PINGO is a fun and interactive educational game for all age groups. The general premise of this game is to get individuals to improve their visuospatial skills by engaging them in a spatial related activity. The primary objective of this game is to identify the rotated version of a specific image. The materials included in this game are playing cards, chips, and image cards. The image cards consist of pictures of three dimensional non rotated real world objects. The playing cards each consist of five column and four rows, totaling 20 images. The images presented on the playing cards are rotated representation of the ones displayed in the image cards. In order to choose the correct corresponding rotated image players must reply heavily on their cognitive skills. Thus players mentally and physically interact with the game. The games ends when a player vertically, diagonally, or horizontally identity five rotated image. The friendly competition between players and the colorful and relatable images make the game playful and engaging. This game can be played by a minimum of two players and a maximum of twenty. This game is fairly easy to play however written instructions on how to play the game can be found in ever box.

METHODS:
New Yorkers clinically diagnose with Alzheimer’s disease is the population of interest in this study. The participants sampled from this population included middle age men and women. The age range of these participants is 60 to 70 years old, with an average age of 65. African American, Hispanics and Caucasian individuals with a minimum high school education were included in this study. Individuals with any other types of dementia or any other neurological brain disorder were excluded from this study. Participants for this study were recruited using advertisements. Ads for this study were placed in nursing homes, retirement homes, hospitals and counseling centers. Participants were offered compensation for their involvement in this study. Individuals who responded to the Ads and met the specific criteria were asked to complete two measures of visuospatial abilities, the paper folding and card rotation test. Based on the results individuals with the same score were randomly assigned into two groups. Group one participants were given a board specifically design to improve spatial skills. Group two participants were given another board game not specifically design to improve spatial skills.
For this study a game focused on visuospatial skills were created. The game created focused on an individual’s ability to identify rotated representation of three dimensional objects. The materials included in this game are playing cards, chips, and image cards. The image cards consist of pictures of three dimensional non rotated objects. The playing cards each consist of five column and four rows, totaling 20 images. The images presented on the playing cards are rotated representation of the ones displayed in the image cards. Individuals who identified five rotated images vertically, horizontally, or diagonally wins the game. In this experiment the image cards were selected by investigators. To ensure that the selected image card can be seen by everyone it would be displayed on a projector. The playing cards and chips were also distributed to the participants by the investigators.
The spatial training group and the non-spatial training group are the two conditions created in this experiment. The instructions for each group were verbally presented to its participants at the beginning of the experiment. The participants in the spatial training condition were given the created spatial training game to play. Participants in the non-spatial training condition were given Bingo to play. Both games were administered by investigators and played in private and separate rooms. The games were played three times with15 minute intervals after each completion. After playing each game participants were ask to complete the same two measures of visuospatial ability given to them at the beginning of the experiment. The results from the paper folding and card rotation test would be manually collected and analyze.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all cases (Alzheimer’s Association , 2016). Alzheimer’s disease patients experience gradual disturbance in several cognitive functions such as language, reasoning, memory, and visuospatial skills. Visuospatial skills refer to our ability to process and interpret visual and spatial information in our environment. These skills enable us complete essential everyday tasks such as reading a map, driving a car, giving directions, recognizing and manipulating shapes and object. Deficits in visuospatial performance could be detected in the very mildest stage of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer patients (Storand, 1995). Visuospatial dysfunction in Alzheimer disease is reflected in perceptual impairments as well as in deficits in higher order aspects of spatial orientation (Alice, 2014).
Previous research have shown that playing action games induces changes in a number of sensory, perceptual, and attentional abilities that are important for many tasks in spatial cognition (Spence, 2009). An experiment conducted in 2011 found that visuospatial training through video games can not only impact performance on measures of spatial functioning, but can also affect performance in content areas in which these abilities are utilized (Sanchez, 2011). In 2014 Erin Connors, Elizabeth Chrastil, Jamie Sánchez, & Merabet Lotfi conducted an experiment investigating whether action games can improve navigation and spatial cognition skills to adolescents who are blind. Based on the results the investigators concluded that a game based learning approach can facilitate the transfer of spatial knowledge and further, can be used by individuals who are blind for the purposes of navigation in real-world environments (Connors, Chrastil, Sánchez, & Merabet, 2014). Previous research has also found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate the gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007).
Whiles there has been many research conducted exploring whether games can improve visuospatial skills, there has been only a few resent studies that has directly investigated whether games can enhance visuospatial skills in individuals with Alzheimer’s. To explore this topic most of the research conducted use either a realistic approach using close-to-reality simulations, or serious video games (Imbeault, Bouchard, & Bouzouane, 2011). This research however would take a different approach and focus on table games. This study would explore whether table games can improve the visuospatial skills of individuals with Alzheimer’s. The current study aims to test this notion by assessing the visuospatial skill of individuals with Alzheimer’s in an experimental setting. I predict that table game usage can improve the visuospatial skill of men and women with Alzheimer disease. This work is important given the fact that a larger amount of men and women are affected by Alzheimer disease. An improvement of visuospatial skills can essentially improve the everyday aspects of these individuals life.

