Aiming and clicking in young children’s use of the computer mouse

Visuomotor Control in Continuous Response Time Tasks across Different Age Groups

The goal was to examine whether visuomotor control and choice response time shared age-related developmental trajectories, and if prior computer experience played an important role in control processes. Children (6–7, 8–9, 10–11 yr.), younger adults (24 yr.) and older adults (76 yr.) performed the cursor pointing and choice response time (CRT) tasks with a computer mouse. Participants moved the mouse cursor back and forth to click two targets on the screen as fast and accurately as possible. In the CRT, based on visual stimuli, participants moved and clicked one of the three targets on the screen as fast and accurately as possible; the time between stimulus onset and clicking the correct target was recorded as the choice response time. Visuomotor performance increased with age to younger adulthood but was worse in the older adult group. CRT performance was also positively related to age among the groups of children, with scores leveling off in the young adult group. Computer experience was statistically significantly related only to visuomotor control, but not to CRT. Optimal CRT performance required only sub-optimal visuomotor control. Cognitive and sensory age declines may be related to the poorer CRT performance in the oldest age group.

Applying developmental theory and research to the creation of educational games

The field of developmental psychology has produced abundant theory and research about the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of children; however, to date there has been limited use of this wealth of knowledge by developers creating games for children. This chapter provides an overview of key theoretical observations and research-based insight regarding children's development and outlines practical implications for their application to game design.

Using an Extended Dynamic Drag-and-Drop Assistive Program to assist people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor control to improve computer Drag-and-Drop ability through a mouse wheel

Software technology is adopted by the current research to improve the Drag-and-Drop abilities of two people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor control. This goal was realized through a Dynamic Drag-and-Drop Assistive Program (DDnDAP) in which the complex dragging process is replaced by simply poking the mouse wheel and clicking. However, DDnDAP has one limitation--users cannot freely define their desired destinations because the program only allows for the dragging of targets to fixed destinations. This study evaluated whether two children with developmental disabilities and minimal motor control would be able to improve their DnD performance through an Extended Dynamic Drag-and-Drop Assistive Program (EDDnDAP), which improves on the aforementioned limitation of DDnDAP. A multiple probe design across participants was used in this study to assess the effects of using EDDnDAP in enhancing participants' DnD abilities. Participants typically received three 20-min EDDnDAP training sessions per week, for a period of about 6-7 weeks. Both participants significantly improved their DnD efficiency with the help of EDDnDAP, and both remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Assisting people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior to improve computer Drag-and-Drop efficiency through a mouse wheel

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior would be able to improve their Drag-and-Drop (DnD) performance using their finger/thumb poke ability with a mouse scroll wheel through a Dynamic Drag-and-Drop Assistive Program (DDnDAP). A multiple probe design across participants was used in this study to assess the effects of using DDnDAP in enhancing participants' DnD ability. Both participants: (a) improved their DnD efficiency with the use of DDnDAP and (b) remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Using an Extended Automatic Target Acquisition Program with Dual Cursor technology to assist people with developmental disabilities in improving their pointing efficiency

The latest research adopting software technology to improve pointing performance is through an Automatic Target Acquisition Program (ATAP), where the user can click on the mouse button when a dashed line is aimed at the desired target, instead of moving the cursor to the target. However, ATAP has one limitation--it cannot benefit from Mouseover effects because they only work when the cursor is over the target. This study evaluated whether two children with developmental disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through a Dual Cursor Automatic Target Acquisition Program (DCATAP), which solves the limitation of ATAP. At the beginning, both participants had baseline sessions. Then the first participant began his intervention sessions. New intervention occurred with the second participant when the first participant's performance was consolidated. Finally, both participants were exposed to the maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. With the assistance of DCATAP, participants can significantly improve their pointing performance, and can position targets quickly, easily, and accurately.

