Cognition-based Learning Principles in the Design of Effective Serious Games: How to Engage Learners in Genuine Learning

The use of games in learning and instruction, often referred to as serious games, has been propagated by many researchers. However, the complexity of serious games may cause players to engage in ineffective cognitive processes. We propose three design guidelines: predicting, resolving information gaps and postdicting to enable players to engage in effective cognitive processing, such as inferring. Moreover, we argue that these design guidelines should be designed carefully, that is, they should be in line with the game discourse. Therefore we have developed a method for analyzing the discourse that is used in serious games. In its current form the Game Discourse Analysis (GDA) comprises four steps: decomposition in propositions, qualifying the propositions, connecting the propositions and identifying scripts/plans. We assume that players of serious games act in a more or less intentional plan-based way in order to find a solution path through a problem space. The result of the GDA is a description of the different (discourse) elements and the relations that play a role in this process. The designer can use this analysis to determine the appropriate location and time in the narrative to implement a design guideline. Furthermore, the analysis prescribes which domain knowledge and skills are required (either as scripts or plans) to solve the problem in the game. In the last section, we contend that suspense, curiosity and surprise are techniques that take into account the characteristics of the game discourse, such as the narrative. At the same time these techniques trigger effective cognitive processes. We will sketch how the GDA can be used to facilitate the use of the suspense, curiosity and surprise techniques in order to implement the aforementioned design guidelines. We will do this in a game for training medical first responder emergency personnel to perform a triage after an explosion in the subway.