Fig 1 - uploaded by Robbert Jan Beun
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The stop-signal paradigm incorporated into the fling game, used in the active and placebo game training conditions. Green cues signal go-responses and green cues that have turned red signal stop-responses. The scene depicts a lighthearted boy-meets-girl scene while the ribbon flows through the tree. The horizontal white line signals the optimal reaction time. (Color figure online)
Source publication
Behavioral control weaknesses are a strong predictor of problematic behaviors in adolescents, such as heavy alcohol use. Heavy alcohol use at this young age can lead to health and school-related problems and is a severe societal problem. Strengthening of cognitive control mechanisms through computerized training has been shown to have positive effe...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... fitting the atmosphere of the game, the music is also intended to make the tendency to respond to the cues more potent: after several go-cues are presented to the rhythm of the song, when a stop-cue appears to the rhythm, the impulse to keep tapping the response key may be higher, thus creating a stronger response conflict, which may lead to a stronger training effect [25,26]. Figure 1 depicts The Fling during training. The camera flies along a ribbon through a colorful scene that connects to an overarching story arc. ...
Context 2
... the screen briefly gives a little shake (emulating the force feedback feature found in many console games). In both cases a text message also appears, indicating whether the response was correct or incorrect, too late or too fast. Doing well on the training also affects the background of the level during play, e.g., the first level (depicted in Fig. 1) features a lighthearted boy-meets-girl scene while the ribbon flows through the tree. Doing well makes the tree change color to reveal fresh green leaves and flowers, whereas incorrect responses turn the tree into a darker, autumn-like color. After finishing each level, another brief cut-scene is shown that shows how the love story ...
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Objective:
Risk taking, such as heavy alcohol use, is commonplace among adolescents. Nevertheless, prolonged alcohol use at this age can lead to severe health problems. The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a serious game training ("The Fling"), aimed at increasing behavioral control in adolescents and thereby helping them to improve...
Citations
... 11 Recently, a number of serious games have been developed with exactly this idea in mind: inducing behavioral change through cognitive training, enhanced with motivational elements. [12][13][14] In line with these studies, this article presents an evaluation of a serious game (''The Fling''), which was first described in Ref. 14 ''The Fling'' builds on evidence-based training principles 7,15-17 aimed at enhancing behavioral control by strengthening both delay of gratification, or the capacity to withstand immediate rewards in favor of bigger long-term rewards, and response inhibition, which means the ability to suppress or delay automatic responses or impulses that might be inappropriate or irrelevant in a certain context. ...
... 11 Recently, a number of serious games have been developed with exactly this idea in mind: inducing behavioral change through cognitive training, enhanced with motivational elements. [12][13][14] In line with these studies, this article presents an evaluation of a serious game (''The Fling''), which was first described in Ref. 14 ''The Fling'' builds on evidence-based training principles 7,15-17 aimed at enhancing behavioral control by strengthening both delay of gratification, or the capacity to withstand immediate rewards in favor of bigger long-term rewards, and response inhibition, which means the ability to suppress or delay automatic responses or impulses that might be inappropriate or irrelevant in a certain context. ...
Objective:
Risk taking, such as heavy alcohol use, is commonplace among adolescents. Nevertheless, prolonged alcohol use at this age can lead to severe health problems. The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a serious game training ("The Fling"), aimed at increasing behavioral control in adolescents and thereby helping them to improve control over their alcohol use. The game training was compared to a game placebo and a nongame training version in a randomized controlled trial.
Materials and methods:
A sample of 185 adolescents (mean age 14.9 years) in secondary education participated in the study. They performed four sessions of training, as well as a set of questionnaires and cognitive assessment tasks before and after the training. The basis for the training was the stop-signal paradigm, aimed at increasing behavioral control.
Results:
The game variants were shown to motivate adolescents beyond the level of the nongame version. Behavioral control improved significantly over time, but this effect was also present in the game placebo, suggesting that the game activities alone may have had a beneficial effect on our measures of behavioral control. As baseline drinking levels were low, no significant training effects on drinking behavior were found.
Conclusions:
Although the current results are not yet conclusive as to whether "The Fling" is effective as a cognitive training, they do warrant further research in this direction. This study also shows that serious games may be uniquely suitable to bridge the gap between an evidence-based training paradigm and an attractive, motivating training environment.
De adolescentie kenmerkt zich veelal door een toename van risicogedrag, zoals het experimenteren met grote hoeveelheden alcohol. Hoewel dit soort gedrag niet per se tot problemen hoeft te leiden, kan overmatig drankgebruik op deze leeftijd wel gezondheidsproblemen of schooluitval veroorzaken en vergroot het de kans op verslaving op latere leeftijd. Daarom is het belangrijk dat er vroeg wordt ingegrepen, zodat escalatie kan worden voorkomen. Uit onderzoek is gebleken dat het trainen van bepaalde controlerende cognitieve processen (zoals het werkgeheugen en inhibitievermogen) effectief kan zijn om jongeren meer grip te laten krijgen op hun alcoholgebruik. Bovendien kan een aantal meer automatische processen (zoals selectieve aandacht voor alcohol) opnieuw worden hertraind. Hoewel deze beide vormen van training, uitgevoerd op de computer, bewezen effectief zijn bevonden, worden ze ook vaak ervaren als lang en saai. Om jongeren extra te motiveren de cognitieve trainingen te voltooien, kunnen serious games wellicht uitkomst bieden. In dit artikel wordt een promotieonderzoek beschreven waarin dit is bestudeerd. Allereerst wordt een raamwerk beschreven waarbinnen deze serious games kunnen worden ontwikkeld, waarna er diverse gametrainingen aan bod komen. Het blijkt dat serious games inderdaad een motiverende rol kunnen spelen bij het trainen van jongeren. De omstandigheden waaronder dat precies gebeurt, zullen nog nader onderzocht moeten worden.
