Abstract
This study evaluates the effects of display medium (tablet PC, paper-pencil), academic major (design, technology major) and gender on visuospatial ability tests, visuospatial short-term memory test, visual fatigue, subjective preference and mental workload. Sixty university students participated in the study. The results indicate that the display medium had a significant effect on all measurements (p<0.001). When using a paper-pencil test, the visuospatial test performance was higher, visual fatigue and mental workload were lower than using the tablet PC test. The interaction effect of display medium and academic major is significant on visuospatial test performance. The design major students performed better on visuospatial ability test but worse on visuospatial short-term memory test than technology major students under the tablet PC test. The gender effect is not significant on all measurements. When assessing visuospatial ability using the tablet PC based test, it should be noticed that the visuospatial ability may be underestimated especial for male testers or design major students. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.