The Cognitive
map in
Skill Lab:
Science Detective

   

When you play Skill Lab: Science Detective you can contribute to our research in understanding cognitive skills. Another benefit is the chance to get an overview of your own skills when solving problems in the game. We call this visualization the Cognitive map. The map is unlocked when you complete your ScienceAtHome User Profile, the questionnaire, and have played all of the minigames.

The Cognitive map shows the five major skills that are assessed in the game. These are reasoning, memory, language, perception and executive function. Under these, are smaller subdivisions such as working memory and prospective memory accompanied by a brief in-game explanation.

You can view your strengths in a bar chart. Here, it’s important to understand how we make these estimations. We use the data gathered from the game to optimize an estimate of your skills. It does not mean that it’s a measure that is comparable to another player’s estimates.

The data generating the bar chart visualization is dependent on data from your other skills. If your memory skills appear to be stronger than your language skills, it does not mean that your language skills are necessarily bad, just weaker than your memory skills. The cognitive map is therefore not relevant for making comparisons between different players.

Some skill estimates are not accessible in the bar graph yet, as we still need more data to estimate them. These skills can be viewed on the map but without any data.

Play Skill Lab:Science Detective now