Abstract:

The focus on the potential of serious games on education has left some important design issues unattended. It is known that novice players fail to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. To overcome this, some games are cued to indicate where the relevant material is. In this study we analysed the importance of a visual cue in a game called “Matemáquina do Tempo”. This videogame intends to teach mathematical skills such as counting, arranging and identifying numbers in a dynamic environment. A group of 13 students with 6-7 years played the game. They all had to explore the Jurassic environment with movements in order to reach a point where they would have to make a mathematical task. Half of the group played the videogame with an attentional cue on the top right side of the screen, and the other half played without the cue. Results demonstrated that the cue had no effect on the number of interventions of the experimenter nor on the total gaming time. This demonstrates a need for perceptually more salient cues with novice players.

Keywords:

Serious Games, Attentional Cues, Interactive Environments.