Flow and Regulatory Compatibility: An Experimental Approach to the Flow Model of Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract

The authors propose that the experience of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) as reflected in the deep involvement in an activity perceived as intrinsically rewarding represents a regulatory compatibility experience. The research addresses the notion that the compatibility of critical person (e.g., skills) and environmental factors (e.g., demands) involved in a given activity elicits subjective experiences that render the respective activity rewarding. Two studies are reported that investigate the consequences of compatibility of skills and task demands during task engagement. Departing from correlational research, the present studies employ a newly developed experimental paradigm to document the causal impact of such a skills/demands compatibility on the emergence of flow. Experiment 2 revealed that individuals characterized by a strong habitual action-orientation were most sensitive to the manipulation of the skills-demands compatibility.

Identification and Categorization of Digital Game Experiences: A Qualitative Study Integrating Theoretical Insights and Player Perspectives

“…Furthermore, fl ow makes people forget about themselves and become totally immersed in the activity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow is a prominent concept when deliberating about digital game experience (Keller and Bless, 2008;Sherry, 2004) as the specifi c nature of digital games matches closely with that of activities that Csikzentmihalyi (1990) outlined to be typically conducive to a state of fl ow. These are (a) having clear and concrete goals, (b) enabling actions that can be adjusted according to skill level or capabilities, (c) providing feedback on the score reached or the progress made and (d) possessing visual and auditory information or cues that can aid concentration and impede distraction (Sherry, 2004).…”

Facilitating Flow Experience in People with Intellectual Disability Using a Music Intervention Program

“…It is not a direct study of skill-challenge balance because to examine the balance between skills and challenge, both variables should be taken into account. Thus, later Keller & Bless (2008) took a more direct approach to analyze the effect of manipulating optimal challenge on flow experience. An experimental design was used to test for the causal impact of the skill-challenge balance on flow.…”

Relationship Between Concentration and Temporal Duration Estimation: Implications for Flow Experience

“…Past studies on concentration or flow experiences rely on subjective reports or reports from studies using ESM, and few systematic experiments have been conducted (Keller & Bless, 2008;Moller, Meier, & Wall, 2010). Previous experimental studies utilized video games such as Tetris and Pac-Man, and by manipulating the balance of skill and challenge, they succeeded in inducing flow experiences.…”

“…It employed a series of naturalistic cognitive tasks instead of well-controlled cognitive experimental tasks, such as attention research (Zakay & Block, 2004), or a single game with various conditions, as in flow research (Keller & Bless, 2008). To induce a flow experience, or at least various degrees of concentration, we selected tasks lasting three to five minutes, which appear to be necessary to induce concentrated states.…”