Evaluating Shadowspect as a Potential Measure of Spatial Reasoning

Abstract

Spatial reasoning allows individuals to conceive and manipulate mental representations of objects in space and is an essential process in countless daily activities (Clements & Battista, 1992). The online geometric puzzle game Shadowspect was created as a tool to evaluate players' spatial reasoning skills. The goal of this project was to evaluate Shadowspect’s potential as a spatial reasoning assessment by comparing performance on the game to that on Ramful, Lowrie, and Logan’s (2016) validated Spatial Reasoning Instrument. Shadowspect performance was strongly correlated to performance on the Spatial Reasoning Instrument, particularly when measured as a function of average solve time, i.e., the average time spent solving a puzzle (r=-0.579, p<.001) and total number of levels completed (r=0.705, p<.001). The results of this study indicate that Shadowspect has the capability to serve as a measure of spatial reasoning.