Designing an app to improve preschoolers’ spatial skills: An examination of transfer

• In Event: 2-053 - Connecting Development to Mobile Preschool App Design and Use

Integrative Statement

Practically all children (98%) have access to a mobile device (e.g., tablet, smartphone) (Rideout, 2017). Thus, app designers who embed science of learning principles into their products could reach millions of young users. Here we study a digital app designed to target preschoolers’ spatial skills. Spatial skills, or the ability to mentally or physically manipulate objects and spaces in our environment, predict later achievement in STEM disciplines (Mix & Cheng, 2012). Though spatial skills are malleable (Uttal et al., 2013), little is known about whether digital play can promote early spatial learning. Furthermore, transfer of learning between a two-dimensional (2D) representation and a three-dimensional (3D) object is challenging in early childhood (Barr, 2010) as young children have difficulty assembling a physical puzzle from a touchscreen demonstration (Moser et al., 2015). We ask if digital 2D-spatial training effects improve digital spatial skills and whether they transfer to concrete 2D- and 3D-spatial assembly skills?

The present study explored the effectiveness of a new app to train spatial skills developed with the following features: 1) guided play learning context (birthday party game); 2) immediate feedback; 3) either gestural or verbal (spatial language) cues during 5 training sessions; and 4) steadily increasing cognitive load (puzzle complexity). With these and other features we aim to support active, engaged, and meaningful learning (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015).

Children were randomly assigned to a training condition that used a digital spatial assembly task comprised of different colored geometric forms (see Figure 1) or a no-training control. Three-year-olds (N=79; 29 females; 58% high-SES) were pre- and post-tested on digital and concrete 2D-spatial assembly tasks (SAT) and a concrete 3D-SAT with interlocking blocks (Verdine et al., 2014).

We hypothesized that children who received digital training would significantly increase their digital 2D-SAT scores compared to the no-training control group. Second, we hypothesized the digital training group would also transfer their digital spatial training effects and perform better on the concrete 2D-SAT. However, we predicted the digital training effects of children in feedback-only training condition would not transfer to performance on the concrete 3D-SAT as the transfer from digital-2D to concrete-3D may be too far.

First, children’s spatial skills following training, as assessed with the digital app, were not significantly different from the control group (p=.151). Second, the digital training had transfer effects to children’s performance on the concrete, 2D-SAT, such that the training group outperformed the control group (p=.005, see Figure 2). Third, there were no far-transfer effects of the digital feedback-only training to children’s performance on the concrete 3D-SAT (p=.977).

Results suggest that digital 2D-spatial training does not increase children’s spatial skills when assessed by the app, but it does transfer to improvements on a 2D-SAT with concrete puzzle pieces. These differences may be due to children’s ability to manipulate the physical puzzles better than digital puzzles. As predicted, the digital 2D-training did not transfer to a concrete 3D-SAT. Taken together, preschoolers’ spatial skills can be improved with digital training that incorporates science of learning principles.

Authors

• Laura Zimmermann, SRI International
  Presenting Author

• Cori Bower, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brian N. Verdine, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsey Foster, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Siffat Islam, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE
  Non-Presenting Author