Delay discounting: Numerical estimation of gamification’s impact on motivation and performance

Gamification is the application of game design methods to a non-game context. To assess the impact of gamification on a common psychological task, we performed two experiments where the effects of gamification on the delay discounting task were evaluated. Experiment 1 compared three versions of the delay discounting task with differing levels of gamification and compared performance and task enjoyment across those variations. Participants found the task in the fully-gamified condition more enjoyable than the other conditions, although they also displayed small differences in task performance. Experiment 2 used two conditions, and participants once again enjoyed the gamified condition more than the control, despite performing comparably in both tasks. More sophisticated graphics and gameplay can provide a more enjoyable experience for participants without undermining delay discounting effects commonly reported in the literature.