Cognitive User Modeling for Adaptivity in Serious Games

Accurate user models that capture information such as needs and knowledge levels are a central part of adaptive e-learning systems, which is all the more important in a post-pandemic world with more individualized learning. In this article, we report on the application of a Bayesian cognitive state modeling approach to adaptive educational serious games. Adaptivity needs information on the users as control variables, e.g., high or low cognitive load. Typically, this information is encoded in user models. One approach to building user models is to use tools from cognitive sciences such as Bayesian cognitive state modeling. However, cognitive modeling tools for adaptivity are sparse and can be difficult to implement. The main research question of this work is how to apply cognitive modeling tools to serious games to control adaptivity. The contribution of this article is the concept of how to implement cognitive modeling for adaptive serious games. Our approach makes use of standardized Experience API (xAPI) tracking data to facilitate applicability. We investigate how to compute quantitative measures of user performance to control adaptive responses. The implemented system has been evaluated in a user study with a serious game for image interpretation. The study results show a moderate correlation between self-assessed and computed variables.