Examining the Connection Between Dynamic and Static Spatial Skills and Video Game Performance

Previous research has found a connection between spatial cognition and success in STEM areas and that spatial cognition skills can be trained using video games. The present study explores whether a relationship exists between non-trained spatial cognition skills and video game performance. Non-video game players first completed four spatial cognition tasks and then played two video games, Tetris and Unreal Tournament (UT). Results showed significant correlations between performance on UT and mental rotation, paper-folding, and the Race dynamic spatial task. In contrast, Tetris performance only correlated with paper-folding. These results indicate that performance on action video games such as UT may be related to more spatial skills than Tetris