Preserved Inhibitory Control Deficits of Overweight Participants in a Gamified Stop-Signal Task: Experimental Study of Validity
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Gamification in mental health could increase training adherence, motivation, and transfer effects, but the external validity of gamified tasks is unclear. This study documents that gamified task variants can show preserved associations between markers of behavioral deficits and health-related variables. We draw on the inhibitory control deficit in overweight populations to investigate effects of gamification on performance measures in a web-based experimental task. OBJECTIVE: This study tested whether associations between inhibitory control and overweight were preserved in a gamified stop-signal task (SST). METHODS: Two versions of an adaptive SST were developed and tested in an online experiment. Participants (n=111) were randomized to 1 of the 2 task variants and completed a series of questionnaires along with either the gamified SST or a conventional SST. To maximize its possible effects on participants' inhibitory control, the gamified SST included multiple game elements in addition to the task itself and the stimuli. Both variants drew on the identical core mechanics, but the gamified variant included an additional narrative, graphical theme, scoring system with visual and emotional feedback, and the presence of a companion character. In both tasks, food and neutral low-poly stimuli were classified based on their color tone (go trials), but responses were withheld in 25% of the trials (stop trials). Mean go reaction times and stop-signal reaction times (SSRT) were analyzed as measures of performance and inhibitory control. RESULTS: Participants in the gamified SST had longer reaction times (803 [SD 179] ms vs 607 [SD 90] ms) and worse inhibitory control (SSRT 383 [SD 109] ms vs 297 [SD 45] ms). The association of BMI with inhibitory control was relatively small (r=.155, 95% CI .013-.290). Overweight participants had longer reaction times (752 [SD 217] ms vs 672 [SD 137] ms) and SSRTs (363 [SD 116] ms vs 326 [SD 77] ms). Gamification did not interact with the effect of overweight on mean performance or inhibitory control. There were no effects of gamification on mood and user experience, despite a negative effect on perceived efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The detrimental effects of heightened BMI on inhibitory control were preserved in a gamified version of the SST. Overall, the effects of overweight were smaller than in previously published web-based and laboratory studies. Gamification elements can impact behavioral performance, but gamified tasks can still assess inhibitory control deficits. Although our results are promising, according validations may differ for other types of behavior, gamification, and health variables.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".