Zoo Task

Background

The Zoo Task is primarily a meta-cognitive spatial reasoning problem-solving task designed for children ages 7 to 12 that might appeal to a wider age range. Jwalin Patel and colleagues designed the task as a paper-and-pencil task in 2021 using an animal feeding game at the zoo to assess their participants' self-awareness of their own abilities to solve a spatial navigation problem akin to a maze task. Patel et al would give participants a map of a zoo with several animal enclosures with one access point to each enclosure (a feeding station) and a list of animals distributed across the entire map that required feeding. The participants' task was to quickly find the most efficient route through the zoo to feed all the animals on their list before it was time to catch the bus back home. Before (and after) each problem-solving task, participants had to rate whether they thought they were actually able to find the most efficient route through the zoo. Once they submitted their rating, they would perform the task. While the focus of the Zoo Task was to investigate meta-cognitive abilities, the actual feeding task at its core is a complex maze task and thus also provides a trove of secondary measures related to spatial navigation abilities as well as planning and problem-solving.

Millisecond's Zoo Task adapts the original paper-and-pencil version to a computerized test administration which has the advantage of automatic score calculations which are all based on the calculations outlined by Patel et al (2021). The task can be run on touchscreens such as ipads (where fingers or a stylus pens can be used to draw the path through the zoo) or on non-touchscreen computers that use a computer mouse.

Task Procedure

After learning about the 'Day at the Zoo' and the basic feeding task to perform, participants are shown the zoo map (Note: the zoo map stays the same throughout) and play two practice games. No meta-cognitive ratings are collected during practice.

Each game shows the list of animals to feed to the left of the zoo map (e.g. "Cheetah" and "Walrus"). All animals are represented by their name as well as a picture. During practice, the list of animals to feed is limited to two. Participants start their path through the zoo by pressing down on the "Start" button and then trace their way through the zoo maze to the feeding stations (represented by black dots in the enclosures) of their target animals. Once a 'black' feeding station has been visited, it turns gray. Shortcuts through enclosures result in error messages ("Perimeter Breach!") with the request to return to the 'red' circle which is the closest 'legal' location on the zoo's foot path. On touchscreens, finger lift-offs from the screen also result in error messages and participants must return to the screen before the game can be continued. Once all animals are fed, participants draw their path to the "Finish" button at the bottom of the map. Optional practice feedback is provided. In case of missing animals or visits of too many feeding stations, practice can be repeated.

The test phase runs 3 games that increase in difficulty based on the number of animals that need to be fed:

1. Round1: 4 animals
2. Round2: 6 animals
3. Round3: 8 animals

For each test game, participants are provided the zoo map and a list of animals to feed. However, before the zoo map is activated, participants are required to make a 'prospective' judgment rating their confidence to find the shortest path to feed the current animals on the list. A 'retrospective' judgment is collected at the end of each round. All ratings are made on a 5-point Likert scale with visual smiley anchors ranging from a sad to a happy smiley face. Otherwise, each test game runs the same as the practice games. In addition to raw and summary data files, the Inquisit Zoo Task also provides screen captures of the drawn zoo paths for each test round.

What it Measures

The Zoo Task measures metacognitive abilities in regard to spatial navigation abilities.

Psychological domains

• Meta Cognition: Ability to analyze and regulate one's own thought processes and capabilities
• Spatial Reasoning: Ability to mentally visualize, organize, and transverse environments
• Visuospatial Working Memory: Temporary storage and active manipulation of visual and spatial information
• Planning: Requires generating and maintaining a plan while looking ahead multiple steps
• Problem-Solving, Strategic Thinking: Identifying the most efficient solution ahead of time rather than through trial-and-error
• Cognitive Flexibility: Adjusting plans when initial strategies fail

Main Performance Metrics

• Prospective/Retrospective Ratings: Meta-cognitive measures of confidence before and after game completions
• Path Accuracy: A score from 0-1 that considers feeding success and the path length taken relative to the optimal one
• Timing Measures: The script lists timing measures by phases (prospective judgment, feeding game from "Start" to "Finish", retrospective judgment)

Psychiatric Conditions

The Zoo Task by Patel et al. (2021) has primarily been utilized and validated within educational and developmental psychology contexts rather than clinical populations.

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Zoo Task.

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Patel, J., Aldercotte, A., Tsapali, M., Serpell, Z. N., Parr, T., & Ellefson, M. R. (2021). The Zoo Task: A novel metacognitive problem-solving task developed with a sample of African American children from schools in high poverty communities. Psychological Assessment, 33(8), 795–802. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001033