The Effect of Perceived Risk on the Video Game Performance of Middle School Players

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this project is to study how the amount of risk a person perceives in a situation affects their performance of a task in that situation. Methods/Materials A laptop computer with a simple video game I programmed on a visual coding site. 27 middle school subjects played the video game, believing that they had either one try, three tries, or infinite tries. However, all subjects actually had only one try to complete the game. Results The percentage of each testing group that finished the game in one try was recorded. No players in the one-try category finished the game, 14.2% of the three-tries category finished the game, and 28.5% of the infinite-tries category finished the game. Conclusions/Discussion The more tries players thought they had, the more likely they were to finish the game. This result shows that smaller amounts of perceived risk improve middle school students' performance at a task. This experiment implies that teachers can help students do better on tests by downplaying the test's difficulty or importance.

Awards (1)

• Fourth Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0412

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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