High User Control in Game Design Elements Increases Compliance and In-game Performance in a Memory Training Game

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Human-computer interaction
• Gerontology

Background:

• Computer games are increasingly utilized for cognitive training in older adults.
• Elements like adaptive difficulty, rewards, and themes enhance engagement but user control over these is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of user control over game elements on cognitive training engagement and performance in older adults.
• To compare a user-controlled mode with an automatically adapted mode in a home-based cognitive training study.

Main Methods:

• Healthy older adults (N=21, mean age ~70) played a tablet-based n-back task for 3 weeks at home.
• Two modes were compared: USER-CONTROL (user adjusts difficulty, rewards, themes) vs. AUTO (automatic adaptation).
• Outcome measures included play frequency, duration, and in-game performance.

Main Results:

• Participants in the USER-CONTROL mode showed significantly higher play frequency and total play duration.
• In-game performance was also significantly better in the USER-CONTROL group compared to the AUTO group.
• The home-based, self-directed study design proved effective.

Conclusions:

• Providing users with control over cognitive training game elements enhances adherence and performance.
• This highlights the importance of user agency in designing effective, home-based cognitive interventions for older adults.
• Future cognitive training game designs should prioritize user control for better outcomes.