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Does Motivation Enhance Knowledge Acquisition in Digital Game-Based and Multimedia Learning? A Review of Studies from One Lab

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Serious Games (JCSG 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11243))

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Abstract

In the contexts of digital game-based and multimedia learning, little is known about the strengths of associations between positive affective-motivational factors elicited during a study session and the quality of knowledge acquisition. Here, we take a step forward in filling this gap by re-analyzing our 11 experiments carried out between 2009–2017, featuring digital games, a simulation, animations, or a computerized presentation (total N = 1,288; primarily Czech and Slovak high school and university learners). The correlational meta-analysis showed that the overall relationship between positive affective-motivational variables and learning outcomes was significant, but relatively weak. The weaker relationship was found for enjoyment and generalized positive affect compared to flow. The finding corroborates the idea that affective-motivational states may be differentially related to learning outcomes. Future research should investigate why some affective-motivational states seem to play relatively limited roles in learning from multimedia instructional materials.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although confidence intervals for correlations are quite large for sample sizes of around 30 participants, we point out that for the study [4] (n = 35 + 30), the subgroup-level correlations also show this pattern: roughly medium positive correlations for flow and zero/small negative correlations for enjoyment and positive affect.

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Acknowledgement

We thank to numerous collaborators who participated on the studies; most notably, T. Stárková, T. Hannemann, and D. Klement. We also thank Laboratory of Behavioral and Linguistic Studies in Prague, where part of the studies was conducted. Studies were primarily supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR) (Projects nr. P407/12/P152, 15-14715S). During writing this review, C.B. and V.Š. were supported by the project PRIMUS/HUM/03. V.Š. was further supported by the European Regional Development Fund-Project “Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World” (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734) and Charles University Program Progress Q15. F.D. and J.L. were supported by Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO 68081740 and research program Strategy AV21). Z.H. was partially supported by Charles University Program – Progress Q49.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 3, Prague, Czech Republic

    Cyril Brom, Vít Šisler & Zdeněk Hlávka

  2. Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Hybernská 8, 110 00, Prague, Czech Republic

    Filip Děchtěrenko & Jiří Lukavský

  3. Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Nám. Jana Palacha 2, Prague, Czech Republic

    Vít Šisler

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  1. Cyril Brom
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  2. Filip Děchtěrenko
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  3. Vít Šisler
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  4. Zdeněk Hlávka
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  5. Jiří Lukavský
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Correspondence to Cyril Brom .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

  2. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Augusto Garcia-Agundez

  3. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Thomas Tregel

  4. Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent, UK

    Minhua Ma

  5. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  6. SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway

    Manuel Oliveira

  7. Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Tim Marsh

  8. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Polona Caserman

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Brom, C., Děchtěrenko, F., Šisler, V., Hlávka, Z., Lukavský, J. (2018). Does Motivation Enhance Knowledge Acquisition in Digital Game-Based and Multimedia Learning? A Review of Studies from One Lab. In: Göbel, S., et al. Serious Games. JCSG 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11243. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02762-9_13

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