Effect of Playing a Video Game on a Measure of Spatial Visualization

TLDR

Seventy undergraduate students were pretested and posttested on the Space Relations Test; 38 in the experimental group played the Zaxxon video game in eight sessions of five plays each, while 32 in the control group received no treatment. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant group effect, indicating that playing Zaxxon improves spatial visualization scores, with no sex differences or interaction effects.

Abstract

70 undergraduate students, without any prior experience of video games playing, were given a pretest and a posttest on the Space Relations Test of the DAT, Forms A and B being, respectively, administered on the two occasions. The experimental group of 38 had eight sessions of playing the Zaxxon video game, each session including five plays. The control group of 32 received no such treatment. A 2(sex) by 2(group) analysis of covariance, using pretest scores as the covariate, yielded a significant effect for group which supports the hypothesis that spatial visualization test scores can be improved by video game playing. Moreover, the sex-related difference in visual-spatial skills frequently reported does not appear on the pretest. Finally, no effect for sex and no interaction of group × sex were found, indicating that both male and female subjects gained equally from playing Zaxxon.