Effectiveness of audio in games as a learning tool for improving memory retention

Abstract: This thesis researches the impact of audio in video games as a tool for enhancing memorization through an experiment. Existing research has found that videogames have the potential to be used as learning tools, however there's a lack of research exploring what aspects of video games make them useful in a learning setting. In this paper we have attempted to shed some light on the matter by exploring the effects of audio in educational video games, namely how the existence of audio feedback might affect the effectiveness of an educational game. This was done by conducting an experiment where participants of three groups attempted the same periodic table quiz twice, once before a study session and once after. One group was a control group, they would study by simply attempting to memorize the periodic table by looking at it. Another group would study by playing an educational game about the periodic table without any audio. The final group would study by playing the same educational game with audio feedback. All participants' quiz results were analyzed using an ANOVA. The results did not display any significant difference between the groups. This suggests that audio feedback may not play a very important role in the effectiveness of an educational game. To assess whether audio in fact does have a more subtle effect on learning, a larger sample size would be needed to detect the small differences. The results shed light, both on the effects of audio feedback in educational games, and also on the influence of sample size on interpreting data, emphasizing the need for larger sample sizes to detect subtle differences among study groups.