I’m an Instructional Designer from Johannesburg (South Africa). I have had a love for learning for a long time, and I have tried to make learning fun in the courses I design. I especially am passionate about game-based learning and serious games/apps. So that’s the type of content that you’ll find mostly here on BrainPlay.
Designing Accessible Learning Content
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In a recent research study conducted by Soo & Lee in 2022 (The Psychology of Rewards in Digital Game-Based Learning: A Comprehensive Review), incentives may increase the player’s concentration on particular stimuli more than others, making them more notable and memorable, was provided by the fact that reward-associated elements were more remembered and more fixed during encoding.
The use of external rewards in DGBL is one of the ways to motivate learners to continue gameplay and overcome the difficulties of completing game levels of increasing difficulty. The types of external rewards are extrinsic, intrinsic, and social. Intrinsic rewards are within the game and include experience points, level-up/character-up. Extrinsic rewards are outside the game, such as a cash prize from completing levels of increasing difficulty or playing in a competition. Social rewards are external incentives given by someone else to an individual for achieving something for them.
Extrinsic rewards are the most common and typically come in the form of points, levels, or rewards. They are well documented in DGBL studies and have been found to be effective for encouraging players to complete difficult game levels. Some of these extrinsic rewards include points (which lead to new heroes), levels (which may require additional effort), stars and high scores.
One strategy used by DGBL to encourage players to go on playing and overcome the challenges of each game level is the usage of external prizes. and rewards. This can be achieved through the usage of an in-game currency model or by giving out in-game prizes such as hats and power ups that are not acquired by playing the game, but rather earned as a result of completing certain tasks within the game.
The utilisation of in-game currency is a common technique to provide incentives for both the player and businesses. It allows the business to expand by providing more ways for players to contribute, while giving players something they can only acquire within the game or through purchase. One variation that can be used is tiered rewards where different levels unlock different items
Rewards have powerful motivating qualities that eventually encourage people to engage in and pay attention to learning activities. .Providing rewards and engaging in social comparison may motivate people to engage in learning activities. .Rewards have been shown to be a powerful motivator of people’s behaviour. The existence of rewards, social comparison, and their effects on people’s behaviour has been proven by many research studies.
Because of this, the majority of prior findings on the influence of extrinsic reward expectation on memory improvement may be explained in terms of improved motivation and attention. al effort. This reward expectancy manipulation is not without limitations, however. Because they are motivated by the rewards, research participants may remember information linked to their tasks more clearly. since the extrinsic reward was a salient event in their lives. . This is useful in considering a situation in which there is an immediate application. but is of little use when the goal of the research was to understand how humans naturally remember information. When teaching children, for example, it would be interesting to find out if students who are rewarded for memorizing facts show better memory performance than students who were not rewarded. The effect of reward expectation on memory is likely to be universal, but the effect may be lessened for older adults as rewards become less important for them as they age.
Soo & Lee’s (2022) findings show that there is evidence for reward-induced memory biases in the encoding and retrieval of a scene, which can influence what is remembered within scenes, and what is subsequently recalled during subsequent tasks. Reward-associated elements were more remembered than other elements, revealing that incentives may increase the player’s concentration on particular stimuli more than others. This makes it paramount to ensure that the elements that are associated with the highest rewards in a GBL are also the most important for the learner to learn.
To make the game more engaging and to maximize the player’s motivation, it is important that certain elements are associated with rewards. These elements should also be important for learners to learn, as incentives can increase concentration on particular stimuli. Furthermore, because learning is often a gradual process, rewards within a GBL will ideally be spaced out over time so they are meaningful.
Game-based learning is an increasingly popular method for training or educating employees, learners, and students My key question is, if incentives increase a player’s focus on particular stimuli in game-based learning more than others, making them more notable and memorable, what does this mean for game-based learning?
Source: Soo, C., & Lee, J. A. C. (2022). The Psychology of Rewards in Digital Game-Based Learning: A Comprehensive Review. Journal of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, 8(1), 68-88
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