Published: September 12, 2009 11:17 pm      

Psychology professor researching middle-aged video game users

‘Interventions’ could help keep the mind young

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dr. Julie Patrick, an associate professor in West Virginia University’s Department of Psychology, believes playing video games could influence cognitive skills in the elderly and might be effective and affordable tools for keeping the mind young.

Patrick is seeking middle-aged and older adult volunteers to play handheld video games as part of her study, “Maintaining Cognitive Skills II: Video Games at Mid-life.”

Aging adults are often concerned with losing their cognitive abilities, but researchers believe continued engagement in challenging activities helps adults maintain and possibly improve their cognitive functioning as they age.

“Several expensive and time-demanding interventions have shown small, but reliable, effects for middle-aged adults,” Patrick said.

“Assessing the effectiveness of a less expensive intervention, like working memory games, crossword puzzles, and Sudoku, could provide health benefits for aging adults in a more affordable and accessible way.”

Up to 72 adults over the age of 40 will be recruited to participate. Volunteers will be supplied with a Nintendo DS system which features a series of games that test abilities in serial subtraction, maze maneuvering, computation and multiplication. Volunteers will play the games for five minutes a day over four weeks, and complete a series of written assessments before, during and after the study.

Patrick will evaluate the participants’ cognitive skills based on improvements in accuracy and speed in completing each task over time.

Patrick’s research on the impact of video games on cognitive skills began last year. Over the course of the study, she has seen the cognitive abilities of five participating adults improve by 60 percent and predicts others will experience similar results.

Danielle Nadorff, graduate assistant in the Department of Psychology’s Lifespan Developmental program, helps Patrick administer the tests and validate the study’s computerized cognitive interventions against accepted measures. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology from WVU in 2005 and 2009, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree.

Patrick joined the Department of Psychology in 1998, and is the director of undergraduate training. She was named Woodburn Professor from 2006 to 2008, an Eberly College Outstanding Teacher in 2003, and the Judith Gold Stitzel Women’s Studies Endowed Teacher in 2000.

Previously, she was project director at the Center on Aging at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and the Myers Research Institute in Beachwood, Ohio.

Patrick earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a certificate in adulthood and aging, a master’s degree in psychology, and a doctoral degree in psychology and developmental/cognitive aging from the University of Akron.

For more information, or to participate in this study, contact Julie Patrick at (304) 293-2001 ext. 31680 or Julie.Patrick@mail.wvu.edu.