Design and evaluation of an augmented reality cyberphysical game for the development of empathic abilities

Abstract

Emotional deficits such as lack of empathy in children and adolescents are strong predictors of developing antisocial behavior, making inappropriate moral judgments, difficulties in interpersonal relationships or bullying. To promote learning empathic skills, the present work proposes the design of a cyber-physical mobile game with Augmented Reality and Geolocation implemented in a learning model based on tasks and steps. The main focus is on designing scenarios that generate affective, cognitive, reflective and social experiences that favor the expression of prosocial behavior. To verify the effectiveness of our EmpathyAR game, an evaluation was applied to an experimental vs. control group. The results indicate that the game is evaluated positively by the players at the usability level (utility, ease of use and learning and satisfaction) and game experience (positive affect, competence, and immersion). Compared to the control group, which resorted to traditional strategies, we observed that EmpathyAR has a positive impact as a learning strategy on 2 dimensions of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) for empathy, i.e. fantasy and empathic concern. For the remaining two IRI dimensions (perspective taking and personal distress) despite not providing statistically significant differences, the results show that EmpathyAR improves the score obtained in these dimensions. At the end of the experimental study the players revealed higher levels of prosocial behavior than those who did not play the game. Finally, these gamification strategies that combine the physical and virtual worlds can be viable alternatives to motivate young students to develop and acquire empathy skills while playing in situated physical contexts.