Browsing by Author "Secer, Ilmiye"

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Can Digital Game Play Improve Older Adults' Cognitive Skills?
(2021) Secer, Ilmiye
Cognitive skills are essential for the performance of basic and instrumental daily living activities such as self-care, medication, and finance management. A decline in cognitive abilities with increasing age thus hinders older adults' ability to remain independent in society and negatively influences their quality of life. Therefore, many studies have investigated ways that can maintain and effectively improve such skills. Digital games have become a favored leisure activity by all age groups and are played for entertainment and stress relief. In this context, the ease with which digital games can be played within the home and their entertaining nature have led researchers to examine their effectiveness in enhancing older adults' cognitive skills. Although the findings indicate cognitive advantages, such as improved reaction times, working memory, and task-switching abilities, many questions require further clarification before claiming that digital game play is an effective cognitive training regime. Therefore, the current review aims to examine the cognitive advantages of digital games for older adults and suggests future research directions. The following topics need to be further explored: the existence of far transfer effects, that is, whether such improvements lead to better performance of daily activities, the long-term maintenance of enhanced skills and the underlying responsible mechanisms, the ecological validity of digital games, and digital games' provision of benefits beyond cognitive simulations. Furthermore, the importance to consider placebo effects, which was suggested by Boot, Blakely, and Simons (2011) and Boot, Simons, Stothart, and Stutts (2013), is emphasized.
Digital Gaming Trends of Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Sample from Turkey
(2023) Secer, Ilmiye; Us, Elif Oyku
Background Although the gaming habits of children, adolescents, and younger adults have been investigated in Turkey there has been less emphasis on the gaming patterns of middle-aged and older adults. The current study therefore investigated middle-aged and older adults' digital gaming habits, the aspects of digital games that they believe are enjoyable and any perceived psychological and cognitive advantages. Methods Of the 177 middle-aged and older adults aged between 55 and 85 years (M = 62) living in Turkey who partook in the study, data from 140 participants were analyzed. Participants completed the 'Demographic Information Form' and Engagement with Digital Games Questionnaire' via a Qualtrics link that was distributed on social media platforms and using the convenience and snowball sampling technique. Results Findings of this study showed that out of the 57 digital game players, the majority (N = 34) reported to play puzzle games such as Candy Crush. Moreover, gamers indicated that they believed digital games had psychological and cognitive benefits. Conclusion Overall, the findings of the current study revealed that middle-aged and older adults enjoy playing digital games for fun, stress relief, and as a mental exercise regime.