Design of a Virtual Reality Supported Test for Spatial Abilities

This paper focuses on the development of a new spatial ability test in virtual reality(VR). This test measures the ability to visualize and mentally manipulate three-dimensional objectsdirectly in 3D space, and should thus have a higher ecological validity than previous spatial abilitytests. Items are viewed through head mounted displays and manipulated by means of a wireless peninput device. As a dynamic tests consisting of a pretest, a training phase, and a posttest it does notonly measure a person´s current status but also his or her learning potential. Monitoring userinteractions in a VR environment allows to measure test performance in ways not possible withtraditional means. We describe design and development of the test and will present results of apre-study with 240 participants conducted in early 2008.