Memoria: A Serious Game for Enhancing Short-Term Memory in Residual Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a highly debilitating mental disorder, disrupting the thought processes, emotions, and behaviors of those afflicted, often blurring the line between reality and imagination. Residual schizophrenia is a specific subtype of Schizophrenia, in which the patients experience short-term memory impairment that hinders their ability to think and carry out daily activities. We have developed an innovative method to boost short-term memory in residual schizophrenia patients. Our approach takes the form of a serious game, named Memoria, developed using GDLC (Game Development Life Cycle) framework. During the treatment, participants are tasked to navigate a specific path, aiming to memorize it once the path traversal is completed. Over the course of five consecutive days, participants engage with Memoria, and we compare their short- term memory capabilities before and after the treatment. Our findings indicate a significant improvement in short-term memory for those who underwent the treatment (8.44 points, 9.40%), in contrast to those who did not (1.55 points, 1.69%).