Andrew Sirkka

Cognitive mobile games for memory impaired older adults

Purpose – Cognitive self-rehabilitation lacks updated means and tools. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of cognitively simulating mobile games on the cognitive skills and recreation of older people with memory impairment. Design/methodology/approach – Mobile games that require cognitive skills were developed. The games were tested by memory-impaired older adults, average age of 90. Gaming interventions took place for three months on a daily basis. Game outcomes were automatically recorded and user feedback was collected by interviews. The progress of the testees was also evaluated by means of Trial Making Test A. Findings – Improvement in game scores was found. Other significant effects of game play were enhanced recreation and self-managed activity level. Game play did not have any effect on the traditional Trail Making Test results but the results of the Trail Making game showed improvement. The Trail Making game also showed a large variance in daily scores, which implies that perform...

Mobile Games Individualise and Motivate Rehabilitation in Different User Groups

Trials on Mobile Games are presenting a huge potential in cognitive, physical and mental rehabilitation. This paper is to discuss user viewpoints of trials with mobile games combining cognitive stimulation and physical exercise in rehabilitation: Game#1 controlled by tilting the mobile phone embedded in a balance board; Game#2 controlled by tilting the tablet pc; and Game#3 a modified game version of Trail Making A -memory test played by tapping figures on the tablet pc touch screen. The total amount of participants was 89 of which 74% were older adults women=24; men=33; average age 85.9 years and 26% people with learning disabilities n=23; a 38.9 years. The gameplay setting was similar for all target groups, although the game graphics Game#1 were slightly modified based on each user group. Mobile devices were used as the game platform to create easily approachable games of low costs and suitable for the majority of people.

The cognitive mobile games for older adults - a Chinese user experience study

Cognitive self-rehabilitation lacks updated means and tools. This paper provides a synopsis of novel cognitive recreation game tools, an analysis of their user feedback, as well as potential new ideas for game developers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and user experiences of Chinese elderly people on mobile memory rehabilitation games originally developed in Finland, Europe. Mobile games that require cognitive skills were tested with a test group in a Chinese elderly care home. User feedback was collected by interviews and observations in the game event. The most noteworthy finding was the positive user experience both of the elderly and the nursing staff and the experience of the games being cognitively stimulating. Games also seemed to provide potential for self-rehabilitation and to support social interaction. Also some special characteristics related to the Chinese culture were found in the game trial, although the experiences were surprisingly similar compared to original Finnish trials despite the cultural differences of Finland and China. The results are an encouragement for conducting further testing (on a larger test group, over a longer time) and continuing with the game development for cognitively impaired older adults. These results also encourage further development and testing of welfare technology applications in different cultural environments.