Using a Game-Like Task as an Assessment of Concept Formation in Children

This study aimed to develop Pavitt’s (2017) newly developed game-based measure of concept formation and provide a practical scoring system for the Alien Game, with neurotypical children aged 8 to 11 years. Cross-sectional correlational design was used to compare the performance of participants on the Alien Game to established measures of concept formation (i.e., WISC-IV Similarities and Matrix Reasoning) and objective measure of executive function in everyday behaviour (i.e., Childhood Executive Function Inventory). Spearman’s rank correlations indicated that the Alien Game was found to be a valid measure of non-verbal abstract reasoning. There were no associations found between the objective measure of adaptive function. There were also no group differences found based on sex and language. The Game was rated highly enjoyable by participants, and suggestions were made regarding how the game could be developed further. Results suggest that the updated Alien Game has the potential to be a suitable measure of concept formation for young children. Future research could develop the Alien Game based on the ideas given by the participants, and aim to recruit a more diverse sample of children with varying abilities.