Exploring EEG signals during the different phases of game-player interaction

Games are nowadays used to enhance different learning and teaching practices in institutions, companies and other venues. Factors that increase the adoption and integration of learning games have been widely studied in the past. However, the effect of different backgrounds and designs on learners'/players' electroencephalographic (EEG) signals during game-play remains under-explored. These insights may enable us to design and utilize games in a way that adapts to users' cognitive abilities and facilitates learning. In this paper, we describe a controlled study consisted of 251 game sessions and 17 players that focused on skill development (i.e., user's ability to master complex tasks), while collecting EEG and game-play data. Our results unveiled factors that relate to the game-phases and learners'/players' expertise and affect their mental effort when playing a learning game. In particular, our analysis showed an effect of players background (experience and performance) and games design (number of attempts/lives and difficulty) on players mental effort during the game-play. Finally, we discussed how such effects could benefit the design and application of games for learning as well as, directions for future research.