Using the Revised Bloom Taxonomy to Analyze Psychotherapeutic Games

Priscilla Haring,Christian Roth,Harald Warmelink,Marilla Valente

doi:10.1155/2018/8784750

Abstract

Most of the scientific literature on computer games aimed at offering or aiding in psychotherapy provides little information on the relationship between the game’s design and the player’s cognitive processes. This article investigates the use of Bloom’s taxonomy in describing a psychotherapeutic game in terms of knowledge level and cognitive processing. It introduces the Revised Bloom Taxonomy and applies this to five psychotherapeutic games (Personal Investigator, Treasure Hunt, Ricky and the Spider, Moodbot, and SuperBetter) in a two-round procedure. In the first round consensus was reached on the Player Actions with Learning Objectives (PALOs) in each game. The second round sought to determine what level of knowledge and cognitive processing can be attributed to the PALOs by placing them in the taxonomy. Our low intercoder reliability in the second round indicates that Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is not suitable to compare and contrast content between games.

Highlights

Over the past decade we have observed the emergence of a modest amount of psychotherapeutic games
In search of more homogenous way to describe game content and player actions we returned to the literature, where we found the stipulation that the taxonomy is meant as a structure for learning objectives
Can Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Be Used as a Checklist during the Design of a Psychotherapeutic Game? Our discussion to formulate Player Actions with Learning Objectives (PALOs) provided a structured way of describing how game design connects player actions to certain objectives and might provide support during the design process of a psychotherapeutic game. Attempting to place these PALOs in the taxonomy establishes a discussion of the game content on the level of cognition

Summary

Introduction

Over the past decade we have observed the emergence of a modest amount of psychotherapeutic games. With the term psychotherapeutic games, we refer to computer games aimed at offering or aiding in therapy for any psychological disorders or conditions (most often the precursors of depression or anxiety). The use of psychotherapeutic board games as well as existing entertainment computer games during therapy is already widely regarded as good practice in many situations [1]. It is surprising to find only limited information concerning psychotherapeutic videogames in the scientific literature relating to design and content [2, 3]. Horne-Moyer et al focused their review on high-order design characteristics (games for health-related behaviours or individual therapy, versus games for entertainment used in individual or group therapy) and their general effectiveness [4]. Fleming et al offered a more comprehensive review but kept their review of the games’

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion