game tech 2014 cognition and game design designing for cognitive adaptability fnl
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Presentation at the Defense GameTech 2014 Users' Conference on Game Design and CognitionTRANSCRIPT
Cognition and Game Design: Designing for Cognitive Adaptability
GameTech 2014 Orlando 5 Sep
Patrick Shane Gallagher, Ph.D., Serco in support of ADL
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What does your IQ mean? 116+
17 percent of the world population;
superior I.Q.; appropriate average
for individuals in professional
occupations.
121+
10 percent; potentially gifted;
average for college graduates
132+
2 percent; borderline genius;
average I.Q. of most Ph.D.
recipients
143+
1 percent; genius level; about
average for Ph.D.'s in physics
158+
1 in 10,000; Nobel Prize winners
164+
1 in 30,000; Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart and the chess champion
Bobby Fischer.
20-50% of variation due to non-genetic
factors
Genetic factors not like those of eye color
but more like those for height and weight
www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-
smarter.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&page
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Crystalized vs. Fluid Intelligence
Crystallized Intelligence (Gc)
• Ability to use skills,
knowledge, and experience
• Generally measured through
vocabulary and general Kn
Fluid Intelligence (Gf)
• Ability to analyze novel
problems, identify patterns and
relationships, and logic
• Inductive and deductive
reasoning processes
• Positively correlated to WMC
• Commonly measured through
Raven’s Progressive Matrices
Can you increase your IQ?
• Brain plasticity
increase?
• Can the brain be
trained?
• Can intelligence be
increased?
• Crystalized intelligence?
• Fluid intelligence?
• Are there relationships
between these things?
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Increase cognitive capabilities?
According to research by:
• Kűhn, et al (2013/2014)
• Klingbert (2005)
• Jaeggi & Buschkuel (2008)
• Green & Bavelier (2003)
• Maguire, et al (2000)
• Dranganski, et al (2004, 2006)
• Willis, et al (2006)
• Holmes (2009)
• And many others….
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Game play and physical brain changes
Brain regions showing a significant group (training vs control) Â time (pre vs
post-test) interaction in gray matter volume. Bar graphs depict the interaction
effects for the clusters displayed, error bars illustrate s.d., *t-test, Po0.05.
DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; HC, hippocampal formation.
Using FMRI, German
researchers found:
• after playing Super Mario
Bros for ≥ 30 min./day for
2 mos.
• increased brain plasticity
• gray matter increased in
brain areas crucial for
• spatial navigation
• strategic planning
• working memory
• motor performance
Molecular Psychiatry (2014) 19, 265–271; doi:10.1038/mp.2013.120; published online 29 October 2013
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Can cognitive capabilities be enhanced…
through game play with the right
game designs?
If so, how?
That is our question….
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Enhancing the cognitive
components of adaptability
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What Is Adaptability?
• Adaptability: important metacompetency identified by U.S. DoD, DoL, DoE.
• Ability to use existing knowledge to create innovative problem solutions
• Repeatedly trying new/different strategies to solve problems while reflecting on actions and incorporating feedback
• Present on a scale of macro to micro
• Macro: adaptive stance, operational adaptability
• Mid: individual adaptive behavior
• Micro: micromomentary cognitive processes, i.e., cognitive adaptability
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Cognitive Adaptability Context
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How This Translates to Game
Design
“…where mechanics are the components of
a game at the level of data representation
and algorithms, dynamics are how the game
components interact with the player and vice-
versa, and aesthetics comprise the emotional
response evoked by the mechanics and
dynamics…” (Hunicke, LeBlanc, & Zubek,
2002)
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
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A Variation on MDA: FFMDA
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Lens of Analysis
Clinical Psychology ∩ Learning Science
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What game?
X
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The Study
Initial Experimental Design
Examine whether playing a commercial off-the-shelf game with the
five identified features will increase cognitive adaptability
Study site and population Sheppard AFB, 18-24 year olds enlisted and lieutenants (N=39)
Randomly assigned to study and groups
Design Experimental – pre/post tests and
Correlational – history plus metacognitive awareness inventory
Pre/post measures CANTAB customized battery
Metacognitive Awareness Inventory
Post measures Game History Questionnaire
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Portal 2 Intervention
0
5
10
15
20
25
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Focused Attention
Portal MS Gamers
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Gaming Experience
• Previous experience playing Portal 2 within past six months
correlated positively with greater spatial working memory
capabilities
• Historic gameplay of 19+ hours/week correlated positively with
greater spatial working memory, spatial sequencing, and cognitive
planning capabilities (high significance - p ranges from 0 to .006)
0
5
10
15
20
Spatial
WM
Spatioal
Seq
Cog
Planning
Cognitive capabilities and gameplay time
> 19 hr/wk < 19 hrs/wk
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Evaluating Games for Cognitive
Potential
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Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA)
• Technique to capture and model behavioral and cognitive
processes/activities for accomplishing a task at expert-level
• decision-making processes
• recognizing and responding to critical cues/environmental
conditions
• utilizing tools
• performing sub-tasks
• analyzing and altering one’s own performance
• Commonly used by industry and research professionals
• Human computer interaction, instructional system design
• Developing : • Intelligent/Cognitive Tutors
• Decision Support Systems
• Roots in cognitive science
Applying CTA to Video Games
• Need to understand empirically:
• Design of game
• How game design interacts with player cognition
• Using CTA to map and model cognition and
interaction within video game play is novel to the
literature.
