On-Site PhD conferral mrs. Corrie C.J. Urlings

Key words: preschool education, executive functions, serious gaming, preschooler, game, robot

"The Young Child’ s Cognition; Intervention and innovative measurement"

Understanding and stimulating the cognitive skills of very young children is very important. In order to do this, it is common practice to use standardised tests. In this thesis, it is investigated whether valuable information can also be collected in a playful way through the use of technological developments. In an initial study in this thesis, the effectivity of a cognitive intervention is examined, in this case preschool education. A positive connection is found between preschool education and test results at school. The rest of the thesis researches innovative ways to measure specific cognitive skills, namely the executive functions, in preschool-age children. An existing programmable robot, the Bee-Bot, was used and a ‘serious game’ was developed: Clever Maze. Clever Maze looks like a wooden maze, but it can collect information about how the preschoolers solve mazes and how they play with them.

Funded by Maastricht University: Human Enhancement and Learning (HEaL)