Modeling the Incubation Effect Among Students Playing an Educational Game for Physics

• Main Authors: Talandron-Felipe, May Marie, Rodrigo, Ma. Mercedes T, Beck, Joseph E
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2017
• Subjects: Incubation effect; Physics Playground; Computer Sciences
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/discs-faculty-pubs/61; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-61425-0_31
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

We attempted to model the Incubation Effect, a phenomenon in which a momentary break helps the generation of a solution to a problem, among students playing Physics Playground. We performed a logistic regression analysis to predict the outcome of the incubation using a genetic algorithm for feature selection. Out of 14 candidate features, those that significantly predicted the outcome were total badges earned prior to post-incubation, the problem’s level of difficulty, total attempts made prior to post-incubation, and time interval of post-incubation. We found evidence that incubation in the earlier part of the game is more beneficial than breaks at the later part where students may already be mentally exhausted.