Since the 1980s, the digital revolution has led to the creation of exergames, which have gained in popularity, particularly among young people. Such active video games require interacting with a virtual environment through locomotion and/or the movement of body segments not limited to the handling of portable controllers as in conventional video games. Studies have suggested that exergaming, even with no academic content, may not only entertain but also develop cognitive skills that promote academic success. Especially, exergaming is likely to develop mental rotation (MR), a spatial skill linked to math achievement, with possible gender differences. According to the literature, such effects might be amplified or even conditioned by educational interventions added to the practice requirements intrinsic to an exergame. On this basis, the present study aimed to examine the influence of instructions inducing the use of MR during danced-based exergaming on the score on a MR test and on mental calculation tests.

A total of 44 students were distributed into an experimental group (EG; mean age = 13.71 years; standard deviation = 0.61 years) and a control group (CG; mean age = 14 years; standard deviation = 1.43 years) with, in each group, 11 males and 11 females. EG and CG participated to the same exergaming sequence (five weekly sessions of 45 minutes) that led to learn a dance by imitating avatars facing the participants. The only between-group difference was that the EG subjects, but not the CG subjects, were instructed to use MR to mimic the avatars. A MR test and three mental calculation tests covering simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication, respectively, were administered as part of an experimental design of pretest-posttest type. For each test, a univariate General Linear Model was computed with the posttest score as the dependent variable, Group (EG vs CG) and Gender (males vs females) as fixed-factors, and the pretest score as a covariate.

The results showed an advantage for EG over CG, with no Group*Gender interaction, regarding:
(1) the MR test score (p = .021),
(2) the error rate in subtractions (p = .05), and
(3) both the total number of calculations performed (p = .024) and the number of correct results (p = .015) in additions.

No statistically significant results regarding Group were found for multiplication. In view of the literature, these results denote that, during exergaming, the instruction to use MR for imitating movements of avatars facing the observer had a positive influence on MR and on types of mental calculation involving MR. This led to further discussion of the conditions under which exergaming can add value to multi-disciplinary sequences combining physical education and math at school.

Keywords: Dance-based exergaming, instructions, mental rotation, mental calculation.