Examining Performance and Mental Workload in a Spatial Navigation Transfer Game

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Intersections of Neuroscience and Educational Technology

Abstract

This study used a randomized within-subject experimental design to examine performance and mental workload during problem solving in a Spatial Navigation Transfer (SNT) game, designed using Cognitive Load Theory as a theoretical framework. The Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure mental workload during participant gameplay involving well-structured and ill-structured analogical tasks. The sample included 27 graduate students from a four-year private university in US. Several within-subject repeated measures factorial ANOVA models were developed and tested for both behavioral and neural data. The results revealed statistically significant interaction effects and main effects of task factors (difficulty level, problem scenario, experiment week) on performance (reaction time and total time) and mental workload (oxygenation) for both well-structured and ill-structured tasks.

Authors

• Tamara Galoyan, Drexel University

• Hovag Abramian, American University of Armenia