The Influence of Child and Game Characteristics on the Learning Progress of a Serious Game Stimulating Number Sense

The present study examined the effects of child characteristics (i.e., visual spatial working memory & prior number sense) and game characteristics (i.e., entertaining elements in the serious game) on the development of number sense with a serious game (i.e., ‘Tel je Zoo’). The participants in both studies included in the present study were all from kindergarten grade 1 and 2. In the first study a 2 (low and high number sense) x 3 (mapping skills on three time points) mixed model ANOVA showed a significant main effect of time and performance group. Furthermore there was an interaction effect of time x performance group. Additionally, a 2 (low and high visual-spatial WM) x 3 (mapping skills on three time points) showed no main effect of performance group and time. Hence, the development of number sense differed between the low and high prior number sense groups, but the development of number sense was the same between the low and high visual-spatial WM groups. The second study investigated the influence of the entertaining elements on the development of number sense with three conditions; (1) no entertaining elements; (2) restricted entertaining elements; (3) many entertaining elements. The one-way between groups ANOVA showed no significant mean difference between the conditions. Furthermore, a 3 (three conditions) x 2 (mapping skills on two time points) showed a significant main effect of time but no significant main effect of condition. Hence, the cognitive process of the entertaining elements was the same between the conditions which means that the entertaining elements did not seem to cause cognitive overload