Helio C. Silva Neto
Licinio Roque
ABSTRACT
One of the strategies proposed by the World Health Organization to promote healthy aging, also known as "Active Aging", relies on maintenance of health and autonomy in old age. Good quality of physical, mental and social life, are relevant factors concerning the preservation of the potential of achievement and development in this stage of life. Due to the common occurrence of mental disorders with ageing, neuropsychological assessments a key part of the psychological clinical studies, where new approaches and testing techniques have been progressing, although the principles in which these tests are based remain mostly unchanged. In order to make those tests less tiring and more engaging, Serious Games have adapted current neuropsychological tests to the context of Digital Games. In this study we report on the development of a Cow Milking game, to be applied in cognitive stimulation of older subjects providing, at the same time, useful information about the cognitive performance of the player which could be used by healthcare professionals. We ran gameplay and MoCA tests with a population of Older Adults to identify a correlation between cognitive domains stimulated during the process of playing a Game and performing the MoCA test. Results show that such a correlation does exist, which indicates that this game can be used in early detection and stimulation of cognitive deficits. This points to the possibility of using the game as a device for regular data collection, as an indicator of cognitive performance of the participants, and enabling both stimulation and medical tracking of the patients.
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Index Terms
- Cow Milking Game: Evaluating a Serious Game for Cognitive Stimulation with an Elderly Population
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