USING ATTENTIONAL CUES WITH NOVICE PLAYERS IN AN INTERACTIVE SERIOUS GAME

The focus on the potential of serious games on education has left some important design issues unattended. It is known that novice players fail to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. To overcome this, some games are cued to indicate where the relevant material is. In this study we analyzed the importance of a visual cue in a game called "Matemaquina do Tempo". This videogame intends to teach mathematical skills such as counting, arranging and identifying numbers in a dynamic environment. A group of thirteen 6-7 year old students played the game. They explored the Jurassic environment with movements leading them to a point where they would have to solve a mathematical task. Half of the group played the videogame with an attentional cue on the top right side of the screen, and the other half played without the cue. Results demonstrated that the cue had no effect on the number of interventions of the experimenter nor on the total gaming time. This demonstrates a need for perceptually more salient cues with novice players.