Acceptability of a custom-designed game, CityQuest, aimed at improving balance confidence and spatial cognition in fall-prone and healthy older adults

an article by Niamh A. Merriman, Eugenie Roudaia and Fiona N. Newell (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) and Matteo Romagnoli and Ivan Orvieto (Testaluna, Milan, Italy) Behaviour & Information Technology Volume 37 Issue 6 (2018)

Abstract

Virtual reality or video games show great potential as low-cost and effective interventions for improving balance and cognitive function in older adults.

This research describes the design and acceptability of a serious game (CityQuest) aimed at improving balance confidence, spatial navigation, and perceptual function in older adults with the use of a virtual environment and a balance board.

Community-dwelling healthy (N = 28) and fall-prone (N = 28) older adults were pseudo-randomly assigned to train with CityQuest or one of two control games developed to evaluate the specific effects of the CityQuest game.

Following completion of 10 training sessions, participants completed questionnaires measuring their acceptability of the game as a falls-related intervention, game experience, and subjective cognitive or balance confidence changes associated with the game.

The results revealed high acceptance scores of the game and positive game experiences for all three game conditions. Older adults prone to falls reported a greater reduction in fear of falling and greater improvement in vigilance following training, compared to healthy older adults.

These findings suggest that a serious game based on VR technology that trains both motor and cognitive processes is perceived to be beneficial and acceptable to healthy and fall-prone older adults.

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Sex differences in spatial cognition: advancing the conversation

an article by Susan C. Levine, Alana Foley, Stella Lourenco, Stacy Ehrlich and Kristin Ratliff (University of Chicago, USA) published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science Volume 7 Issue 2 (March/April 2016)

Abstract

The existence of a sex difference in spatial thinking, notably on tasks involving mental rotation, has been a topic of considerable research and debate.

We review this literature, with a particular focus on the development of this sex difference, and consider four key questions:

1. When does the sex difference emerge developmentally and does the magnitude of this difference change across development?
2. What are the biological and environmental factors that contribute to sex differences in spatial skill and how might they interact?
3. How malleable are spatial skills, and is the sex difference reduced as a result of training? and
4. Does ‘spatializing’ the curriculum raise the level of spatial thinking in all students and hold promise for increasing and diversifying the STEM pipeline? 

Throughout the review, we consider promising avenues for future research.

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