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. 2020 Sep 8;8(3):e17810.
doi: 10.2196/17810.

Effective Gamification of the Stop-Signal Task: Two Controlled Laboratory Experiments

Maximilian Achim Friehs  1 , Martin Dechant  2 , Sarah Vedress  2 , Christian Frings  1 , Regan Lee Mandryk  2
Affiliations

Effective Gamification of the Stop-Signal Task: Two Controlled Laboratory Experiments

Maximilian Achim Friehs et al. JMIR Serious Games. .

Abstract

Background: A lack of ability to inhibit prepotent responses, or more generally a lack of impulse control, is associated with several disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia as well as general damage to the prefrontal cortex. A stop-signal task (SST) is a reliable and established measure of response inhibition. However, using the SST as an objective assessment in diagnostic or research-focused settings places significant stress on participants as the task itself requires concentration and cognitive effort and is not particularly engaging. This can lead to decreased motivation to follow task instructions and poor data quality, which can affect assessment efficacy and might increase drop-out rates. Gamification-the application of game-based elements in nongame settings-has shown to improve engaged attention to a cognitive task, thus increasing participant motivation and data quality.

Objective: This study aims to design a gamified SST that improves participants' engagement and validate this gamified SST against a standard SST.

Methods: We described the design of our gamified SST and reported on 2 separate studies that aim to validate the gamified SST relative to a standard SST. In study 1, a within-subject design was used to compare the performance of the SST and a stop-signal game (SSG). In study 2, we added eye tracking to the procedure to determine if overt attention was affected and aimed to replicate the findings from study 1 in a between-subjects design. Furthermore, in both studies, flow and motivational experiences were measured.

Results: In contrast, the behavioral performance was comparable between the tasks (P<.87; BF01=2.87), and the experience of flow and intrinsic motivation were rated higher in the SSG group, although this difference was not significant.

Conclusions: Overall, our findings provide evidence that the gamification of SST is possible and that the SSG is enjoyed more. Thus, when participant engagement is critical, we recommend using the SSG instead of the SST.

Keywords: cognition; games, experimental; motivation; proof of concept study; psychology; video games.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The stop-signal task (left) vs stop-signal game (right) trial appearance.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Instructions shown to participants for the stop-signal task (left) and stop-signal game (right).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Stop-signal reaction time (in milliseconds) distribution depending on task type for study 1.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Stop-signal reaction time (in milliseconds) distribution depending on task type for study 2.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Visualization of the eye-tracking results. Parts (A) and (B) display the gaze focus as a heat map. Parts (C) and (D) display the mean time that the participants spent focused on parts of the display.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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