Cognitive behavioral game design: a unified model for designing serious games

Abstract

Video games have a unique ability to engage, challenge, and motivate, which has led teachers, psychology specialists, political activists and health educators to find ways of using them to help people learn, grow and change. Serious games, as they are called, are defined as games that have a primary purpose other than entertainment. However, it is challenging to create games that both educate and entertain. While game designers have embraced some psychological concepts such as flow and mastery, understanding how these concepts work together within established psychological theory would assist them in creating effective serious games. Similarly, game design professionals have understood the propensity of video games to teach while lamenting that educators do not understand how to incorporate educational principles into game play in a way that preserves the entertainment. Bandura (2006) social cognitive theory (SCT) has been used successfully to create video games that create positive behavior outcomes, and teachers have successfully used Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences (MIs) to create engaging, immersive learning experiences. Cognitive behavioral game design is a new framework that incorporates SCT and MI with game design principles to create a game design blueprint for serious games.

Success: A 9 Layered-based Model of Giftedness

“…Moreover, self-reflection is congruent with intrapersonal skills, which correspond to one's need to form attribution interpretations for success or failure (Pylvas, 2015, Macnamara, 2016. Critical reflection on one's own experiences carries two important benefits for the individual; first, these self-reactions are under one's own control and strengthen one's tolerance of stress and commitment to the task, thus help the learner to identify the best coping strategies in a given situation and enhance his self-efficacy (Starks, 2014). Second, individual and communicative learning may occur through perspective transformation of experiences, feelings and thoughts (Macnamara, 2016).…”

Efficient Software Assets for Fostering Learning in Applied Games

“…A cognitive-behavioral game design model, proposed by Starks [19], incorporates a wide range of psychological constructs and relates them with game elements to meet the demands made to leisure games. He proceeded from the Theory of Multiple Intelligences [10] and the Social Cognitive Theory by Bandura [4] to the factors that make games educational and enjoyable -engagement, challenge, flow, persistence, and mastery.…”

Multiple Intelligences and Videogames: Intervention Proposal for Learning Disabilities

“…These types of tools also allow the introduction of evaluation and educational objectives without sacrificing entertainment and using a motivating and meaningful methodology [24]. Thanks to technological development, the current potential for digital tools is limitless.…”

“…For this reason, it is fundamentally necessary to define the objectives, content, skills and behaviours to develop, while not forgetting aesthetic, narrative and technical resources to encourage engagement and playability [21,23,24].…”

“…For video games to be catalysts capable of activating multiple intelligences, thought must be given to the content, skills and abilities they aim to develop, without forgetting the aesthetics, narratives and video game techniques which encourage engagement and guarantee playability [21][22][23][24]. To that end, once the instructional design was done, the game was given shape by illustrators and graphic designers before programming was completed by the technical team.…”