Possibilities of Haptic Feedback Simulation for Physics Learning

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of force feedback based computer simulation as the mode for instruction on the topic of gears in terms of embodied cognition theory. The goal was to enable for the auditory, visual, and haptic cognitive processing during the learning process. The study randomly placed 28 adult participants in either a haptic group, which used the simulation together with the force-feedback device, or a non-haptic group, which lacked the force-feedback element. Statistical analysis of the results suggests that the participants who learned about gears with haptics performed better on the posttest than those who performed the simulation without haptic feedback. However, the average response to items about motivation indicates that the simulation had a negative impact on the attitudes of the participants. Discussion about this result follows.