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Toward a Science of Learning Games
Author(s) -
HowardJones Paul,
Demetriou Skevi,
Bogacz Rafal,
Yoo Jee H.,
Leonards Ute
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
mind, brain, and education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-228X
pISSN - 1751-2271
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-228x.2011.01108.x
Subject(s) - reinforcement learning , recall , psychology , cognitive science , simple (philosophy) , animal learning , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy
Reinforcement learning involves a tight coupling of reward‐associated behavior and a type of learning that is very different from that promoted by education. However, the emerging understanding of its underlying processes may help derive principles for effective learning games that have, until now, been elusive. This article first reviews findings from cognitive neuroscience and psychology to provide insight into the motivating role of uncertain reward in games, including educational games. Then, a short experiment is reported to illustrate the potential of reward‐based neurocomputational models of behavior in the understanding and development of effective learning games. In this study, a reward‐based model of behavior is shown to predict recall of newly learned information during a simple learning game.