Playing puzzle games on your smartphone might significantly boost your short-term memory in older age, according to a recent study. This research suggests that you could maintain the memory capacities of individuals in their twenties by engaging in these activities. The study examined 181 participants aged between 60 and 81 who engaged in digital games. Researchers compared their findings with those of 209 people between the ages of 18 and 30. The older participants commonly played puzzles such as crosswords, online quizzes and sudoku, testing the short-term and working memory capacities. These abilities, which involve remembering small amounts of information over brief periods, start to decline later in life.

The findings highlighted that older people who played puzzles online performed almost as well as young people who did not play digital games at all. Experts theorize that the memory-enhancing effect of puzzles stems from their ability to promote focus and allow people to minimise distractions. Dr. Fiona McNab, leader of the study from the University of York, shared that these promising results could either suggest that puzzle games help preserve working memory in older age or that older adults with better working memory tend to play puzzle games. Much more research would be required for conclusions.

The study also considered the types of games played by its 390 participants. 141 of them stated that they didn’t play any digital games per week. The remaining individuals were divided into groups based in their preferences, such as puzzles, strategy games or action video games. Interestingly, while the older group preferred puzzles, younger people were more inclined towards action video games. In a memory test that involved remembering the positions of red circles within a grid, while ignoring yellow circles, the puzzle-playing older people outperformed their counterparts who didn’t engage with digital games.

The results revealed that memory performance in older people playing puzzle games almost matched that of younger individuals, showing no significant difference at times. Even younger puzzle game players didn't significantly outperform older players. Data suggests that puzzle-solving might enhance focus, thereby improving the course of memory tasks like recalling grocery lists. It was found that older people who did puzzles were less likely to be distracted by extraneous factors, as demonstrated by the yellow circles in the same grid as the red circles they needed to remember.

The puzzle-playing older people in the study dedicated about ten hours a week to this activity, in contrast to the younger people who played roughly five hours. However, this finding didn't directly correlate to the memory test results. Surprisingly, the older individuals also invested more time in strategy games, but this did not reflect in improved memory scores. There might be a necessity for future studies to examine why game types affect players differently based on age and how this relates to the brain storing information as people age. The study was published in the journal Heliyon.