Affective Educational Games: Utilizing Emotions in Game-Based Learning Phillip Wilkinson Center for Digital Entertainment (CDE) Bournemouth University Bournemouth, UK pwilkinson@bournemouth.ac.uk Abstract - Emotions play an important role in cognition, memory, attention and motivation but the current generation of educational games largely ignore emotions’ role in learning. However, there is a movement within games development for entertainment to create more affective gameplay. As such this paper will discuss how new research from affective neuroscience, affective computing and contemporary psychological learning theories can inform educational game development. Firstly outlining our current understanding of emotions in learning, this paper will then explore three key aspects of affective game design: sensing and recognition of emotions; modelling emotions and emotion expression by game characters and player avatars. In this section it will review currently available technology, theories and models as appropriate. Finally this paper will explain how incorporating these aspects in educational game design can produce more effectual learning experiences by being aware of affective game design principles that effect attention, memory and motivation. Although this paper is not conclusive, it is comprehensive enough to bridge the gap between academia and industry, so that commercial educational games development can benefit from our current understanding of affective game design and emotions role in attention, memory and motivation. Index Terms – Affective gaming, affective computing, educational games, attention, memory, learning, motivation, games-based learning INTRODUCTION Academic research is currently exploring the role of emotions in cognition and behaviour. As such it has been demonstrated that emotions play a key role in decision making [1], memory [2] and attention [3]. Instructional designers, when exploring the role of emotions in learning, primarily focus on motivation [4]. Although there a distinct domain for affective learning, as defined in Bloom’s Taxonomy [5], it is self- evident that all learning has an affective component; even if this is only a willingness to interact with resources and take part in learning activities, for example it has been demonstrated that frustration or boredom can negatively impact motivation towards learning [6] As such it is the role of educational game developers and virtual learning environment curators to create engaging experiences that maintain levels of motivation, direct attention and use emotionally salient content. The recent push in the games industry to include aspects of affective computing to create emotionally engaging gameplay experiences has highlighted aspects of game design that can benefit educational games. However, before exploring these areas it is important to understand how affective neuroscience and psychology has furthered our understanding of emotions and the role they play in learning. Although learning is influenced by multiple affective aspects e.g. relationships with peers [7], perceived self-efficacy [8], and hopefulness [9], this paper will focus on attention, memory and motivation as they are consistently needed in learning. FRAMING ‘EMOTION’ Emotions have been scrutinized through multiple academic lenses; from the underlying physiological and anatomical manifestations to their sociological role. . As a result there are multiple frameworks and approaches to the modelling of emotional experience and expression. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss this issue of ill-definition and for the sake of pertinence this will discuss and lay out concepts from different fields of study, covering multiple levels of analysis, dependent on their ability to inform affective educational game design. The terms “affect” and “emotion” are often used interchangeably. An affective or emotional state refers to a short term response to external or internal stimuli, whereas mood refers to a longer lasting affective state and disposition is a personality construct that influences a person’s general emotional reaction to stimulus. However, just as there is no clear definition for ‘emotion’ the dividing lines between emotion, mood and disposition are equally fuzzy. Moreover another key debate is the classification of emotions as either discrete phenomenon, represented through prototypical emotions which encompass all others or as affective states existing on a continuous multi-dimensional scale. Affective states in an individual are subjective experiences however; their manifestation can be evaluated from a behavioural, neuroanatomical or cognitive perspective.