Increasing the Effectiveness of Games that Improve Cognitive Skills
Abstract
The present project examines whether and how off the shelf games can be adapted for training useful cognitive skills, such as perceptual attention, spatial cognition, and executive function skills. The goal of the present project is to conduct experiments aimed at determining how to design game playing activities and features that maximize improvements in targeted cognitive skills. Generally, off-the shelf gams are designed mainly for entertainment. Research shows that in some cases game playing does not produce strong effects in increasing cognitive skills, requires extensive amounts of time, or does not transfer to other cognitive skills (Mayer, 2014). In contrast, the present project takes a training perspective aimed at determining design principles that boost the effectiveness of off-the-shelf computer games in promoting targeted cognitive skills including increased effect size, shorter training time, and broader transfer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 21, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141612046
Entities
People
- Richard E. Mayer
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, Santa Barbara