Motivation to learn: A neuroeducational investigation of reward uncertainty and its impact on learning in a computer game
-
1
University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education, United Kingdom
Attitudes towards school and school-type tasks seem to change as children go through primary and secondary school. Within this progression, motivation towards academic achievement can decrease, contrasting with children’s increased commitment to their social relationships and also, the use of computers for socialising and gaming. Both within social domains and within gaming practices, the levels of uncertainty that are encountered are greater than in many learning tasks (i.e. school based learning is more predictable in its trajectories) and this may influence the motivation for children to engage and develop their knowledge in these areas. There is neuroscientific evidence for uncertainty enhancing the approach motivation provided by reward, and such evidence also suggests approach motivation can be considered a function of prediction error – the difference between the reward value and its expected value.
This is a study with adults and children about the exploration of the motivational properties of uncertainty and its impact on learning in the environment of an educational computer game. This research employed an educational computer game especially designed for the purposes of this study. The investigation focused on positive reward (points earned in the game) prediction error in the game and the focus was on whether it was linked to successful learning or unsuccessful learning.
This study found that prediction error prior to successful learning for recall was statistically significantly higher (t(15)=3.515, p=<.05) compared to prediction error prior to unsuccessful learning in adults. Also, for children aged 10-12, prediction error prior to successful learning was statistically significantly higher (t(49)=2.193, p=<.05) than prediction error prior to unsuccessful learning. These results together with those from a physiological investigation (Electro Dermal Activity) will be presented and discussed with reference to current concepts around cognition.
Conference:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education, Zurich, Switzerland, 3 Jun - 5 Jun, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Motivation and emotion
Citation:
Demetriou
S
(2010). Motivation to learn: A neuroeducational investigation of reward uncertainty and its impact on learning in a computer game.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.11.00012
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
28 May 2010;
Published Online:
28 May 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Skevi Demetriou, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education, Bristol, United Kingdom, skevi.demetriou@bristol.ac.uk