Bachelor Thesis - Action in Reading Comprehension

Project description

Reading comprehension is a persons ability to absorb and understand the contents of a text whilst reading it, and is the basis for education in the modern day. Even if one has the right knowledge, giving the right answers becomes difficult without properly understanding the texts and questions. Because education is so important, reading comprehension is as well, and there is merit in putting effort in researching ways to increase student engagement and ability regarding the subject.
Engagement and motivation are important driving factors in getting students to learn. Videogames are designed with the purpose of keeping the user engaged in mind. Ergo, videogames could be designed to keep students engaged in subjects such as reading comprehension.

This study is meant to test if engaging with a text through logical puzzles can improve the reader’s comprehension of the text, as well as if the specific game mechanics used in a text-reliant game can noticeably affect the player’s ability to comprehend the content of text long term.
This is performed by developing three different versions of a murder mystery visual novel game, each using the same script and having the same puzzles, but adding or removing other factors which make the different version more or less similar to games from the Ace Attorney and Danganronpa series.
Each participant is playing one of the three versions of the visual novel before taking a test quizzing them about the content of the games’ dialogue. The intent is to spot any correlations between the version played and the performance on a reading comprehension test, as well as the time spent playing.

1. Summary

This study made quantitative comparisons between the impact on different game mechanics on players understanding and recollection of a given text. The hypothesis was that participants that engaged with a text through the logic puzzles of a game would fair better on a proceeding reading comprehension test about the contents of that text compare to those who read the text without any puzzle element.
Three distinct versions of a game made to present the same text were made to test the hypothesis: Version VN (Visual Novel) without any puzzle element, and versions PW (Phoenix Wright) and DR (Danganronpa) with puzzle elements.
In total, 29 participants were recruited to play and take the reading comprehension test. The version each participant played was randomized, resulting in 8, 11, and 10 participants playing versions VN, PW, and DR respectively. Out of the maximum score of 23 points on the reading comprehension test, the average score and standard deviation for each group was as follows:
VN; 10.6±4.7
PW; 11.3±2.9
DR; 13.4±4.0
When compared pair by pair, no statisticly significant differance was found between the scores corresponding to any two versions.
A retroactive power analysis of the study showed that more participants would be required for the hypothesis test to be statisticly significant. This studien could be used as pilot for a similar larger study in the future.

2. Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that if students are made to engage with a text through puzzles, their ability to recall and reflect over its contents will be greater than if they had simply read it.

I also speculate that if students are made to engage with a text through action mechanics as well, it will not futher improve their potential to recall and reflect. Instead, it may reduce the students’ overall performance by serving as a distraction.

3. Tools and techniques

Games such as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc are popular examples of games where comprehending text is a critical part of being able to complete the challenges they provide the player, and have therefore been used as inpiration for the games made for this study.
The script used in the games is ispired by the game Among Us, as it’s theme of basic murder mysteries match a simplified version of the other sources of inspiration. Among Us was also chosen because it is already well known amongst a large portion of the potential participants, and easy to grasp for others.
The games were made using Unity 3D for its ease of use when rendering objects and sprites as well as when exporting and editing the different versions.

Version VN Download
Version PW Download
Version DR Download

Note that the dialogue manager used in all versions is overdeveloped for the purpose of the current study. It has support for including more characters and dialogue options intended for creating complete visual novel experiences. Read the full report for a more detailed overveiw.