Exploring the Effects of Encouragement in Educational Games

Encouragement (e.g., 'You're doing well') given at regular intervals improves performance in a variety of sporting domains. This improvement is regardless of the actual performance of participants. However, it has not been studied how this type of encouragement can affect players of video games. In the current study (N = 662), we look at the following encouragement conditions: (1) Positive (e.g., 'You're doing good'), (2) Negative (e.g., 'You're doing badly'), (3) Neutral (e.g., 'You're doing average'), and (4) None. Via the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ), participants in the Neutral condition had significantly improved flow, immersion, and affect than participants in the None condition. Moreover, participants in both the Positive and Neutral conditions had the highest overall GEQ ratings. These findings are directly relevant to educational games.

[1]  A. Imran Nordin,et al.  Too Many Questionnaires: Measuring Player Experience Whilst Playing Digital Games , 2014 .

[2]  Steven L. Cohen,et al.  The effects of frequency of encouragement on performance during maximal exercise testing , 2002, Journal of sports sciences.

[3]  K. Koedinger,et al.  Improving students’ help-seeking skills using metacognitive feedback in an intelligent tutoring system , 2011, Learning and Instruction.

[4]  D. Hoaglin,et al.  Fine-Tuning Some Resistant Rules for Outlier Labeling , 1987 .

[5]  David H. Jonassen,et al.  Handbook of Research for educational Communications and Technology , 1997 .

[6]  G H Guyatt,et al.  Effect of encouragement on walking test performance. , 1984, Thorax.

[7]  A. Kluger,et al.  The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. , 1996 .

[8]  S. Srivastava,et al.  The Big Five Trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. , 1999 .

[9]  L F Chitwood,et al.  The influence of verbal encouragement during assessment of maximal oxygen uptake. , 1994, The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness.

[10]  V. Shute.  Focus on Formative Feedback , 2007 .

[11]  Eleanor O'Rourke,et al.  Brain points: a growth mindset incentive structure boosts persistence in an educational game , 2014, CHI.

[12]  Arkalgud Ramaprasad,et al.  On the definition of feedback , 1983 .

[13]  V. Shute.  Focus on Formative Feedback , 2008 .

[14]  Toni M. Kempler,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences: Motivation and Cognitive Engagement in Learning Environments , 2005 .

[15]  Bilge Mutlu,et al.  Designing motivational agents: The role of praise, social comparison, and embodiment in computer feedback , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[16]  Kent L. Norman,et al.  GEQ (Game Engagement/Experience Questionnaire): A Review of Two Papers , 2013, Interact. Comput..

[17]  D. Sadler.  Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems , 1989 .

[18]  J. Fleiss,et al.  Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[19]  Boaz M. Ben-David,et al.  A resource of validated affective and neutral sentences to assess identification of emotion in spoken language after a brain injury , 2011, Brain injury.

[20]  E. Dantas,et al.  Effects of verbal encouragement on performance of the multistage 20 m shuttle run , 2015 .

[21]  Karolien Poels,et al.  Characterising and measuring user experiences in digital games , 2007 .

[22]  Dominic Kao,et al.  Toward avatar models to enhance performance and engagement in educational games , 2015, 2015 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG).

[23]  Dominic Kao,et al.  Exploring the Impact of Role Model Avatars on Game Experience in Educational Games , 2015, CHI PLAY.

[24]  C. Dweck.  Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , 2006 .

[25]  Ruben C Gur,et al.  Validation of affective and neutral sentence content for prosodic testing , 2008, Behavior research methods.

[26]  James B Wise,et al.  VERBAL MESSAGES STRENGTHEN BENCH PRESS EFFICACY , 2004, Journal of strength and conditioning research.

[27]  Geertjan Overbeek,et al.  On feeding those hungry for praise: person praise backfires in children with low self-esteem. , 2014, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[28]  Dominic Kao,et al.  Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning , 2016 .

[29]  C. Dweck,et al.  Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  Susanne Narciss,et al.  Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for Digital Learning Environments on the Basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model. , 2013 .

[31]  M. Lepper,et al.  The effects of praise on children's intrinsic motivation: a review and synthesis. , 2002, Psychological bulletin.

[32]  Andreas Hergovich,et al.  The impact of feedback on goal setting and task performance - Testing the feedback intervention theory , 2013 .

[33]  Dominic Kao,et al.  Mazzy: A STEM Learning Game , 2015, FDG.

[34]  Dirk P. Janssen,et al.  The Negative Effects of Praise and Flattery , 2015, FDG.