2017 年 5 巻 1 号 p. 8-16
Because of rapid population aging, it is necessary to design interfaces that can decrease cognitive workload. The design implications and evaluation criteria for creating such senior-friendly or disability-friendly interfaces need to be established. One element related to memory function that can be manipulated in an interface is visuospatial working memory. However, there are few reports regarding the relationship between visuospatial working memory volume and age. In this paper, we aim to clarify how visuospatial working memory volume changes across the lifespan. We implemented a gamified application named VisuoSpats, which is based on the visual pattern span test, to measure visuospatial memory. The introduced gamification elements included points, leaderboards, and feedbacks. Three hundred and sixty-nine individuals aged 2 to 92 years old participated in this study. The results indicate that the median number of cells memorized was 7.0 (interquartile range: 5.0-9.0) across all age groups. Moreover, the number of cells memorized tends to increase as age increases until the age range of 21-25 years, and then decreases gradually with increasing age. Based on the comments by teenagers or seniors, the effective gamification elements of VisuoSpats could be competition elements such as points and ranking, or diagnostic factors, respectively.
