Poster #235 - Describing and Quantifying the Prevalence of Spatial Skills in Children’s Mobile App Games

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Spatial thinking, such as navigating different paths, comparing and encoding relevant orientations, and transforming shapes and numbers, is central to both academic success and everyday activities. Numerous studies have documented the influential effects of early experience on children’s spatial thinking (Brosnan, 1998; Caldera et al., 1999; Ferrara et al., 2011; Levine et al., 2012; Pruden et al., 2011). An increasingly ubiquitous component of early experience is using mobile devices and apps. Most children under 8 years of age have regular access to mobile devices (Rideout, 2011) and by 4 years of age, many children have their own mobile devices which they use independently (Kabali et al., 2015). Therefore, this study was conducted to describe and quantify the spatial nature of popular mobile apps for children. Due to early-emerging sex differences in spatial skills (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995), particular attention was paid to the perceived gender orientation of each app.
Popular, free mobile apps for children under 8 were obtained from the Google Play Store. Apps were selected if they encouraged children to use spatial skills interactively (e.g., games), resulting in the inclusion of 29 most popular apps. The first 3-5 levels of each app were coded for the prevalence of 5 widely examined spatial skills (e.g., Newcombe & Shipley, 2015): disembedding (identifying target objects among distracters), spatial visualization (mentally transforming an object including putting pieces together), mental rotation (manipulating an object mentally), spatial perception (placing an object in space, relative to other items), and perspective taking (taking the perspective of a different person or object). Each skill was further categorized along two dimensions: intrinsic with a focus on the object itself (disembedding, spatial visualization, and mental rotation) vs. extrinsic with a focus on relationships with other objects or environment (spatial perception and perspective taking), and static (disembedding, spatial perception) vs. dynamic (mental rotation, perspective taking). Spatial visualization was omitted from the static vs. dynamic dimension due to its overlapping characteristics. Finally, each app was coded as girl-oriented, boy-oriented, or neutral.
Several patterns emerged from our analysis. First, although the average number of spatial skills per level was 5.11 (SD=8.06), the frequency of each skill varied widely. There was an interaction between skill and perceived gender-orientation (p<.01, ηp2=.06; Figure 1), primarily due to higher frequencies for girls compared to neutral. Second, there were no significant differences in frequency rates between intrinsic vs. extrinsic categories (p=.78, ηp2=.001), which did not interact with gender (p=.15, ηp2=.03; Figure 2). Third, the frequency of static and dynamic skills did differ significantly (p<.01, ηp2=.35) such that static skills were used more frequently (Figure 2). Moreover, there was an interaction due to gender-related differences in static skills (p=.01, ηp2=.07), but not in dynamic skills (p=.09, ηp2=.04). In summary, a number of different spatial skills are represented in children’s apps with varying prevalence. Boy-oriented apps are more likely to require dynamic skills whereas girl-oriented apps are more likely to require static, suggesting that not all apps are created equal when it comes to spatial skills.

Authors

• Anglin P Thevarajah, Seton Hall University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah C Light, Seton Hall University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy S Joh, Seton Hall University
  Non-Presenting Author