Eye-hand coordination strategies during active video game playing: An eye-tracking study

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the eye-hand coordination patterns while playing two virtual-reality active video games in healthy children and adults. Eleven children (mean age 8.09 years) and ten adults participated in the study. Each participant played two digital games, Slap Stream and Kung Foo, from EyeToy Play software. Eye movements were recorded using Mobile Eye eyetracker. Eye-hand coordination strategies and the time when virtual object appeared, the gaze shifted to the object, the reach started, the gaze shifted away, and the reach ended were coded from the video. The latencies between these events were computed and compared between adults and children and between games. The fixation duration, number of fixations, and number of gaze points were also computed for each game's areas of interests. Results showed that (1) all participants used multiple eye-hand strategies while playing active video games with some strategies more than others; (2) the Kung Foo game (with one target appearing on the screen) and the Slap Stream game (with potentially multiple targets appearing on the screen) induced different latencies and gaze points between children and adults; and (3) children had longer latencies and shorter fixation durations than adults. The study thus provides in-depth understanding of different patterns of eye-hand coordination in relations to active video game playing. The significant differences in coordinative control strategies found between adults and children as well as between game types provide a basis for further research in both child development and game-based learning fields.