Effect of Touchscreen Gestures on Number Line Performance

The goal of this study was to examine whether the type of touchscreen gesture (i.e., drag or tap) affected adults' accuracy in integer and fractional number line tasks. In previous research, the drag gesture was hypothesized to be a more embodied way in which people interact with number lines. Seventy-eight undergraduate students participated in three phases. Phase 1 involved experience placing whole number targets on several number lines (i.e., 0-10, 0-25, 0-50, and 0-75). Phase 2 involved placing fractional amounts (e.g., 5/8) on the same number lines, and Phase 3 involved assessment of the participants' fraction knowledge. The results showed that participants were significantly more accurate using the drag gesture than the tap gesture on fraction number line task (Phase 2). However, using either the tap or drag gesture in Phase 1 (integer number line tasks) did not influence performance in Phase 2 (fraction number line tasks) or Phase 3 (fraction knowledge assessment).