Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Dec 1, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 29, 2021 - Jan 24, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 25, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Impact of Visual Game-like Features on Cognitive Performance in a Visual Working Memory Task
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gamification studies generally gather many game-like elements together into a single experimental condition, rather than assessing elements separately. In addition, while gamified cognitive training and other forms of mental fitness are beginning to appear in VR app stores, the impact of VR-oriented visual game features is still poorly understood.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to separately examine the impact of two specific visual game adaptations commonly found in VR environments. Motivational elements including realtime performance feedback and scoreboards were also examined as a separate experimental condition.
Methods:
Using an HMD, subjects perfected a visual memory task in each of three game-like adaptations, as well as an unmodified task, using both EEG and task performance outcomes.
Results:
The performance data showed that none of the visual adaptations had a significant effect on task performance. EEG outcomes revealed some slightly significant effects, but only in areas more commonly associated with visual processing, rather than task-dependent cognitive load. They may therefore only reflect cognitive changes at the perceptual level.
Conclusions:
Overall, the data suggests that the addition of visual game-like features to simple cognitive tasks does not appear to significantly impact performance or task-dependent cognitive load.
Citation
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Copyright
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