Longitudinal analysis of sustained performance on gamified cognitive assessment tasks

Serious games aim to provide cognitive assessments that are more enjoyable and easier to self-administer, potentially leading to more frequent assessments. We carried out two studies examining the relationship between game-playing enjoyment, game difficulty, and cognitive (game) performance. In the first study, 16 participants played three serious games once a week over four weeks as part of an undergraduate course, but with relatively minor motivation in terms of course credits. In the second study, 14 participants played serious games over six sessions in a period of three weeks. Participants included graduate students receiving credit for the course project (a major component of the grade) and friends and family that they recruited. Performance in the more difficult tasks tended to improve over time in the second study, but not in the first. Participants from the first study showed an overall negative sentiment toward the games. However, participants from the second study enjoyed the majority of games except for the more difficult games that required players to temporarily hold and memorize information. Participants got significantly better in the more difficult working memory games, even though these games were less popular than the simpler games. Our interpretation of the results is that enjoyability is important in encouraging people to keep playing cognitive assessment games as time progresses, and that enjoyability helps in maintaining performance in easy games. Higher motivation on the other hand played a significant role in facilitating learning effects in difficult games as well as in maintaining enjoyability.