Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles

Digital educational applications on mobile devices have great potential for enhancing preschool children's cognitive abilities and have become widely adopted in early childhood education. However, there has been limited research on the differences in cognitive development support provided by te...

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Main Authors: Yu Wang, Xiaodong Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Acta Psychologica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825004949
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author Yu Wang
Xiaodong Wei
author_facet Yu Wang
Xiaodong Wei
author_sort Yu Wang
collection DOAJ
description Digital educational applications on mobile devices have great potential for enhancing preschool children's cognitive abilities and have become widely adopted in early childhood education. However, there has been limited research on the differences in cognitive development support provided by teaching applications with different interface styles. This study developed two teaching applications with varying interface styles, stereoscopic and flat. The study used a between-subjects experimental design to explore whether preschool children could develop geometric cognition through these applications and compare knowledge transfer differences across different interface styles. Our findings suggest that well-designed teaching applications can promote children's cognitive development. Notably, there was little difference in performance between the two styles in near and medium transfer tasks. However, children using the stereoscopic learning interface performed better in far transfer tasks. These results demonstrate that the style of the learning interface significantly impacts the effectiveness of teaching applications, with the stereoscopic style yielding superior results in more complex tasks. Furthermore, this study provides valuable insights for developing effective preschool education teaching applications.
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series Acta Psychologica
spelling doaj-art-8a2669e553524537bdbd08fe6a633fb42025-08-20T03:31:15ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182025-08-0125810518110.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105181Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface stylesYu Wang0Xiaodong Wei1School of Educational Technology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730030, ChinaCorresponding author at: School of Educational Technology, Northwest Normal University, No. 967, Anning East Road, Anning Zone, Lanzhou 730070, China.; School of Educational Technology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730030, ChinaDigital educational applications on mobile devices have great potential for enhancing preschool children's cognitive abilities and have become widely adopted in early childhood education. However, there has been limited research on the differences in cognitive development support provided by teaching applications with different interface styles. This study developed two teaching applications with varying interface styles, stereoscopic and flat. The study used a between-subjects experimental design to explore whether preschool children could develop geometric cognition through these applications and compare knowledge transfer differences across different interface styles. Our findings suggest that well-designed teaching applications can promote children's cognitive development. Notably, there was little difference in performance between the two styles in near and medium transfer tasks. However, children using the stereoscopic learning interface performed better in far transfer tasks. These results demonstrate that the style of the learning interface significantly impacts the effectiveness of teaching applications, with the stereoscopic style yielding superior results in more complex tasks. Furthermore, this study provides valuable insights for developing effective preschool education teaching applications.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825004949PreschoolersKnowledge transferGeometric cognitionLearning interfaceEducational application
spellingShingle Yu Wang
Xiaodong Wei
Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
Acta Psychologica
Preschoolers
Knowledge transfer
Geometric cognition
Learning interface
Educational application
title Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
title_full Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
title_fullStr Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
title_short Enhancing preschoolers' geometric cognition through mobile educational applications: a comparative study of interface styles
title_sort enhancing preschoolers geometric cognition through mobile educational applications a comparative study of interface styles
topic Preschoolers
Knowledge transfer
Geometric cognition
Learning interface
Educational application
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825004949
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AT xiaodongwei enhancingpreschoolersgeometriccognitionthroughmobileeducationalapplicationsacomparativestudyofinterfacestyles