Investigating the Incubation Effect among Students playing Physics Playground

Abstract

We investigate the Incubation Effect (IE), a phenomenon by which a momentary break facilitates the generation of a solution to a problem, and its relationship with both achievement and affect of middle school students playing Physics Playground. Statistical data reports no significant improvement in the overall performance when breaks are done. Also, the success rate of solving problems after taking a break has no significant difference with the success rate of attempts without breaks. This could be attributed to the fact that the activity done during breaks is very similar to the problem-solving task, but further investigation needs to be done for validation. The results may say IE has not improved the in-game achievement of students, however, majority of IE occurrences resulted to success. This is evidence to support the positive effect of incubation. Also, a significant positive correlation was found between IE incidence and frustration.