We have a colleague who says that she knew she reached middle age when she was talking to a friend about a movie she had watched and said, “I can’t remember its name. But it has that guy who I always think is Armie Hammer but isn’t Armie Hammer.” She was talking about Ryan Gosling. We joke about our memories getting less sharp as we age, but it’s reality.
“As you age, your cognitive skills tend to decline,” said Dr. Nicole Avena, assistant professor of neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
It starts in your 20s. “Almost every aspect of your ability to remember, tend to things, and process information quickly declines,” said Dr. Aaron Seitz, a psychology professor at UC Riverside.
That might explain why you can’t go anywhere near the internet without an ad for a phone game or app promising to challenge, train and build your brain’s fitness. If you are anything like us, you wonder if they’re real.
The Brain Game Center is currently enrolling 30,000 people to determine if the games help cognition. If they do work, they want to learn how and who they help the most. Previous studies have been inconclusive. The results have been split; some studies say they work, and others don’t.
Part of the problem is that anything can be a learned skill. If you play a game continually, you will get better at the game. You will learn the rules, the patterns, the mechanics. You will become faster, and it will become easier. But that just shows that you learned that one specific task, not that your cognition improved.
While the games may not be sharpening cognition, that doesn’t mean they are necessarily a waste of time. You are still thinking, rather than sitting idly. “While some studies show that brain training games are not effective, the recollection and work that the brain does during these games keeps your mind fresh and alert,” said Dr. Avena. “The brain functions that you practice during these games — and the repetition of them — can help improve response time and sharpness.”
There are other benefits to cell phone games. They can act as tools to help a person improve and maintain fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Games like Tetris can be slowed down or sped up on cell phones and can be a great way to improve fine motor skills. And, while you might not learn anything, Tetris has been universally beloved since 1985!
Brain games also improve self-esteem, boost mood and increase confidence. In a study, players reported mixed results on cognitive gains. However, they reported gaining self-confidence and feeling good about solving challenging puzzles. Mastering a skill builds a sense of autonomy and self-confidence, and the games provide that.
“Our findings show that not only are people getting better at these games, but they also enjoy getting better,” said Univ. of Oregon assistant professor of game studies Maxwell Foxman. “This might be why people play Wordle or Sudoku every day. Enjoyment is a powerful personal force, economic force and cultural force that should be given more significant attention.”
The games might not be improving cognition. However, learning a new skill — in this case how to play a specific game — can improve self-confidence and mood. While we wait for concrete proof that the games are helping our brains, there’s no harm in spending a little time enjoying them on your phone.