Spatial cognition is the cognitive process I would be studying for my research. I would be specifically focusing on visuospatial skills. Visuospatial skills are a set of cognitive function that plays an essential role in our everyday life. I have played lots of video games with my young brother, whiles playing these games I have notice a significant improvement in my spatial cognition. In real life I’m the person that can never remember where they have parked their car. However when I play video games I become the person who can easily direct you to your house or the nearest paint shop without the use of a map or be able to stay focus on the enemy in a war zone. I think it would be very interesting to see if there is any scientific validity to my observations. There has been a few studies conducted examining the relationship between video game usage and visuospatial skills. What would make my research unique is the subject population I which I chose to study. My research would either focus on individual with dementia or schizophrenia. I am considering studying this subject population because, there has been significant evidence to suggest a decline in the visuospatial skills of individuals with dementia or schizophrenia. I’m currently not quite sure which one of the two population I would focus on.

Thesis

It is predicted that excessive video game usage can improve visuospatial skills in men and women with dementia (or possibly schizophrenia).

This week I played a game called we the Jury designed by Filament Games. If the name hasn’t given it away already this game is centered on a modern day civil court experience. The objective of this game is to give players a firsthand insight into the deliberation process in civil cases. In this single player game the main character is depicted as a jury member. The game begins by allowing players to choose the civil case and their avatars appearance. Once the case is chosen the player is introduced to the defendant and the plaintiffs opening arguments. The game then fast forwards to the end of the hearing. Right before the avatar leaves the court room their notes oddly flies away, therefore whiles in the deliberation room the player must interact with the other jurors to gather the evidence discussed in the hearing. The player interacts with the computerized jurors by choosing generated conversation responses. The primary objective of the game from this point on is to bring the jury to an agreement on the verdict. Once the player and the other jurors reach an agreement the verdict is handed down and you essential win the game and close the case. The game overall is fairly easy to play. The player can learn to play the game by following the tutorial or by trial and error. If you use the tutorial or not you’ll learn how to play the game within a few minutes. Even though the game has a great learning objective the game itself isn’t so great. There are parts of the game that are broken. The provided conversation responses presented in the game is one of the things that is broken, it is limited and doesn’t seem like logical statements. The deliberation process was so extensive that it became stagnant and boring. Even if you’ve reach an agreement with the other jurors the game is set up so that you have to continue to deliberate for a few more days. If you’re interested in playing this game can be found at https://www.icivics.org/games/we-the-jury.

Hello everyone,
This week I had the pleasure of playing Win the White House a game created by Filament Games.If you’ve ever had aspirations of becoming the president of the United States, then this game is a dream come true. This game offers player’s direct insight into what it takes to run a presidential campaign. The game starts off by giving the player full control over their campaign. The player is giving the opportunity to choose their avatars appearance, name, home state, political party, key issues and campaign slogan. Once their platform is created it’s off to the primary election. The primary in this game serves as a tutorial, in which the player learns how to navigate the different components of the game in order to run a campaign. During this time the player learns how to use the map to hold fundraisers, conduct polls, place ads, and make appearances. After they’ve own the primary election the player has the opportunity to choose their own running mate. From this point on the game and the race to the white house actually begins. The player is giving ten weeks to run a successful campaign against their computerize opponent. If you think that isn’t stressful enough the game increases the pressure by allowing the player to see all of their opponents campaign moves, electoral votes and state popularity. The day after the ten weeks are up is Election Day and the player gets the opportunity to see if they’ve won. Overall I would have to say this was a great game. The game promotes learning by giving the player an opportunity to make their own choices, and by providing the player with insight into the other party’s views and campaign. The games animation makes a difficult topic fun and interesting. The game isn’t extremely difficult which make it perfect for individuals in elementary school, middle school and even high school. If interested in playing, the game can be downloaded the app store or play store. It can also be found at https://icivics.org/games/win-white-house.

Hello everyone,
This week I spent my free time engaging a video game entitled LongStory created by Bloom Digital Media. If you’re interested in solving mysteries, building friendships and resolving conflicts then this game is perfect for you. This game is a one player video game centered on the main character. After a year of living in France the main characters family decides to return back to their hometown. On the first day of class the main character reads a mysterious note left in their locker by its former owner. The game then focuses on the characters assimilation into their new school and the solving of the mysterious locker note. This game allows a close connection between player and avatar by allowing you the ability to choose the identity of the main character, this included their name, gender, and responses. Player’s in this video game interact with the different characters through the use of conversation bubbles. In certain conversations the player has the ability to choose a response from the ones provided. Through different conversations the player is able to develop different relationships, resolve conflict and uncover the mystery. A player has the ability to advance in the game by completing different episodes. An episode consist of a series of different events that allows the player to further uncover the mystery and further develop different relationships. Once the player completes an episode they have the ability to unlock another one. The game is fairly easy to play, it should take a new player a few seconds to learn the game. Since the characters aren’t moving the player’s main task is to choose different responses as they appear on the screen. The mystery plus the ability to develop different kinds of relationships makes this game very engaging. The easy navigation makes the game easy for players of all ages. Though I think overall the game is pretty good there are a few things I dislike about it. The characters inability to move plus the boring transition to different scenes makes the game fall short from the perfect mark. If interested, instructions on how to download and play this game can be found at http://www.longstorygame.com/GetLongStory.