Research-based games enhance children?s learning

Psychologists use research on motivation to design educational computer games.

By Beth Azar
Monitor staff

Armed with a federal grant that is helping them move their basic research from the lab to the marketplace, Stanford University psychologist Mark Lepper, PhD, and his former graduate student Sabrina Lin, PhD, have developed educational computer games based on more than 20 years of research on what motivates children to learn.

Their work is just one example of work funded through the federal Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants program. And it demonstrates how researchers such as Lepper?who still conducts basic research at Stanford?can maintain basic as well as applied interests.

In 1994, Lin, who has worked in software development since 1982, coaxed Lepper to help her form Sparkle Productions, of Palo Alto, Calif. Their goal is to produce computer games that motivate school-age children, and particularly girls, to learn math skills. In particular, they aim to ensure that the features that make a game fun also reinforce learning, says Lepper.

Over the past decade, many researchers have begun applying their basic knowledge of learning and cognition to the design of computer software, says Steve Breckler, PhD, social psychology project officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF). And funding agencies such as NSF are helping through SBIR grants, which provide the time and money to methodically develop and thoroughly evaluate products. Because Sparkle Productions is primarily a research company, once a product is complete, another company markets it. To date, Sparkle Productions has brought to market two games. One takes children on a scavenger hunt to famous spots around San Francisco where they solve math-related problems. A second enables players to break through a series of brick walls by matching bricks that display equivalent math facts. A third game, the Robots of Zorg, teaches fractions and is in the testing phase.

'Their work is a nice example of a psychology-based SBIR,' says Breckler. 'Their products are solidly based on the well-researched psychological concepts of intrinsic motivation.'

Although there are many excellent educational games on the market, some 'purchase children?s motivation at the expense of learning,' says Lepper. For example, he has seen some games that provide the most gripping graphics when children lose, thus motivating them to intentionally forfeit the game as well as learning that might occur.

The games at Sparkle Productions embed rewards directly into the learning task. For example, each time children help a game character solve a problem in 'The Great San Francisco Math Scavenger Hunt'?the company?s first commercial product?the character verbally praises their work and gives them an item they need to complete the scavenger hunt.

Sparkle games utilize many other principles shown to enhance learning and motivation. For one, all of the games involve some kind of fantasy, which is one of the most powerful ways to make learning enjoyable for children, research finds. The games also present abstract material in real-world contexts. In the scavenger hunt game, children visit different famous San Francisco landmarks where they help game characters solve real-world math-related problems. At Fisherman?s Wharf, for example, they use patterns, algebra, measurement and calculations to help 'Zimbo,' the proprietor of a restaurant, convert recipes?multiplying and dividing to calculate the correct amount of each ingredient.

Sparkle games also provide children with choices: from as seemingly trivial a choice as which game piece to use, to choices about types of problems, game level and the gameboard?s layout. Even the small choices can increase motivation and learning, says Lepper. He and Yale University psychologist Diana Cordova, PhD, have found that when children are offered choices, they have more fun and learn more from games (see Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 88, No. 4, p. 715?730).

Lepper, Lin and their colleagues at Sparkle Productions have also worked hard to make products that both girls and boys will enjoy. They choose fantasy themes that they find appeal to both genders?a scavenger hunt theme for 'The Great San Francisco Math Scavenger Hunt' and a theme of underworld excavation and breaking through obstacles for 'Breaking the Wall,' a game that teaches basic math skills. And they design the games so children can play them competitively or cooperatively. Research finds that the competitive approach is highly motivating for boys but can undermine girls? motivation.

Sparkle?s approach appears to be working. Evaluation studies find that children enjoy the games and improve their math skills, and the programs are as attractive and effective with girls as with boys, says Lepper.

A bonus of working through the SBIR program is the chance to thoroughly evaluate every product, says Lin. Indeed, because evaluation is a mandatory part of SBIR grants, Sparkle Productions tends to conduct more in-depth evaluations of its games than other software companies, she says.

'We can spend the time on evaluations without pressure to rush a product prematurely into the marketplace,' says Lepper.

For more information on Sparkle Productions, visit its web site at http://www.sparkleinc.com.