System and method for knowledge transfer with a game

• US 8,172,577 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2007
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Northeastern University
• Original Assignee: Northeastern University
• Inventors: O'Malley, Donald M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fletcher, Jerry-Daryl
• Application Number:
  US11/881,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20080026359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,747 Days
• Field of Search: 434/322, 434/323, 434/350, 434/362
• US Class Current: 434/322
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00097 Board games with labyrinths, path finding, line forming labyrinths in boxes with small balls A63F7/04; other labyrinth games A63F9/0078
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00154 Mastermind
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00643 Electric board games; Electric features of board games electric word or number games A63F3/0421; computer chess G06F; electric raffle games A63F3/081
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

An educational maze navigated through responses to questions provided at points in the maze enhances factual assimilation and retention for the user. The user selects responses to travel through the maze and is not immediately informed whether the selected responses are correct. Various indications can be provided to inform the user about the correctness of responses or whether they are on a path towards the maze exit. The indications may be dead ends, loops, suggested reference materials or other information that tends to assist the user in assimilating facts or navigating the maze. The user may receive a reward for providing correct responses or successfully completing the maze. The problem-solving and cognitive judgment skills applied to navigate the maze tends to help users assimilate and retain the factual information represented by the queries and responses.

Claims

1. A method for transferring knowledge to or testing knowledge of a user with a game implemented on a numerical computation device, the method comprising:

providing a maze architecture representative of an information space and composed of interconnected nodes to form paths through the maze;

providing a query and a plurality of responses, each response being associated with a path leading out of at least one node, one of the responses being a more correct response to the query than another response in the plurality, wherein the plurality of responses are not physical maze directions; and

presenting the user with the query and responses associated with the at least one node when the user is represented as being located at the at least one node;

receiving a response selection from the user;

as a result of the response selection received from the user, representing movement of the user out of the at least one node along a path associated with the response selection received from the user in accordance with the maze architecture.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the maze architecture represents a logical maze.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising omitting altogether provision of an indication to the user of whether the user selected the more correct response.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing an indication of whether the represented movement is in a direction closer to a maze exit after the represented movement.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing suggestive information to the user related to subject matter of the query or maze location or path after the represented movement.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the suggestive information is reference material related to the subject matter of the query.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the suggestive information is a query associated with the another node.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the suggestive information relates to the subject matter of the query at the at least one node or a previously traversed node.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the suggestive information relates to whether the user selected the more correct response to the query at the at least one node or a previously traversed node.

10. The method according to claim 5, further comprising providing suggestive information to the user based on a time interval related to navigating the maze.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising presenting to the user a representation of a physical maze corresponding to the maze architecture.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a report containing information related to user performance for traversing the maze.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing the maze architecture further comprises setting a maze difficulty level.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein setting the maze difficulty level further comprises applying statistical methods to analytically determine a probability of successfully navigating the maze by chance.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the query is a multiple choice question.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising indicating to the user whether a response to a previous query was a more correct response.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a reward to the user upon receiving one or more more correct responses.

18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a reward to the user upon completion of the maze.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing a maze architecture further comprises:

providing a maze architecture template free of queries and responses associated with the nodes; and

permitting entry of queries and responses associated with the nodes.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interconnected nodes form one or more of a loop or dead end.

21. A system for transferring knowledge to or testing knowledge of a user with a game through a computer user interface, the system comprising:

a storage media for storing a maze architecture representative of an information space and composed of interconnected nodes to form paths through the maze;

a data structure in the storage media for storing a query and associated responses;

a processor operable to access program instructions on the storage media, the program instructions being executable by the processor to;

present the query and associated responses to the computer user interface in accordance with a representative node at which the user is represented as being located within the maze architecture;

receive a response selection from the user, wherein the response selection is not a physical maze direction;

as a result of the response selection received from the user, represent movement of the user out of the representative node along a path associated with the response selection received from the user in accordance with the maze architecture.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the maze architecture is a logical maze.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein the processor is further operable to omit altogether presentation of an indication of whether the response selection is more correct than other responses associated with the query.

24. The system according to claim 21, further comprising suggestive information stored on the storage media related to the subject matter of the query or maze location, the processor being operable to provide the suggestive information to the user after receipt of the response selection.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein the suggestive information is reference material related to the subject matter of the query.

26. The system according to claim 24, wherein the suggestive information is another query.

27. The system according to claim 24, wherein the suggestive information relates to the subject matter of the query in accordance with the representative node or a previously traversed node.

28. The system according to claim 24, wherein the suggestive information relates to whether the user selected the more correct response to the query in accordance with the representative node or a previously traversed node.

29. The system according to claim 21, wherein the processor is further operable to present a representation of a physical maze to the computer user interface corresponding to the maze architecture.

30. The system according to claim 21, wherein the processor is further operable to store performance information in the storage media related to user performance in transiting the maze.

31. The system according to claim 21, wherein the query is a multiple choice question.

32. The system according to claim 21, wherein the processor is further operable to present visual, audio, tactile or olfactory media representations to the computer user interface related to the query.

33. A computer implemented method for transferring knowledge to a user, comprising:

presenting a plurality of choices to the user that are not physical directions;

providing a set of logical paths, each path being associated with a choice in the plurality of choices;

accepting a selection of one of the choices by the user;

in response to the user choice selection, providing an indication of traversing the path associated with the user choice selection.