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VIZ Collaborative Project: Using Spatial Skills in the Real World Megan Harris, and Callie Keating (Dawn G. Blasko & Heather Lum) Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Abstract Spatial working memory (SWM) is a cognitive process that allows one to temporarily store and manage incoming location- based information. The Visualization Assessment and Training (VIZ) website currently provides several serious games that can be used to assess and train spatial skills. However, the current SWM task, Rotating Letters, presents the concept in such a way that it is typically misunderstood by users. This leads to in-task confusion and unreliable scores. The goal for the current semester was to develop and validate a new measure of SWM – the Spatial Perception Orientation Task (SPOT) – that would eliminate the need for verbal components (i.e. letters). During the design stage, considerations were made for those with visual impairments and color vision deficiencies. The goal was to create a task that was gender neutral, enjoyable and non-discriminative. Results of the validation study indicate that SPOT is a reliable method for assessing SWM. It scored highly on usability scales and was well liked by males and females alike. References Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417-423. Blasko, D., Lum, H., Blasko Drabik, H., White, M. (2013). Individual differences in the enjoyment and the effectiveness of serious games. In T. Connolly, T. Hainey, E. Boyle, G. Baxter, P. Moreno-Ger (Eds.) Psychology, Pedagogy and Assessment in Serious Games, (pp 153-175). IGI Global. Blasko, D.G., Holliday-Darr, K., Mace, D., & Blasko-Drabik, H. (2004). VIZ: The visualization assessment and training website. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, 36(2), 256- 260. Blasko-Drabik, H., Blasko, D., Lum, H., Erdem, B., Ohashi, M. (2013). Investigating the impact of self-efficacy in learning disaster strategies in an on-line serious game. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Jackson, D.N. (1984). Multidimensional Aptitude Battery Manual. Port Huron, MI: Research Psychologists Press. Hegarty, M., Richardson, A.E., Montello, D.R., Lovelace, K., & Subbiah, I. (2002). Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability. Intelligence, 30, 425-447. Jackson, D.N. (1984). Multidimensional Aptitude Battery Manual. Port Huron, MI: Research Psychologists Press. Shah, P., & Miyake, A. (1996). The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: An individual differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, 4-27. Turner, M.L., & Engle, R.W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127-154. Acknowledgments Many thanks to our entire VIZ team, especially Grace Waldfogle, Qiyang Li, Christine Winklebauer, and to Dr. Robert Methods Participants 98 undergraduate students (58 Female, 40 Male);M Age 19.6 years Measures All measures were given individually and were computerized. Video Game Experience & Demographic Survey Demographics: age, gender, ethnicity Game Experience: type of games played, average time playing games each week, game enjoyment Game Expertise: non-gamer, novice, occasional, frequent, or expert Spatial Perception Orientation Task (SPOT) Operation Span (Turner & Engle, 1989) Rotating Letters (Shah & Miyake, 1996) MAB Information (Verbal Task) (Jackson, 1984) Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (Hegarty, Richardson, Montello, Lovelace & Subbiah, 2002) Discussion • Working memory is often considered the CPU of the human mind and has been found to complex cognitive processes such as language, problem solving and creativity (Baddeley, 2000). • The degree to which spatial and verbal working memory use separate or shared resources remains a matter of debate (Shah & Miyake, 1996). • It is important to develop reliable measures of spatial working memory that are accessible to wide range of individuals to support research and training. • Working memory training has been shown to improve ADD symptoms in children and enhance cognitive function in older adults. Training using games is promising. • SPOT will be modified to have more game elements such as explicit levels, hints and quests to find the locations of more difficult grids. • SPOT will also be evaluated with older adults and with young children. • The task will be available on the VIZ website as soon as testing and validation is complete. Serious Games Experience Measure (S-GEM) (Blasko-Drabik, Blasko, Lum, Erdem, &Ohashi, 2013) 42 item questionnaire: 3 important dimensions of serious games. We used a 34-question subset to evaluate the SPOT Affective – focuses on the emotions, enjoyment, immersion, I thought playing the game was fun. Learning –focuses on the player’s perceived self- efficacy, perceived learning and motivation. I was encouraged by the improvement of my skills. Game Mechanics – concerns the usability and playability of the game itself Reliability analysis : Inter-Item Consistency S-GEM reliability analysis The reliability analysis was generally positive. All subscales reached adequate reliability. Affective Learning Game Total Enjoyment Self-Efficacy Mechanics SG Enjoyment SG Learning SE SG Game Mech SG Overall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Figure 1. SPOT: Mean Ratings on the Serious Game Experience scale (SGEM) Male Female Mean ratings SGEM dimensions Results • Table 1 shows the Pearson r correlations for SPOT with the rotating letters and operations span task. SPOT does correlate most strongly with the spatial working memory task, rotating letters, providing some degree of concurrent validity. • Importantly SPOT does not correlate with the verbal information task of the MAB, reducing concerns about the large number of tasks in the current study leading to common methods variance. • In the exploratory analysis of the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Task, there was no correlation with any of the working memory tasks. However, in cases of unfamiliar environments , working memory may play in the development and use of a mental map. • Results of other individual measures including ethnicity, and major found no significant differences. This suggests that SPOT may be useful for a variety of individuals. Table 1. Pearson r Correlations for Spatial and Verbal Tasks SPOT Spatial Perception Orientation Task Operatio n Span Rotating Letters SBSODS Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale SPOT -- Operatio n Span .218* -- Rotating Letters .371* ** .242* -- SBSODS -.093 .135 -.103 -- Verbal (MAB information) .082 .117 .097 -.030 The results of independent sample t-tests showed that male and female participants found the spatial perception and orientation task (SPOT) to be high on game mechanics (usability) and on the affective dimension (enjoyments and immersion). Although there was no overall gender difference, males reported slightly more learning self-efficacy than Working Memory • Working memory has often been compared to the CPU of a computer. It includes the active part of memory that uses stored information to process new tasks. • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed a multi-component model of working memory consisting of three separate, but interacting, sub-systems • Although the separability of spatial and verbal working memory is controversial the concept of spatial working memory remains important to research on spatial cognition. • Those with higher spatial working memory have an advantage on other spatial tasks such as mental rotation. Better spatial skills also predicted better performance in an on-line serious game that provides training in disasters such as tsunamis. Many games require the development of a mental map of their surroundings (Blasko Drabik et al . 2013) Limitation of SWM Task 1) Letter Rotating task - • However, explaining the task can be difficult • There is a strong verbal component • Symmetrical letters are difficult to discriminate. 2) Operation Span Task – Another strong predictor of Working Memory (WM) Capacity • There is a strong verbal component • Not specifically spatial working memory • Possible gender bias towards men, Stereotype threat?
