{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90723"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90723","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Cognitive training with casual video games: the effects of working memory and reasoning related games on the cognitive abilities of younger and older adults","abstract":"Cognitive functioning can affect one’s performance at work, quality of life and the ability to live independently, hence there are theoretical and practical implications to understanding whether cognitive training is effective, and its effects across the adult lifespan and with individual differences. There is still mixed evidence to suggest that training on a set of tasks could improve or transfer to other tasks and affect cognitive abilities, in addition to methodological limitations that affect the interpretability of many training studies. In this study, we investigated whether 15 hours of training on casual video games can broadly improve cognition by measuring pre and post-training performance on tests of attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, reasoning and working memory. Groups of younger (Baniqued et al., 2014) and older adults were trained with casual games that were correlated with working memory and reasoning abilities. Younger adults showed better overall performance and more gains for some games at the end of training compared to the older adults. While all participants improved on the trained games, the pattern of transfer was quite sparse and differed between the younger and older adults. The older adults, unlike the younger adults, did not show differential transfer, as a function of the experimental and an active control group, to a divided attention construct. The results provide evidence that while training gains were possible over the adult lifespan, the transfer to divided attention ability appears to be limited, within the limits of the present study (e.g. given training duration, and the constructs represented in the training games) to the younger adults.","abstract_html":"Cognitive functioning can affect one’s performance at work, quality of life and the ability to live independently, hence there are theoretical and practical implications to understanding whether cognitive training is effective, and its effects across the adult lifespan and with individual differences. There is still mixed evidence to suggest that training on a set of tasks could improve or transfer to other tasks and affect cognitive abilities, in addition to methodological limitations that affect the interpretability of many training studies. In this study, we investigated whether 15 hours of training on casual video games can broadly improve cognition by measuring pre and post-training performance on tests of attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, reasoning and working memory. Groups of younger (Baniqued et al., 2014) and older adults were trained with casual games that were correlated with working memory and reasoning abilities. Younger adults showed better overall performance and more gains for some games at the end of training compared to the older adults. While all participants improved on the trained games, the pattern of transfer was quite sparse and differed between the younger and older adults. The older adults, unlike the younger adults, did not show differential transfer, as a function of the experimental and an active control group, to a divided attention construct. The results provide evidence that while training gains were possible over the adult lifespan, the transfer to divided attention ability appears to be limited, within the limits of the present study (e.g. given training duration, and the constructs represented in the training games) to the younger adults.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ang, Cher Wee"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kramer, Arthur F.","Lleras, Alejandro","Wang, Frances","Morrow, Daniel G.","Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-07-07T20:26:56Z","date_published":"2016-07-07T20:26:56Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:34Z","subjects":["Cognitive training","age-related differences","transfer of training","casual games"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2016 Cher Wee Ang"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90723","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kramer, Arthur F.","Lleras, Alejandro","Wang, Frances","Morrow, Daniel G.","Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ang, Cher Wee"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2016-07-07T20:26:56Z","2018-07-08T09:15:20Z","2016-03-03","2016-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Cognitive training","age-related differences","transfer of training","casual games"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2016 Cher Wee Ang"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90723"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Cognitive functioning can affect one’s performance at work, quality of life and the ability to live independently, hence there are theoretical and practical implications to understanding whether cognitive training is effective, and its effects across the adult lifespan and with individual differences. There is still mixed evidence to suggest that training on a set of tasks could improve or transfer to other tasks and affect cognitive abilities, in addition to methodological limitations that affect the interpretability of many training studies. In this study, we investigated whether 15 hours of training on casual video games can broadly improve cognition by measuring pre and post-training performance on tests of attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, reasoning and working memory. Groups of younger (Baniqued et al., 2014) and older adults were trained with casual games that were correlated with working memory and reasoning abilities. Younger adults showed better overall performance and more gains for some games at the end of training compared to the older adults. While all participants improved on the trained games, the pattern of transfer was quite sparse and differed between the younger and older adults. The older adults, unlike the younger adults, did not show differential transfer, as a function of the experimental and an active control group, to a divided attention construct. The results provide evidence that while training gains were possible over the adult lifespan, the transfer to divided attention ability appears to be limited, within the limits of the present study (e.g. given training duration, and the constructs represented in the training games) to the younger adults.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2018-05-01","The student, Cher Wee Ang, accepted the attached license on 2016-03-02 at 04:02.","The student, Cher Wee Ang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-03-02 at 04:22.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-03-03 at 14:13.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9089 on 2016-07-07 at 13:48:30","Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T20:26:56Z (GMT). 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There is still mixed evidence to suggest that training on a set of tasks could improve or transfer to other tasks and affect cognitive abilities, in addition to methodological limitations that affect the interpretability of many training studies. In this study, we investigated whether 15 hours of training on casual video games can broadly improve cognition by measuring pre and post-training performance on tests of attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, reasoning and working memory. Groups of younger (Baniqued et al., 2014) and older adults were trained with casual games that were correlated with working memory and reasoning abilities. Younger adults showed better overall performance and more gains for some games at the end of training compared to the older adults. While all participants improved on the trained games, the pattern of transfer was quite sparse and differed between the younger and older adults. The older adults, unlike the younger adults, did not show differential transfer, as a function of the experimental and an active control group, to a divided attention construct. The results provide evidence that while training gains were possible over the adult lifespan, the transfer to divided attention ability appears to be limited, within the limits of the present study (e.g. given training duration, and the constructs represented in the training games) to the younger adults.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2018-05-01","The student, Cher Wee Ang, accepted the attached license on 2016-03-02 at 04:02.","The student, Cher Wee Ang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-03-02 at 04:22.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-03-03 at 14:13.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9089 on 2016-07-07 at 13:48:30","Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T20:26:56Z (GMT). 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