R1 Developing and Evaluating a Game for the Assessment of Spatial Memory Using Auditory Stimuli

Abstract

The combination of natural user interfaces and smart devices has become a new technological option to be exploited for the assessment of spatial memory. In this paper, we present an interactive game for assessing spatial memory using auditory stimuli. The distinct feature of our game is that it assesses the two types of information (i.e., acoustic and spatial) at the same time. We compared the performance of 100 children and 48 adults on the game with traditional neuropsychological tests. The performance on the game correlated with the performance on other traditional neuropsychological tests for the assessment of spatial short-term memory. Children and adults considered our game as easy to use, and all of them were satisfied with it. The results suggest that our game could be a valid tool for the identification of alterations in the spatial memory in both children and adults.