Assisting people with developmental disabilities to improve computer pointing efficiency through Multiple Mice and Automatic Pointing Assistive Programs

This study combines multi-mice technology (people with disabilities can use standard mice, instead of specialized alternative computer input devices, to achieve complete mouse operation) with an assistive pointing function (i.e. cursor-capturing, which enables the user to move the cursor to the target center automatically), to assess whether two people with developmental disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through a Multiple Mice Automatic Pointing Assistive Program (MMAPAP), where driver technology is adopted to enable people with disabilities to export the remaining ability of each limb to complete the mouse operation. At the beginning of the study, both participants received their baseline sessions. Then the first participant started his intervention session. The second participant had her intervention when the first participant's performance was consolidated. In the end, both participants were exposed to the maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data showed that both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of MMAPAP and remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Assisting people with multiple disabilities by improving their computer pointing efficiency with an Automatic Target Acquisition Program

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through an Automatic Target Acquisition Program (ATAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e. a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, and is able to monitor mouse movement and intercept click action). Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of ATAP and remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.

An adaptive dynamic pointing assistance program to help people with multiple disabilities improve their computer pointing efficiency with hand swing through a standard mouse

The latest research adopted software technology to redesign the mouse driver, and turned a mouse into a useful pointing assistive device for people with multiple disabilities who cannot easily or possibly use a standard mouse, to improve their pointing performance through a new operation method, Extended Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (EDPAP), where the user can swing his hand on the desktop to quickly move the cursor to a target. However, EDPAP has lower pointing efficiency due to the cursor jumping in sequence amongst the targets once there are many targets on the screen. This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through a new target acquisition technique based on EDPAP, Adaptive Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (ADPAP), where the cursor movement path is selected adaptively by users' hand swing direction, as opposed to being sequential. This study used multiple probe design across participants. Participants typically received three 30-min ADPAP training sessions per week, for a period of about 6-7 weeks. Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to the maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of ADPAP and remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. Results of this study showed that, with the assistance of ADPAP, participants can acquire targets quickly, easily, and accurately, thus helping the disabled to solve their pointing problems.

Assisting people with multiple disabilities improve their computer pointing efficiency with thumb poke through a standard trackball

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities who could not easily use a computer through a standard input device (i.e., mouse or trackball) would be able to improve their pointing performance using thumb poke with a standard trackball through a Dynamic Trackball-Pointing Assistive Program (DTPAP) and a newly developed trackball driver (i.e., a new trackball driver replaces the standard trackball driver, and changes a trackball into a precise thumb poke detector, and intercepts trackball action). Initially, both participants were given baseline sessions, then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to the maintenance phase. Data indicated that both participants improved their pointing performance significantly with the use of DTPAP and remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Evaluation of automatic pointing assistive function effect in cursor-positioning task for people with disabilities

PURPOSE

This study evaluates the cursor-positioning effect with the automatic pointing assistive programme (APAP) and a newly mouse driver for people with disabilities.

METHOD

The APAP is designed to move the cursor to a target instantaneously when the cursor reaches inside this circular activation area. In this study, 20 people with disabilities participated in the experiment. Trial completion time was determined and compared with those in previous studies of cursor-capturing functions (jumping and gravity) and normal condition.

RESULT

Experimental results reveal that the pointing efficiency was improved by 65.29% with the APAP compared to that of the normal condition (p < 0.001) for people with disabilities. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with the level of significance p ≤ 0.05 and the ANOVA indicates that the capturing functions had a significant effect on the trial completion time (F(2,57) = 199.21; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The performance of the APAP is superior to those in previous studies in positioning time for people with disabilities. The APAP function is expected to help aged users and novices in operating a mouse efficiently and easily.

Assisting people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior to improve computer pointing efficiency through a mouse wheel

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior would be able to improve their pointing performance using finger poke ability with a mouse wheel through a Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (DPAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e., a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, changes a mouse wheel into a thumb/finger poke detector, and intercepts mouse action). Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of DPAP and remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Assisting people with developmental disabilities to improve pointing efficiency with an Automatic Pointing Assistive Program

This study evaluated whether two children with developmental disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through an Automatic Pointing Assistive Program (APAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e. a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, and is able to intercept mouse click action). Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When her performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants: (a) improved their pointing efficiency with the use of APAP and (b) remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Assisting people with multiple disabilities to use computers with multiple mice

This study assessed the combination of multiple mice aid with two persons with multiple disabilities. Complete mouse operation which needed the physically functional sound, was distributed among their limbs with remaining ability. Through these decentralized operations, they could still reach complete mouse pointing control. Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants: (a) learnt to use multi-mice to realize pointing (b) remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.