) was confirmed. In sum, the results show that the use of videogames leads to the improvement of cognitive functioning and to the maintenance of the self-concept and the quality of life of elderly people. They also suggest that the higher the self-concept, the better are the cognitive effects achieved.