From: John.Feltham@f706.n640.z3.fidonet.org (John Feltham)
Newsgroups: k12.ed.comp.literacy
Subject: paper. 3/4
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 12:00:30 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 3:640/706 - Coral Sea, Townsville Qld Australia

(continued)

PROCEDURE

Data were collected in the same manner for all children, other than for the
time of collection as mentioned previously. Three Apple lle microcomputers
were used for data collection, one each for the keyboard, joystick and mouse.
Students were given the same practice time for each device using a similar
set of tasks for which they were to be tested. At the end of the practice
time, they were timed for the set task which involved the selection, movement
and de-selection of a screen icon. The task was timed for a second trial and
the average of the two times used as a measure of the efficiency of use of
the device. Students were tested only once in any half-day period and were
randomly assigned to the devices.

RESULTS

The efficiency of use data were initially analysed by taking into account
gender grade and device type. As this analysis indicated that gender was not
significant as a factor, the final analysis considered only grade and device
type and is reported as means in Table 1.  Statistical tests of significance
on the means indicated that the mouse was more efficiently used than the
joystick which in turn was more efficiently used than the keyboard across all
grades. Statistical tests on the grade level factor indicated that the
preschool group differed significantly in efficiency of use for each device
type from each of the other three grade levels. The primary grades showed no
significant differences among themselves for any input device even though
some apparent variation between the means is indicated in Table 1. Further
tests revealed that both the joystick and keyboard, in comparison with the
mouse, were less efficiently used to a greater degree by pre-schoolers, than
by the other three grades.

All children were interviewed after having used all three devices to
determine their preference for a device. From the results obtained, it was
ascertained the preschoolers generally opted for the device which they used
most inefficiently, namely the keyboard. For the grade one children, no
distinct pattern was discerned. However, for grades two and three, the
general preference was for the mouse, the device they used most efficiently.
Inferences will be drawn from this result in the next section.


DISCUSSION

Consideration will firstly be given to the result that, for all grades, the
order of increasing efficiency of use of the devices was keyboard, joystick,
mouse. That these children found the mouse more efficient to use than the
joystick may be explained by the presence of non-orthogonal movements in the
task requirement for this study compared to Jones's (1990) study, a point
alluded to previously. It may be that the mouse offers a greater facility
than the joystick where unrestricted movement is involved because greater
control is achieved by moving the whole device in the desired direction,
rather than part of it as is the case for the joystick. The reason that these
two continuous movement devices offer a greater efficiency of use than the
keyboard may relate to the fact that they offer children a direct
relationship between the direction of movement of their hand and the intended
direction of movement of the screen icon. Speed of hand movement is also
directly related to the speed of the icon movement. By contrast, the
connection between the anticipated screen movement of an icon and the choice
of orthogonal arrow key movements is somewhat more abstract. Also,movement of
the icon to the desired location must, of necessity, be non-diagonal or
'ladder-like' and hence involves a longer trajectory.

While the results indicate that the pre-school group operated with a
significantly lower level of efficiency in relation to employment of all
devices than the group of primary children, no such significant differences
were found between grades one, two and three children. This suggests a
developmental discontinuity in motor skill proficiency between pre-school and
early primary grades. It needs to be recalled, however, that in this study,
the age gap between the pre-school and grade one sample was two years because
of the difference in time of year of data collection.

The fact that most primary children had some key-boarding experience during
the data collection year clouds the interpretation of the result in terms of
enhanced motor proficiency and may suggest a practice effect. That the
primary students also significantly out performed the pre-schoolers using the
joystick and mouse without organised prior experience, lends credence to the
claim for greater motor proficiency in the primary group and a marked
developmental progression in the two-year gap between the pre-school and
grade one group.


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