Revisiting the Intrinsic Integration Hypothesis

The Intrinsic Integration Hypothesis proposes that educational games that use the core game mechanisms to teach the learning material are not only more fun to play, but also more effective at communicating the target knowledge. My thesis tests the Intrinsic Integration Hypothesis with two educational versions of Battleship that were designed for my experiment. This study examined the learning gains and motivation of 58 participants who interacted with either the intrinsic or extrinsic version for 35 minutes. The results contradicted previous findings in support of the Intrinsic Integration Hypothesis: participants reported that both games were similarly motivating as measured by questionnaire data, and participants who practised with the extrinsically-integrated version of the game learned more as measured by pretest to posttest gains. This work contributes empirical data to the debate concerning intrinsic integration, and it raises concerns about the need for transfer and increased cognitive load in these educational games.