Memory Game

Traditional games are generally used as a medium for stimulating memory retrieval, cognition, and social activity. These games, in combination with interactive storytelling, can be used in a therapeutic context by supporting positive reminiscence. Niedderer et al. created an interactive board game where people with mild to moderate dementia can improve their well-being by enhancing self-empowerment and social engagement. 

Niedderer, Kristina, et al. "This is Me: Evaluation of a boardgame to promote social engagement, wellbeing and agency in people with dementia through mindful life-storytelling." Journal of Aging Studies 60 (2022): 100995. 

Torrente et al. performs a conceptual review on designing serious games that can help students with cognitive impairments. Creating virtual worlds that can be used as a safe learning environment in which students can freely explore at their own pace while being in the zone of optimal flow for knowledge improvement. This can have a positive impact on students with attention deficit, which is usually a disability that can severely hamper learning. In our use case, people affected by dementia tend to show a decline in attention and reasoning abilities. Research has shown that if people with dementia play games that stimulate reasoning and recall by creating a conducive learning environment, their cognitive capabilities tend to improve over time.  

 Torrente, Javier, et al. "Designing serious games for adult students with cognitive disabilities." Neural Information Processing: 19th International Conference, ICONIP 2012, Doha, Qatar, November 12-15, 2012, Proceedings, Part IV 19. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.