Playing with blocks or with the computer? Solving complex visual-spatial reasoning tasks: Comparing children’s performance on tangible and virtual puzzles

Abstract

AbstractThis study examined the solving of a visual-spatial reasoning puzzle task by children. The goal of the experiment was to measure how the physical form in which an educational task was presented influenced children’s task performance. All children were administered two sets of randomly chosen puzzle tasks. The order in which the task format was presented differed: children in condition one were presented tangible puzzle tasks first; in the second condition tasks in a virtual format were presented first. We compared the task performances of 26 children aged 5–7 in both conditions. The results show that, independent of the order of the task format, task completion times for the tangible version were significantly shorter than those for the virtual version. In addition, we found that children engaged in far more overt problem solving behaviour when using the tangible version; this most likely helped them to find the correct solution quicker. These findings support our hypothesis that tangible interfaces are more appropriate for training visual-spatial reasoning in this age group than are their screen-based virtual counterparts. The latter may require additional, underlying skills to operate the interface. Indeed, the results suggest that, for the virtual format, the variations in the task completion times between task types can be attributed to the number of puzzle piece rotations required.