Cargando…

Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults

INTRODUCTION: Assessment of episodic memory has been traditionally used to evaluate potential cognitive impairments in senior adults. Typically, episodic memory evaluation is based on personal interviews and pen-and-paper tests. This article presents the design, development and a preliminary validat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia, Perez-Rodriguez, Roberto, Facal, David, Fernandez-Iglesias, Manuel J., Anido-Rifon, Luis, Mouriño-Garcia, Marcos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5494179/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28674661
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3508
_version_ 1783247632869621760
author Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia
Perez-Rodriguez, Roberto
Facal, David
Fernandez-Iglesias, Manuel J.
Anido-Rifon, Luis
Mouriño-Garcia, Marcos
author_facet Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia
Perez-Rodriguez, Roberto
Facal, David
Fernandez-Iglesias, Manuel J.
Anido-Rifon, Luis
Mouriño-Garcia, Marcos
author_sort Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Assessment of episodic memory has been traditionally used to evaluate potential cognitive impairments in senior adults. Typically, episodic memory evaluation is based on personal interviews and pen-and-paper tests. This article presents the design, development and a preliminary validation of a novel digital game to assess episodic memory intended to overcome the limitations of traditional methods, such as the cost of its administration, its intrusive character, the lack of early detection capabilities, the lack of ecological validity, the learning effect and the existence of confounding factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our proposal is based on the gamification of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and it has been designed to comply with the psychometric characteristics of reliability and validity. Two qualitative focus groups and a first pilot experiment were carried out to validate the proposal. RESULTS: A more ecological, non-intrusive and better administrable tool to perform cognitive assessment was developed. Initial evidence from the focus groups and pilot experiment confirmed the developed game’s usability and offered promising results insofar its psychometric validity is concerned. Moreover, the potential of this game for the cognitive classification of senior adults was confirmed, and administration time is dramatically reduced with respect to pen-and-paper tests. LIMITATIONS: Additional research is needed to improve the resolution of the game for the identification of specific cognitive impairments, as well as to achieve a complete validation of the psychometric properties of the digital game. CONCLUSION: Initial evidence show that serious games can be used as an instrument to assess the cognitive status of senior adults, and even to predict the onset of mild cognitive impairments or Alzheimer’s disease.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5494179
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-54941792017-07-03 Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia Perez-Rodriguez, Roberto Facal, David Fernandez-Iglesias, Manuel J. Anido-Rifon, Luis Mouriño-Garcia, Marcos PeerJ Neuroscience INTRODUCTION: Assessment of episodic memory has been traditionally used to evaluate potential cognitive impairments in senior adults. Typically, episodic memory evaluation is based on personal interviews and pen-and-paper tests. This article presents the design, development and a preliminary validation of a novel digital game to assess episodic memory intended to overcome the limitations of traditional methods, such as the cost of its administration, its intrusive character, the lack of early detection capabilities, the lack of ecological validity, the learning effect and the existence of confounding factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our proposal is based on the gamification of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and it has been designed to comply with the psychometric characteristics of reliability and validity. Two qualitative focus groups and a first pilot experiment were carried out to validate the proposal. RESULTS: A more ecological, non-intrusive and better administrable tool to perform cognitive assessment was developed. Initial evidence from the focus groups and pilot experiment confirmed the developed game’s usability and offered promising results insofar its psychometric validity is concerned. Moreover, the potential of this game for the cognitive classification of senior adults was confirmed, and administration time is dramatically reduced with respect to pen-and-paper tests. LIMITATIONS: Additional research is needed to improve the resolution of the game for the identification of specific cognitive impairments, as well as to achieve a complete validation of the psychometric properties of the digital game. CONCLUSION: Initial evidence show that serious games can be used as an instrument to assess the cognitive status of senior adults, and even to predict the onset of mild cognitive impairments or Alzheimer’s disease. PeerJ Inc. 2017-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC5494179/ /pubmed/28674661 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3508 Text en ©2017 Valladares-Rodriguez et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Valladares-Rodriguez, Sonia
Perez-Rodriguez, Roberto
Facal, David
Fernandez-Iglesias, Manuel J.
Anido-Rifon, Luis
Mouriño-Garcia, Marcos
Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title_full Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title_fullStr Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title_full_unstemmed Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title_short Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
title_sort design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5494179/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28674661
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3508
work_keys_str_mv AT valladaresrodriguezsonia designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults
AT perezrodriguezroberto designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults
AT facaldavid designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults
AT fernandeziglesiasmanuelj designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults
AT anidorifonluis designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults
AT mourinogarciamarcos designprocessandpreliminarypsychometricstudyofavideogametodetectcognitiveimpairmentinsenioradults