Visuospatial working memory abilities in children analyzed by the bricks game task (BGT)

• Published in: Psychological research 2023-10, Vol.87 (7), p.2111-2119
• Main Authors: D’Aurizio, G., Di Pompeo, I., Passarello, N., Troisi Lopez, E., Sorrentino, P., Curcio, G., Mandolesi, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Children; Cognitive ability; Memory; Mental task performance; Psychology; Psychology Research; Short term memory; Spatial memory; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0340-0727; 1430-2772
• DOI: 10.1007/s00426-023-01803-1

The study of the development of visuospatial memory processes is useful for devising personalized educational interventions as well as for understanding the changes in cognitive functioning in an era characterized by technological progress. The present research is aimed at investigating spatial working memory ability in children that attended the first three years of primary school by means of the Brick Game Task (BGT), a novel visuospatial working memory test. BGT is a small-scale ecological test inspired by behavioral walking tasks with nine white bricks in different spatial configurations as well as to Corsi Block-Tapping test. 228 Italian children (121 F ; mean age: 7.22 ± 1.18) were assigned to three groups based on the primary school class attended: Group 1 ( N  = 85; 40 F ; mean age 6.18 ± .5), Group 2 ( N  = 61; 36 F ; mean age 7.2 ± .83), and Group 3 ( N  = 82; 44 F ; mean age 8.32 ± .94). All participants were asked to complete the Digit Span test, the Corsi Block-Tapping test, and to explore the three spatial configurations of the BGT with the form of Matrix, M-BGT, Cluster, CL-BGT, Cross, CR-BGT. MANOVA revealed a main significant effect for Group ( F 12,434  = 15.06; p