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The purpose of the present systematic review was to examine extant research regarding the role of games used seriously in interventions with individuals with cerebral palsy. Therefore, PubMed, PsyINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and IEEE databases were used. Search terms included: “serious games” OR “online games” OR “video games” OR “videogame” OR “game based” OR “game” AND “intervention” AND “cerebral palsy.” After the full reading and quality assessment of the papers, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies reported high levels of compliance, motivation, and engagement with game-based interventions both at home and at the clinical setting intervention. Regarding the effectiveness of the use of games, the results of the studies show both positive and negative results regarding their effectiveness. The efficacy was reported to motor function (i.e., improvements in the arm function, hand coordination, functional mobility, balance and gait function, postural control, upper-limbs function) and physical activity. Findings of this review suggest that games are used as a complement to conventional therapies and not as a substitute. Practitioners often struggle to get their patients to complete the assigned homework tasks, as patients display low motivation to engage in prescribed exercises. Data of this review indicates the use of games as tools suited to promote patients’ engagement in the therapy and potentiate therapeutic gains.

The sunk cost effect is the bias or tendency to persist in a course of action due to prior investments of effort, money or time. At the time of the only review on the sunk cost effect across species (Arkes & Ayton, 1999), research with nonhuman animals had been ecological in its nature, and the findings about the effect of past investments on current choice were inconclusive. However, in the last decade a new line of experimental laboratory-based research has emerged with the promise of revolutionizing the way we approach the study of the sunk cost effect in nonhumans. In the present review we challenge Arkes and Ayton's conclusion that the sunk cost effect is exclusive to humans, and describe evidence for the sunk cost effect in nonhuman animals. By doing so, we also challenge the current explanations for the sunk cost effect in humans, as they are not applicable to nonhumans. We argue that a unified theory is called for, because different independent variables, in particular, investment amount, have the same influence on the sunk cost effect across species. Finally, we suggest possible psychological mechanisms shared across different species, contrast and depreciation, that could explain the sunk cost effect.

We investigated the effect of prior investment on choice in pigeons, namely, the sunk cost effect, which is a tendency to continue an endeavor once a prior investment has been made, despite a better option being available. In a concurrent-chains procedure, pigeons chose between left and right keys in the choice phase leading to different work requirements in the outcome phase. Within each session, two components were signaled by red or green keys in the choice phase. Components were identical, except that in red components, the choice was preceded by a prior investment of 20 pecks on the left key, whereas in green components, the investment of 20 pecks was on the right key. Preference for the key with the prior investment was studied in a series of experiments in which we manipulated the absence or presence of the investment (Experiments 1a and 1b) and size of the investment (Experiments 2 and 3). We also investigated whether the bias observed was a result of carryover effects or of the sunk cost effect (Experiment 4). Overall, the results showed that choice was biased toward the alternative associated with the prior investment, consistent with the sunk cost effect, an effect that can be understood in terms of within-trial contrast and the delay-reduction hypothesis.