No Pain, no Gain? Investigating motivational mechanisms of game elements in cognitive tasks

The literature on serious games and gamification suggests that game elements have a positive influence on learning and performance in cognitive tasks. However, the mechanisms by which game elements affect these outcomes are not well understood. Building on theorizing in the self-control literature, the present research investigated whether game elements change the subjective experience of a cognitive task in terms of the positive affect, motivational conflict, and subjective effort experienced. Further, we tested whether people with a low versus high level of self-control benefit more from game elements in terms of their performance. The results of two experimental studies suggest that the gamification of an n-back task did not improve task accuracy (i.e., correct responses) directly but reduced task disengagement (i.e., non-responses). Further, gamification prevented positive affect from dropping over the course of the task and reduced motivational conflict and subjective effort experienced. Only positive affect mediated the effect of game elements on task disengagement. Further, game elements had an indirect effect on task accuracy via subjective effort. There was no indication that individuals with lower delay of gratification or lower trait self-control would profit more from gamification. The implications of these findings for the literature on self-control and gamification are discussed

Social Comparisons in the Classroom Revisited: Insights Into Underlying Processes Using Immersive Virtual Reality as a Research Tool

Social comparisons are commonplace in every classroom and widely acknowledged as central determinants of students’ academic self-evaluations (see, e.g., Dijkstra et al., 2008; Trautwein & Möller, 2016). Most prominently, in educational psychology research, social comparisons have been assumed to be the cause behind the well-known Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect (BFLPE; Marsh, 1987), suggesting negative effects of higher class-average (or school-average) achievement on students’ academic self-concept while controlling for individual achievement. Whereas existing research has provided compelling evidence of the effects of certain reference groups on students’ self-evaluations (Marsh et al., 2017; Marsh & Seaton, 2015), the actual mechanisms behind the proposed effects and how students process social information while learning are still a black box. The present dissertation was aimed at gaining insights into the respective underlying processes (i.e., the “inner workings” of this black box) by using immersive virtual reality (IVR) as a research tool. IVR technology provides an unprecedent opportunity for educational psychology research to integrate ecological validity and experimental control in research designs to gain authentic and yet standardized insights into classroom processes, such as social comparisons and beyond (see, e.g., Blascovich et al., 2002). To this end, the present dissertation was aimed at a theoretical as well as a methodological advancement of research on social comparisons in the classroom. To address these objectives, the dissertation drew on three empirical studies with an IVR classroom including an experimental manipulation of classmates’ performance-related behavior. First, pursuing a more in-depth theoretical understanding of social comparisons and the respective processing of social information in the classroom, the dissertation aimed to identify covert and overt social comparison behaviors that (a) reflect students’ cognitive and behavioral responses to social comparison information in an IVR classroom and (b) ultimately explain individual differences in students’ self-concepts. Studies 1 and 2 used students’ self-reports (of their interpretation of classmates’ performance-related behavior) and eye movement data (e.g., visual attention on classmates) to identify different social comparison processes in the IVR classroom and to provide insights into the mechanisms that underlie the BFLPE. Second, aiming to provide insights into how IVR classrooms can be used as an experimental tool in educational psychology research, Study 3 focused on the configuration of an IVR classroom to authentically simulate and control a (social) classroom environment. The study provides insights into how different fields of view, virtual avatar visualization styles and virtual classmates’ performance-related behaviors affect students’ processing of social information provided in the IVR classroom. Taken together, by using an IVR classroom as an experimentally controlled yet authentic research setting, the present dissertation was able to advance the theoretical understanding of social comparisons and respective processing of social information in the classroom that ultimately explain individual differences in students’ self-concept. Moreover, the present dissertation demonstrates how IVR classrooms and the corresponding standardized process data can be used to gain insights into classroom processes, such as social comparisons. The dissertation thereby provides implications for research on both social comparisons in the classroom and the use of IVR as an experimental tool in educational and social psychology research in general