title: Improving children's mental rotation accuracy with computer game playing.
abstract: The authors investigated the relation between mental rotation (MR) and computer game-playing experience. Third grade boys (n = 24) and girls (n = 23) completed a 2-dimensional MR test before and after playing computer games (during 11 separate 30-min sessions), which either involved the use of MR skills (the experimental group) or did not involve the use of MR skills (the control group). The experimental group outperformed the control group on the MR posttest but not on the pretest. Boys outperformed girls on the pretest but not on the posttest. Children whose initial MR performance was low improved after playing computer games that entailed MR skills. The findings imply that computer-based instructional activities can be used in schools to enhance children's spatial abilities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick 08901-1183, USA. delisi@rci.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Lisi
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wolford
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009515:New Jersey; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012399:Rotation; D012737:Sex Factors; D013028:Space Perception; D018910:Video Games