• Researching methods for applying CTA to video game
analysis
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Protocol: CTA & Video Games
Part I: Preliminary Analysis/Lexicon Development
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Protocol: CTA & Video Games
Part 2: Focused Knowledge Elicitation
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Outcomes
• Protocol developed for CTA on video gameplay that
encompasses cognitive, mechanical, and design
elements
• Analysis shows modulating but persistent presence
of all five cognitive adaptability design characteristics
throughout Portal 2
• Indication of varying information processing/filtering
and executive function requirements throughout
game
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Cognitive Profiling
Portal 2 Micro-Puzzles
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CANTAB Battery CANTAB Test Definition/Cognitive Components
AST = attention switching
Switching attention between two qualities/attributes and
ignoring task-irrelevant information in the face of
interfering/distracting event
SSP = spatial span Recall of sequencing as a function of placement in space
SWM = spatial working
memory
Retaining spatial information and manipulating remembered
items in working memory via heuristic strategy
RVI = rapid visual information
processing Sustained attention
OTS = one-touch stockings of
Cambridge (executive
planning)
Spatial planning, visualizing solution without acting, planning
actions and understanding their consequences
RTI = reaction time
Time taken to react to stimuli; includes both movement time
and response latency
Cambridge Cognition Limited, 2011
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Micro-puzzles in Portal 2
• Nothing is a puzzle until it becomes a problem
• Solved puzzles become tools if used to solve other problems
• Puzzle may contain more than one micro-puzzle
• E.g. catching objects in mi-air, use of lasers through
emancipation grills or utilization of momentum
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Cognitive alignments
• Portal 2 previously treated as “black box”
• Potential cognitive alignments began to appear
during CTA
• Mapping alignments to cognitive assessment tasks
logical next step
• Allow tailoring of levels/chapters in level builder to fit
cognitive profiles
• Led to defining micro-puzzle definitions/typology
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Current development in profiling
• Micro-puzzle typology
• CANTAB mapping
• I/ITSEC 2014
• Designing custom Portal 2 chapters/levels using
Level Editor
• Formative and summative testing
• Transference testing
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Current work in cognition
• Quantitative correlational study
• In data collection mode
• Partners:
• George Mason University
• Marine Corps University
• Studying the intersections between metacognition,
grit/motivation, cognitive capabilities, and gameplay
history especially with Portal 2
• Using online surveys and CANTAB testing
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Rep and Ext of the Portal 2 Exp.
• Original Portal 2 study to be replicated across multiple countries
• UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the US
• Led by the UK’s Defense Science and Technology Lab (DSTL)
• Advised by ADL
• Currently working on stakeholder buy-in across all countries
• Refining protocol to include more robust intervention time, cultural differences, and large “n”
• Execution timeframe within late 2014-mid year 2015
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Resources
Supporting Cognitive Adaptability Through Game Design
http://www.adlnet.gov/resources/supporting-cognitive-adaptability-through-game-
design?type=research_paper
Can Game Design Be Leveraged to Enhance Cognitive Adaptability?
http://www.adlnet.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CA-Games-Design-EJeL-GAL-FNL-
020313.pdf
Can Playing Video Games Improve Cognition and Adaptability?
http://www.adlnet.gov/from-adl-team-member-shane-gallagher-can-playing-video-games-
improve-cognition-and-adaptability
The Cognition of Gameplay
http://www.adlnet.gov/from-adl-team-member-shenan-prestwich-the-cognition-of-gameplay
Cognitive Task Analysis: Analyzing the Cognition of Gameplay and Game Design
https://app.box.com/s/85tvzlmwv96v74yg1xnu
Transforming Education Through Neuroscience, Cognition, and Game Design
http://www.adlnet.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Transforming_Education_ITX3.pdf
Example Video
Portal 2 Cognitive Task Analysis: Ch. 1, Level 3