Gender differences in cognitive load and competition anxiety affect 6th grade students' attitude toward playing and intention to play at a sequential or synchronous game

Ming Yueh Hwang, Jon Chao Hong*, Hao Yueh Cheng, Yu Chi Peng, Nien Chen Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Do girls have more competition anxiety and exogenous cognitive load than equally able boys during the playing of stressful competitive on-line games? This question led to the adoption of a technology acceptance model to compare the influence factors of competitors in sequential and synchronous games. Confirmatory factor analysis of the data on 220 students in the 6th grade indicated that girls did have a higher cognitive load and more competition anxiety from synchronous types of competitive games, but they showed beliefs in technology acceptance constructs that were similar to that of boys. Even with high cognitive load and competition anxiety, the boys and girls didn't show a decrease in their perceived ease of playing and sense of usefulness in using this game to learning Chinese characters for two types of competitive games, and they both showed a positive attitude and intentions to play the game. This study implied that the game designers should consider reducing the competition anxiety and cognitive load by extending the time-frames for sequential competition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)254-263
Number of pages10
JournalComputers and Education
Volume60
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013 Jan

Keywords

  • Cooperative/collaborative learning
  • Evaluation of CAL systems
  • Gender studies
  • Media in education

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science
  • Education

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