8/4/2019 Halley Pollock Muskin Istemposterfinal2

1/1

Halley Pollock Muskin, Laura Chaddock, Pauline Baniqued, Aubrey Lutz, and Laura OKeeffe under the supervision of Prof. Art KramerUniversity Laboratory High School and the Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A Study in the Correlation Between Cognitive Tests and Cognitive Games

Acknowledgments

Conclusions

Because this study is preliminary and ongoing, resultshave not yet been analyzed or published. I greatlyenjoyed running subjects, however, and working withI-STEM. This was an amazing opportunity duringwhich I learned a lot about how psychological testingand research are performed. Because of thisexperience, I have begun to consider a career inpsychology. I find it interesting that researchersthought to look for an exact value or correlationbetween cognitive tests and cognitive games. Ienjoyed this experience immensely and would

definitely do it again.

Aim (or Purpose)

The aim of this study is to find whether there is acorrelation between cognitive tests and cognitivegameswhether subjects who do well in one area of

cognitive testing also do well in the same area ofcognitive games. The results will be used todetermine on how closely these categories are linked.Because this is an initial study future testing andstudies will be needed. A possible study is to havesubjects take cognitive tests at the beginning and endof the study to measure results. Subjects in that studywould play cognitive games for a longer period of timethan in the initial study to discover whether playinggames improved the subjects abilities to do well on

cognitive tests.An aim for the current study is to test 220 subjectsand examine correlations between the performanceson the cognitive tests and cognitive games.

Introduction

It is generally assumed that there is a correlationbetween cognitive tests and cognitive games,specifically that the ability to do well in cognitive

games means that the person will likely perform wellon cognitive tests. This idea can be observed withcomputer games that help people develop memoryskills. However, it is not known how closely relatedare the ability to do well on cognitive tests and theability to do well in cognitive games. An ongoing studyat the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignhopes to uncover a value indicating the correlationbetween these.This is an initial study that uses the same tests thatTimothy Salthouse used in a cognitive aging lab.Roughly 3,800 adults from ages18 to 98 years haveparticipated in his study, which seeks to understandhow age affects cognitive abilities. The aim of thestudy at the University of Illinois is to explore overlapsbetween cognitive tests and cognitive games.A website called Cognitiveme.com categorizes gamesbased on which cognitive abilities they tap. Theresearchers are using games from this site for thecognitive game sessions and are focusing on fourcategories of working memory, attention, speed ofprocessing, and executive control.

Method

Adults aged 18-30 years take cognitive tests for thefirst three sessions and then play games that tapcognitive abilities for the last five sessions.

The tests are performed on computers usingprograms and with pencil and paper. Tests includerepeating lists and indicating whether strings of lettersare the same or different.

Each subject must be a US citizen, must be righthanded, and English must be their native language.

The subjects cannot be colorblind, cannot have amajor medical condition, cannot have takenmedication or have been hospitalized for apsychological condition, and cannot play video gamesoften.

Subjects take tests ranging from repeating lists toindicating whether two strings of letters were thesame or different during the first three sessions.

For the last five sessions, subjects play games that

tap cognitive abilities.

Tests

There are eight sessions in total that the subjectsparticipate in.

Subjects play each game for twenty minutes. Thereare four cognitive games played each game session.

Games are recorded on the computer using a

program called CamStudio. They are later coded sothat they can be compared with each other and thecognitive tests.

A screenshot of one of the levels in Silversphere.

This was another game the subjects p layed, called Sushi-Go-Round. It tapped speed of processing, memory, and attention.

Captions set in a serif stylefont such as Times, 18 to 24

size, italic style.

An example of one of the games the subjects played, Oddball.

Silversphere, another game played by the subjects.