Ensuring that users retain information over long periods of time and save them to long term memory has the potential to be useful within game spaces as it will all players to compare their previous knowledge in context.
It has been observed that there is an
effective learning methodology ‘Spaced Repetition’,
this method re-teaches users information at set
intervals, this is done to best insure that the
information such as words are archived to long
term memory (Ebbinghaus, 1885). Building on
these findings, Pavlov (1927) observed that there is
possibility to save other types of information into
the users memory such as associations. This was
done by creating an associations between a ringing
of a bell expressing that there is food for the dog.
The spaced repetition methodology could now be
seen as one that was more dynamic than what was
initially presented.
From this it could be argued that there is
possibility to teach humans information that is not
inline with the initial methodology.
Spaced repetition has the potential allow the player to minimise the amount of playing the user has to do to maximise the amount of increased skill that will occur.
This has been observed within a controlled study where five groups of participants were assigned varying amounts of spacing repetition amounts to follow between play sessions. This study was taken out on the video game Super Hexagon, a two-dimensional survival action game, where time survived is logged. It was found that the amount of time the players survived was greater on the participants that had been employing any of the spacing effects in comparison to the ones who where playing for continued amounts of time (Johanson et al., 2019).
From this it can be argued that games could employ
the methodology of spaced learning within games,
in an attempt to get allow the player to spend less
time on the game and gain in skill in the least
amount-of in game time.
Abstracting from this it could be argued
that there is potential for to use this methodology in
video games where there is reason for the users to
remember information for long periods of time
with a high retention rate.
Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology.New York City: Teachers College, Columbia University
Johanson, C., Gutwin, C., Bowey, J. and Mandryk, R. (2019). Press Pause when you Play. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY ’19.
Pavlov, I. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.