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Authors
Junttila, KatjaSmolander, Anna-Riikka
Karhila, Reima
Giannakopoulou, Anastasia
Uther, Maria
Kurimo, Mikko
Ylinen, Sari
Issue Date
2022-04-26
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Digital games may benefit children’s learning, yet the factors that induce gaming benefits to cognition are not well known. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of digital game-based learning in children by comparing the learning of foreign speech sounds and words in a digital game or a non-game digital application. To evaluate gaming-induced plastic changes in the brain, we used the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response that reflects the access to long-term memory representations. We recorded auditory brain responses from 37 school-aged Finnish-speaking children before and after playing a computer-based language-learning game. The MMN amplitude increased between the pre- and post-measurement for the game condition but not for the non-game condition, suggesting that the gaming intervention enhanced learning more than the non-game intervention. The results indicate that digital games can be beneficial for children’s speech-sound learning and that gaming elements per se, not just practice time, support learning.Citation
Junttila, K., Smolander, A-R., Karhila, R., Giannakopoulou, A., Uther, M., Kurimo, M. and Ylinen, S. (2022) Gaming enhances learning-induced plastic changes in the brain. Brain and Language, 230, Article number 105124Publisher
ElsevierJournal
Brain and LanguageAdditional Links
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X22000542Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
This is an accepted manuscript of a paper published by Elsevier on 26/04/2022. The accepted manuscript of the publication may differ from the final published version.ISSN
0093-934XSponsors
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (projects no 274058 and 274075), the Doctoral Programme in Psychology, Learning and Communication, and the University of Helsinki Research Funds.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105124
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/