JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Exergaming can promote adolescent health by encouraging the repetition of game-related tasks, thereby potentially contributing to academic success by developing motor and cognitive skills. Studies highlighted the influence of practicing exergames on motor skills learning, but without clarifying the influence of this practice on general motor coordination. Other studies have suggested that exergames may influence math success, particularly in the case of a non-mathematical, dance-based exergame. According to the literature, this might be linked to mental rotation or general motor coordination training. However, the influence, in the same subjects, of a given exergaming sequence on these abilities and on math achievement remained to be studied.

Objective:

This pilot interventional study aimed to determine whether non-mathematical dance-based exergaming may improve mental rotation, general motor coordination, and math achievement in adolescent students.

Methods:

An experimental group (EG) with 15 girls and 15 boys (mean 14.0, SD 0.7 years) and a control group (CG) with 14 boys and 12 girls (mean 14.2, SD 0.9 years) participated in the study. EG was involved in dance-based exergaming (DEx) with different types of locomotion and interlimb coordination, and CG, in exergaming based on precision ball-throwing (TEx), requiring catching and throwing a ball. Only DEx involved mental rotation, and neither DEx nor TEx involved mathematical content. DEx and TEx were sequences of 5 weekly 45-minute sessions, implemented using the Lü platform. A pretest-posttest design allowed to compare DEx and TEx influence on (1) a mental rotation test, (2) locomotion and sprint tests, and (3) quantity comparison tests and simple and complex addition and multiplication tests. Each session led to non-instrumented observation, and sessions 3 and 5, to instrumented tracking of physical activity and situational interest.

Results:

Monitoring of the sequences showed only a significant between-group difference in terms of triggered situational interest in session 5 (MANOVA results with F1,54=9.15, P=.004, ηp²=.14). The variable was added as a covariate in the ANCOVAs with GLM approach performed further. ANCOVA results showed an advantage for EG over CG in terms of mental rotation (F1,52=6.17, P=.016, ηp²=.11), number of correct simple additions (F1,52=8.26, P=.006, ηp²=.14), and error rate in complex addition (F1,52=8.40, P=.005, ηp²=.14). No other significant results were found; locomotor performance improved in EG (by 3%) and CG (by 5%) from pretest to posttest.

Conclusions:

DEx improved mental rotation efficiency and only calculations involving mental rotation, according to the literature. Further research is needed to clarify whether such improvement in calculation is linked to mental rotation training itself and whether training general motor coordination might influence this improvement.