Adapting Arcade Games for Learning

Abstract

Although memory exercises and arcade

-

style

games

are alike in their repetitive nature, memorization

tasks

like vocabulary drills tend to be

mundane and

tedious

while arcade

-

style games are

popular

, intense

and

broadly addictive

. This suggests

an opportunity to

modify well

-

known, existing arcade gam

es for the

purpose of

memorization and learning

. A key challenge

to

modifying

any existing arcade

-

style game is

the

incorporation of

learning on top of an already fast

-

paced, mentally demanding game.

This paper presents

a web

-

based vocabulary

-

drill game, b

ased on

Tetris

and augmented

with speech recognition

(Figure 1)

. To

help adult learners acquire new vocabulary,

we embed

an in

-

game mechanism

that

presents vocabulary items

to be learned via word

-

picture associations

. Using our

working speech recogniti

on

prototype, we investigate

the extent to which

retrieval practice

, an educationally

effective

but

cognitively demanding strategy, impacts

learning and engagement in this

fast

-

paced game

environmen