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ABSTRACT
Fiorella, Logan 1; Mayer, Richard E. 1
JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY | Vol 104 November 2012

Paper-Based Aids for Learning With a Computer-Based Game.

The purpose of this study was to test the instructional value of adding paper-based metacognitive prompting features to a gamelike environment for learning about electrical circuits, called the Circuit Game. In Experiment 1, students who were prompted during Levels 1 through 9 to direct their attention to the most relevant features of the game and were provided with a list of its underlying principles to relate to their game actions performed better on an embedded transfer test (i.e., Level 10) than those not provided with the intervention (d = 0.77). In Experiment 2, the principles were not explicitly provided; instead, students were asked to fill in the correct features of each principle on a sheet while playing Levels 1 through 9 of the game. Results indicated that this method of prompting improved transfer performance only for learners who could correctly fill in the list of the game's principles (d = 0.53). Overall, paper-based aids for directing students' attention toward the most relevant features of a game and asking them to apply provided principles to solve game-based problems result in a deeper understanding of the game's academic content. (C) 2012 by the American Psychological Association

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(Richard Mayer is the author of Should there be a three-strikes rule against pure discovery learning? The case for guided methods of instruction.)