@article{8620c1367a03451f8217220c3a1e1df0,
title = "We don't need no stinkin' badges: The impact of reward features and feeling rewarded in educational games",
abstract = "Drawing from recent research on the ability of video games to satisfy psychological needs, this paper identifies how the presence of rewards influences learning complex concepts and tasks using an educational video game. We designed and developed two 60-min educational games with and without a range of reward features and examined learning outcomes among 242 participants in university laboratories. Although both games improved learning, analyses suggest that the quantity of in-game rewards did not have an impact on biased behavior avoidance or knowledge about biases. To further illuminate these findings, we examined perceptions of feeling rewarded and found that those who felt more rewarded had more favorable views of the gameplay experience, but they did not demonstrate different learning outcomes.",
keywords = "Cognitive biases, Educational games, Learning, Rewards, Video games",
author = "Brian McKernan and Martey, {Rosa Mikeal} and Jennifer Stromer-Galley and Kate Kenski and Clegg, {Benjamin A.} and Folkestad, {James E.} and Rhodes, {Matthew G.} and Adrienne Shaw and Saulnier, {Emilie T.} and Tomek Strzalkowski",
note = "Funding Information: When examining how perceptions of feeling rewarded, receiving rewards, and receiving praise influenced these results, we found that feeling rewarded was not related to the quantity of reward features in the game. T -tests on individual items show that the game conditions differed in “lots of rewards” and “receiving praise and recognition” but not in “feeling rewarded.” In short, players did not perceive the version of our game with almost no reward features to be any less rewarding than the version with many reward features. This may be because players felt rewarded more by core features of the game such as progression and successful challenge completion than the in-game reward features such as the badges or visual fanfare themselves. This is supported by the strong relationships between feeling rewarded and the set of scales assessing perceptions of the gameplay experience (engagement, fatigue, usability). These findings suggest that, although learning is not affect by feeling rewarded nor by reward features, a game{\textquoteright}s appeal is higher when players feel rewarded. Although the direction of this influence is not identifiable from these data, analyses suggest that players feel more rewarded when they like a game, find a game to be engaging, and understand the controls. Overall, these findings suggest that fulfilling psychological needs may not always be related to learning outcomes per se, even if fulfilling those needs influences the appeal and motivation for educational games ( Przybylski et al., 2009, 2010; Ryan et al., 2006 ). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.",
year = "2015",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.028",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "45",
pages = "299--306",
journal = "Computers in Human Behavior",
issn = "0747-5632",
publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",
}