Tetris is a highly visuospatial game that involves the rotation and fitting together of visually presented blocks that differ in shape and colour.
The aim of the current study is to test this assumption directly by investigating links between performance on the video game Tetris and visuospatial and verbal WM abilities in a group of young adults. Little is currently known about the cognitive mechanisms underpinning the benefits of Tetris, but one hypothesis emerging from the clinical psychology literature is that it selectively taxes visuospatial working memory (WM Holmes et al., 2009 James et al., 2015). Belchior et al., 2013 Okagaki & Frensch, 1994), treat amblyopia or ‘lazy eye’ (Li et al., 2013), dampen vividness, and emotionality of autobiographical memories (Engelhard, van Uijen, & van den Hout, 2010), reduce cravings (Skorka‐Brown, Andrade, & May, 2014 Skorka‐Brown, Andrade, Whalley, & May, 2015), prevent intrusive memories of psychological trauma (Holmes, James, Coode‐Bate, & Deeprose, 2009 Iyadurai et al., 2017 James et al., 2015 James, Lau‐Zhu, Tickle, Horsch & Holmes, 2016b), and lessen mania‐related mental images (Davies, Malik, Pictet, Blackwell, & Holmes, 2012).
It has been used in research to promote cognitive enhancement (e.g. Since its development, more than 30 years ago by Russian programmer and engineer Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris continues to be one of the most popular computer games worldwide (Fall, 2013). Research in this area is still in its infancy, but one promising line of enquiry involves Tetris game play. Gaming has enormous applied potential in mental health, where healthcare services have traditionally struggled to engage young people (Patel, Flisher, Hetrick, & McGorry, 2007). The popularity of video games among young people has sparked scientific and public interest in their impact on daily functioning and well‐being. Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. These preliminary results can inform interventions involving computer games to disrupt the development of maladaptive visual imagery, for example, intrusive memories of trauma. Findings suggest that Tetris game play involves both storage and processing resources within visuospatial WM. Consistent with the hypothesis that visuospatial WM resources support Tetris game play, there was a significant moderate positive relationship between Tetris scores and visuospatial WM performance but no association with other cognitive ability measures. In this study, young adults (N = 46) completed six standardized measures indexing verbal and non‐verbal reasoning, verbal and visuospatial short‐term memory, and verbal and visuospatial WM. Whether or not Tetris performance is selectively associated with visuospatial WM remains to be tested. Recent experimental and clinical research has suggested that Tetris game play can disrupt maladaptive forms of mental imagery because Tetris competes for limited cognitive resources within visuospatial working memory (WM) that contribute to imagery.
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