Studying the Impact of Input Method on the Modality Principle

• In Event: Exploring Influences of Game Types and Design Decisions: Issues of Learning, Interaction, and On/Offline Boundaries

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates how input method interacts with the modality principle (Low & Sweller, 2005) to impact children’s learning in an educational mathematics game.

Theoretical framework

Children’s sensory experience has a well-argued history in education. Froebel (1895) and Montessori (1965) emphasized the importance of physical artifacts, while Piaget (1970) and Bruner (1966) claimed that children need concrete objects to understand abstract concepts. In contrast to this traditional emphasis on the physical, digital environments have been limited to virtual objects represented visually and aurally. New input methods, however, have the potential to make virtual objects more physical. For example, imagine manipulating virtual manipulatives with a touch-interface versus a traditional computer mouse. How does the increased directness of touch influence the learning experience?

Research in multimedia learning has established that people learn better from graphics and narration than graphics and printed text (Low & Sweller, 2005). This is based-on the dual-channel assumption (Clark & Paivio, 1991; Paivio, 1986), which states that learners possess separate visual and verbal information-processing channels. Is it possible that the physicality afforded by touch-interfaces somehow extends the modality principle, ultimately affecting learning in multimedia environments?

Method and Data Sources

To address this question, this study examined the impact of touch-based input on young children’s learning in an educational math game. The study used Puzzle Blocks (PBs), a game designed to introduce the concept of multiplication using virtual blocks. Players manipulate the in-game blocks using a touch-interface (T) or a computer mouse (M). The game also provides two levels of audio: narrative feedback with sound effects (A) and sound effects only (S).

149 first and second grade public school students were randomly assigned to four groups based on two experimental factors: audio feedback (A vs. S) and input method (T vs. M). Two control groups were also included. Participants played PBs for ten, 20-minute sessions across six weeks. After the pre-test, which showed no significant difference between groups on prior multiplication knowledge, participants played PBs for five sessions and took a mid-test. Participants then played PBs for five sessions and took a final post-test.

Results

All four experimental groups improved their test scores significantly from pre-test to mid-test (t = -23.254, p < .001) and from mid-test to post-test (t = -11.148, p < .001). The control groups did not show significant gains. A two-way analysis of variance revealed that auditory feedback was the only significant factor for the gain from pre-test to mid-test (F = 15.149, p < .001). However, both auditory feedback (F = 7.370, p <.005) and touch input (F = 12.643, p < .001) were significant factors in the improvement from mid-test to post-test.

Scholarly Significance

This research confirms the modality principle (Low & Sweller, 2005), while suggesting that touch-input may interact with auditory feedback and enhance learning beyond auditory feedback alone when game-play sessions are extended in time. Furthermore, touch-input may improve young children’s learning when compared to traditional mouse input. These findings have implications for game designers, researchers, and educators.

Authors

• Seungoh Paek, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Antonios Saravanos, University of Oxford

• John B. Black, Teachers College, Columbia University