JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A lack in the ability to inhibit prepotent responses, or, more generally, a lack of impulse control, is associated with several disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia as well as general damage to the prefrontal cortex. The Stop-Signal Task (SST) is a reliable and established measure of response inhibition. However, using the SST as an objective assessment in diagnostic or research focused settings places significant stress on participants as the task itself requires concentration and cognitive effort and is not particularly engaging. This can lead to decreased motivation to follow task instructions and poor data quality, which can affect assessment efficacy and might increase drop-out rates. Gamification—the application of game-based elements in non-game settings—has been shown to improve engaged attention to a cognitive task, which can improve participant motivation and data quality.

Objective:

Design a gamified SST, that improves participants’ engagement and validate this gamified SST against a standard SST task.

Methods:

We describe the design of our gamified SST task and report on two separate studies that aim to validate a it relative to a standard SST task. In study 1, a within-subject design was used to compare performance between the SST and Stop-Signal Game (SSG). In study 2, we added eye-tracking to the procedure to determine if overt attention was affected and aimed to replicate the findings from study 1 in a between-subjects design. Furthermore, in both studies, flow and motivational experiences were measured.

Results:

Study 1 showed that response inhibition was comparable between the tasks as evidenced by frequentist (p = .86) and Bayesian (BF01 = 4.60) analysis. But the subjective experience was rated higher for the SSG as compared to the SST. Specifically results showed higher interest-enjoyment (p < .01, BF10 = 168.11) and higher flow (p < .05, BF10 = 4.92) experience. Study 2 produces similar results. While the behavioral performance was comparable between tasks (p < .87, BF01 = 2.87), the experience of flow and intrinsic motivation were rated higher in the SSG group although this difference was not significant.

Conclusions:

Overall, our findings provide evidence that gamification of the SST is possible and that the SSG is enjoyed more. Thus, when participant engagement is critical, we recommend using the SSG instead of the SST.