The learning adversary - An experimental investigation of adaptive pedagogical agents as opponents in educational videogames

Researchers struggle to apply insights from psychology to learning with video games as individual differences while playing them vastly differ. In addition, some elements are uncommon within learning material, such as having a pedagogical agent as an opponent. To meet this gap, this article presents a pre-study (n = 150) and experiments (n = 98; n = 85) investigating the type of opponent (high versus low emotionally activating) and the perceived game difficulty (high versus low). Results indicate significant effects on perceived competence and attribution. In addition, the impact of emotional activation interacted with the individual gameplay experiences. However, effects regarding emotional activation could not be fully replicated, indicating an influence of the game-based scenario. In addition, it could be demonstrated that learning was not impaired, even though individual player behavior and performance during the learning phase differed significantly. Results are discussed regarding the optimal design of individualized learning material. The experimental series revealed that even the perception of difficulty – not the difficulty of the material itself – results in individual differences in player behavior, perceived competence, and attribution. It could be demonstrated that such individual game experiences can influence learning-related actions, such as playing more slowly and carefully, attributing more internally, and feeling more competent without actual differences within the content of the learning material. The importance of resulting perceived competence is further highlighted, as it could be demonstrated that it is an essential mediator for the emergence of positive emotional responses (i.e., feeling happy) after playing an educational video game. Overall, the results indicate the strong potential of adaptive digital Game-Based Learning scenarios, adjusting the gameplay experience toward an individualized and optimized path.