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In Game Based Learning (GBL) environments addition, players act and see how the system responds, which may lead to intuitive learning. GBL learning lacks the deep and integrated structure that is characteristic for sustainable knowledge. Cognition-based instructional scaffolds and support may facilitate the acquisition of sustainable knowledge in GBL environments. How can we implement such support effectively without hampering the motivating character of the GBL environment? We introduce a game that implements two cognition-based principles in an integrated way. First, Integration, suggests that cognitive activities used for game play also improve the learning of arithmetic and enhance intrinsic motivation. Second, Reflection, enables players to explicate their knowledge. In a pilot study, we tested a basic version of the game and measurement instruments (using only Integration). Motivation and perception questionnaires proved to be reliable (N = 81). However, a small-scale pretest-posttest group showed no increase in performance after playing the game (p > .05). After revisions, 3 additional game versions were created: a structured reflection version (information about math problem solving strategies and then reflection prompts), an open reflection version (only reflection prompts) and an information-only version (information about math problem solving strategies). Currently pretest-posttest experiments are testing the hypothesis that the combination of Integration with Structured Reflection will outperform the other conditions on performance.

As games are continuously assessing the player, this assessment can be used to adapt the complexity of a game to the proficiency of the player in real time. We performed an experiment to examine the role of dynamic adaptation. In one condition, participants played a version of our serious game for triage training that automatically adapted the complexity level of the presented cases to how well the participant scored previously. Participants in the control condition played a version of the game with no adaptation. The adapted version was significantly more efficient and resulted in higher learning gains per instructional case, but did not lead to a difference in engagement. Adapting games to the proficiency of the player could make serious games more efficient learning tools.

Disorientation and navigation inefficiency are the consequences of the fragmented and incoherent structure of most hypertexts. To avoid these negative effects, researchers recommend, among other thing, an interface with a structural overview of the relations between sections. Some authors have found that with such an overview, information is looked up faster and remembered better. In this study, the question was examined as to whether a structural overview also leads to a deeper understanding. Forty students read a hypertext about the effects of ultraviolet radiation in one of two presentation conditions (structural overview condition, but just in the format of a list). After reading, they got text based questions and also inference questions. The results supported our hypothesis that a structural overview may hinder the understanding ofless knowledgeable readers, because it draws their attention to the textual macrostructure at the expense of attention to the microstructure of the text.