Abstract:

Digital distraction is a persistent challenge in higher education, particularly among students accustomed to continuous multitasking across multiple devices. While most research treats parallel digital media use as detrimental to learning, there is a conceptual possibility that certain low-cognitive-load digital activities might instead help regulate attention, reduce fatigue, or prevent more disruptive task-switching. This intervention development study presents the conceptual, design, and methodological foundations for creating and experimentally evaluating a “mindless” mobile game intended to be used alongside university lectures.

In the introductory stage of the study, we define the target intervention as a low-cognitive-load digital game: an application designed for minimal mental effort, rhythmic or repetitive input, negligible strategic planning, and low emotional arousal. The paper distinguishes this category from existing minimalist game genres—idle, incremental, clicker, background, and ambient games—highlighting how the proposed intervention selectively incorporates their core properties while intentionally avoiding features that demand focus, induce competition, or encourage prolonged engagement. The central design intention is to provide a digital activity that can be performed automatically or semi-automatically while listening, without drawing attentional resources away from the lecture.

Using an intervention development framework, this study outlines the theoretical rationale, behavioural targets, and user-centred design choices underpinning the prototype game. We describe the planned classroom experiment in which students are randomly assigned to one of three groups: an intervention group using the low-cognitive-load game, a no-device control group, and an unrestricted-device control group representing typical media multitasking behaviour. Attention and information retention will be measured using a brief post-lecture quiz. To capture students’ perceptions of the game, we present the development of a short-form usability and experience questionnaire optimised for classroom deployment, combining a compact usability scale with items assessing mental effort, non-interference with learning, and subjective focus regulation.

This paper establishes the conceptual foundation, methodological plan, and measurement strategy for a novel digital intervention aimed at supporting attention in university classrooms. It provides a structured pathway for subsequent prototyping, user testing, and formal experimental evaluation, laying the groundwork for empirical research into whether carefully designed low-cognitive-load games can serve as productive alternatives to unregulated digital distraction during learning.

Keywords:

Low-cognitive-load game, attention, Generation Z, intervention development, cognitive load theory.