{"id":4135,"date":"2015-12-10T04:14:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T04:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=268164"},"modified":"2015-12-10T04:14:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T04:14:04","slug":"playing-3-d-video-games-can-boost-memory-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2015\/12\/10\/playing-3-d-video-games-can-boost-memory-formation\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing 3-D video games can boost memory formation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Video games used in the experiment : screenshot of 2-D Angry Birds (left) and Super Mario 3D World (right) (credit: Gregory D. Clemenson and Craig E.L. Stark\/The Journal of Neuroscience)<\/p><\/div>\n

Playing three-dimensional video games can boost the formation of memories, especially for people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia, according to University of California, Irvine<\/a> (UCI) neurobiologists.<\/p>\n

Craig Stark<\/a> and Dane Clemenson<\/a> of UCI\u2019s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory recruited non-gamer college students to play either a video game with a passive, two-dimensional environment (\u201cAngry Birds\u201d) or one with an intricate, 3-D setting (\u201cSuper Mario 3D World\u201d) for 30 minutes per day over two weeks.<\/p>\n

Before and after the two-week period, the students took memory tests that engaged the brain\u2019s hippocampus, the region associated with complex learning and memory. They were given a series of pictures of everyday objects to study. Then they were shown images of the same objects, new ones, and others that differed slightly from the original items and asked to categorize them.<\/p>\n

Students playing the 3-D video game improved their scores on the memory test by about 12 percent, the same amount it normally decreases between the ages of 45 and 70, while the 2-D gamers did not improve.<\/p>\n