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Using a Serious Game to Assess Spatial Memory in Children and Adults

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Abstract

Short-term spatial memory has traditionally been assessed using visual stimuli, but not auditory stimuli. In this paper, we design and test a serious game with auditory stimuli for assessing short-term spatial memory. The interaction is achieved by gestures (by raising your arms). The auditory stimuli are emitted by smart devices placed at different locations. A total of 70 participants (32 children and 38 adults) took part in the study. The outcomes obtained with our game were compared with traditional methods. The results indicated that the outcomes in the game for the adults were significantly greater than those obtained by the children. This result is consistent with the assumption that the ability of humans increases continuously during maturation. Correlations were found between our game and traditional methods, suggesting its validity for assessing spatial memory. The results indicate that both groups easily learn how to perform the task and are good at recalling the locations of sounds emitted from different positions. With regard to satisfaction with our game, the mean scores of the children were higher for nearly all of the questions. The mean scores for all of the questions, except one, were greater than 4 on a scale from 1 to 5. These results show the satisfaction of the participants with our game. The results suggest that our game promotes engagement and allows the assessment of spatial memory in an ecological way.

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Acknowledgments

This work was mainly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the CHILDMNEMOS project (TIN2012-37381-C02-01) and cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Other financial support was received from the Government of the Republic of Ecuador through the Scholarship Program of the Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT), the Conselleria d’Educació, Investigació, Cultura i Esport through the grant for consolidable research groups in favour of the Computer Graphics and Multimedia group of the ai2 (PI. Prof. M.-Carmen Juan; Ref. AICO/2017/041) (2017–2018), the Government of Aragon (Department of Industry and Innovation), and the European Social Fund for Aragon.

We would like to thank the following for their contributions: Jimena Bonilla; the users who participated in the study; and the reviewers for their valuable comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitario de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València, C/Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Mauricio Loachamín-Valencia & M.-Carmen Juan

  2. Departamento de Psicología y Sociología, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Magdalena Méndez-López

  3. Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Elena Pérez-Hernández

Authors
  1. Mauricio Loachamín-Valencia
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  2. M.-Carmen Juan
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  3. Magdalena Méndez-López
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  4. Elena Pérez-Hernández
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M.-Carmen Juan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. City, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Adrian David Cheok

  2. University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Masahiko Inami

  3. NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Teresa Romão

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Loachamín-Valencia, M., Juan, MC., Méndez-López, M., Pérez-Hernández, E. (2018). Using a Serious Game to Assess Spatial Memory in Children and Adults. In: Cheok, A., Inami, M., Romão, T. (eds) Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. ACE 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10714. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76270-8_55

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76270-8_55

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