The Incidence and Persistence of Affective States While Playing Newton’s Playground

We study the incidence (rate of occurrence), and persistence (rate of reoccurrence immediately after occurrence) of students’ affective states while playing Newton’s Playground (NP), an educational game for physics. We compare findings to those of previous studies’, which were conducted using different populations and different educational games. Students’ affective states are studied using quantitative field observations on public high school students. The incidence and persistence of concentration, confusion, frustration, boredom, surprise, and delight were compared. We found that boredom (D’Mello’s L = 0.3, p < 0.01), concentration (L = 0.21, p < 0.01), and frustration (L = 0.10, p < 0.01) tended to persist while interacting with NP. The most frequently observed affective states were concentration (72%), confusion (8%), boredom (7%), and frustration (7%).