Age-Associated Capacity to Progress When Playing Cognitive Mobile Games: Ecological Retrospective Observational Study

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Cognitive Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Cognitive decline is a significant concern associated with aging.
• Mobile applications for cognitive training are increasingly common.
• The impact of age on learning within cognitive mobile games remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related differences in learning ability using cognitive mobile games.
• To analyze score progression over 100 gaming sessions across various age groups.
• To determine if cognitive mobile games can serve as a tool for monitoring cognitive function.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of scores from 9000 participants across 7 cognitive mobile games over 100 sessions.
• Comparison of initial scores between age groups using one-way ANOVA.
• Utilizing mixed models to examine score progression over time.

Main Results:

• Significant age-related differences in initial game scores were observed for 6 out of 7 games.
• All participants showed score improvement (P<.001), indicating learning occurred.
• The rate of improvement was significantly slower in older participants (P<.001).

Conclusions:

• Cognitive mobile game performance reflects age-related cognitive changes.
• These games offer a potential method for long-term cognitive function monitoring.
• All age groups benefit from cognitive mobile game training, showing performance improvements.