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Improving children's mental rotation accuracy with computer game playing.

Richard De Lisi1, Jennifer L Wolford

  • 1Department of Educational Psychology, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick 08901-1183, USA. delisi@rci.rutgers.edu

The Journal of Genetic Psychology
|September 17, 2002
PubMed
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Playing computer games requiring mental rotation (MR) skills improved spatial abilities in children. This suggests educational computer games can enhance MR skills in young learners.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Educational Technology
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Spatial abilities, such as mental rotation (MR), are crucial for STEM fields.
  • The impact of computer game-playing experience on cognitive skills, particularly MR, requires further investigation.
  • Understanding gender differences in spatial abilities is important for educational interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between computer game-playing experience and mental rotation (MR) skills in third-grade children.
  • To determine if playing computer games that utilize MR skills enhances performance on MR tests.
  • To explore potential gender differences in MR performance and improvement.

Main Methods:

  • A pretest-posttest design was employed with third-grade boys and girls.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants were assigned to either an experimental group playing MR-based computer games or a control group playing non-MR games.
  • MR skills were assessed using a 2-dimensional MR test before and after 11 gaming sessions.

    • Main Results:

    • The experimental group showed significant improvement in MR posttest scores compared to the control group.
    • Gender differences in MR performance diminished after the intervention, with boys initially outperforming girls on the pretest.
    • Children with initially lower MR performance demonstrated the most improvement after engaging with MR-based computer games.

    Conclusions:

    • Computer games requiring mental rotation skills can effectively enhance spatial abilities in children.
    • Educational computer games present a viable tool for improving cognitive skills in school settings.
    • Targeted interventions using game-based learning can help bridge gender gaps in spatial reasoning.