A new study, conducted on 40 adults in their 60s and 70s, revealed that playing RTS (Real Time Strategy) games causes significant improvements in tests of memory, reasoning and the ability to multi-task.
Volunteers were split into two groups; one of them played Rise Of Nations for a month and the other didn't. When tested, the RTS-playing group showed unquestionable gains in tests of memory, reasoning and the ability to multi-task.
Senior researcher Dr. Arthur F. Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said that the research results are "very promising", but warned that this is the first published study to suggest as much, so it's important not to overstate the findings.
Dr. Kramer believes that more research is needed to confirm and extend the findings. It's not clear, he noted, if other strategic games would have the same benefits, or if the effects seen in this study persist over time.