Research Summary: Adaptive dialogic feedback in AI-enhanced serious games: examining effects on motivation and learning processes in digital literacy education

A research study investigates the impact of adaptive dialogic feedback, generated by AI, within serious games designed for digital literacy education. The focus is on how AI-driven Non-Player Character (NPC) responses influence student motivation, experiential learning, and behavioral processes in the context of misinformation evaluation, rather than immediate knowledge acquisition. This approach aims to address the challenges posed by increasingly variable and persuasive generative AI misinformation.

Why it matters

This research addresses the critical need for advanced educational strategies to combat the evolving threat of misinformation, particularly as generative AI makes it more sophisticated. Understanding how adaptive AI feedback can enhance learning processes and motivation is crucial for developing effective digital literacy programs that prepare individuals for dynamic information environments.

Key insights

• Generative AI enhances the variability, persuasiveness, and context-sensitivity of misinformation, necessitating advanced digital literacy education.
• Digital literacy learning environments require dynamic conditions for credibility evaluation practice, alongside maintaining instructional control.
• The study examines adaptive dialogic feedback, characterized by AI-generated NPC responses that adapt to learner verification decisions and gameplay context.
• The research specifically investigates whether AI-driven dialogue changes motivational, experiential, and behavioral learning processes, compared to scripted NPC dialogue.
• The theoretical framework for this investigation is grounded in self-determination theory and experiential learning principles.

Source

Educational Technology Research and Development — https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-026-10701-3