A friend of mine just referred me to a great blog on education, training and learning technology… by Richard N. Landers, Ph.D. Dr. Landers is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, USA. The blog is called Thoughts of a Neo-Academic. Richard wrote a series of blogs in September 2010 about a series of research papers published in Journal of General Psychology that are focused on video games.
Today’s post is about how we might create more engaging video games. This paper is the subject of the post: Rodrigo, M. (2010). Dynamics of student cognitive-affective transitions during a mathematics game. Simulation & Gaming, 42 (1), 85-99. doi: 10.1177/1046878110361513.
Dr. Rodrigo observed 7th grade boys while they played an math game. She and her colleagues paired up to take note of the cognitive affect states of the students as they played the math game, Math Blaster. The team assessed how the students’ states changed while they played the game. The states the team defined and noted were
1. Boredom
2. Confusion
3. Delight
4. Engagement
5. Frustration
6. Surprise
7. The Neutral state (No affect discernible)
She noted that students often transitioned from confused to engaged. She noted that boredom was the only state that persisted. My post here is just a quick one, and if you want more details, please read Dr. Lander’s post for a nicer description. What I would like to point out is that confusion is not a bad thing…. confusion may draw us in. Confusion, I think, is a necessary step to learning anything. This research is unique and powerful, I believe. If you know of more, please let me know.
Rodrigo, M. (2010). Dynamics of student cognitive-affective transitions during a mathematics game. Simulation & Gaming, 42 (1), 85-99. doi: 10.1177/1046878110361513. You can download the paper here.
