Older adults' memories boosted by online puzzles - York study finds

Experts believe a reason behind puzzles boosting memory is that they encourage focus

Older people who play puzzle games online have the same memory ability as those in their 20s, a study has found.

Researchers found people aged over 60 who played puzzles on digital devices performed as well as younger adults in tests of their memory.

The University of York study also found those same adults had a greater ability to ignore irrelevant distractions.

Dr Fiona McNab, who led the study, said: 'We think these results are really encouraging."

The participants were asked to carry out a test of their working memory - the ability to remember a number of things at a single time - which declines in later life.

Older people who said they played puzzles online performed almost as well in the test as the people aged between 18 to 30 who did not play digital games, the study found.

Experts believe a reason behind puzzles boosting memory is that they encourage focus and help people ignore distractions.

Dr Joe Cutting, from the university's Department of Computer Science, said: "We would expect for example that a person could memorise the name of a street whilst being distracted by a child or a dog, but this ability does decline as we age.

"Puzzle games for older people had this surprising ability to support mental capabilities to the extent that memory and concentration levels were the same as a 20 year-olds who had not played puzzle games."