This study aims to develop an unobtrusive measure for experienced stress in a digital serious gaming environment involving decision making in crisis management, using only in-game measures in a digital decision game called the Mayor Game. Research has shown that stress has an influence on a decision-maker’s behavior, and also on the learning experience in training scenarios. Being able to assess unobtrusively the level of stress experienced would allow manipulation of the game so as to improve the learning experience. An experiment was conducted with two conditions, one paced and one non-paced. In the paced condition, participants were exposed to in-game changes that aimed to induce stress by creating information overload, uncertainty and time pressure. While pacing caused differences between the conditions with respect to in-game performance for analytical skills, several simple unobtrusive in-game measures were not consistent enough to serve as indicators for experienced stress. Further, physiological measurements of stress did not show significant differences between the conditions, indicating that the employed methods to induce stress did not work sufficiently. These results call for testing of more sophisticated methodologies to unobtrusively assess experienced stress in the given type of serious game.

Introduction

“Hasty, often unwise decisions” are induced by stress (Cooper, 2007, p. 21). This statement highlights the influence of stress on the quality of decision-making processes and was confirmed by later findings describing the effect of stress on decision making (Starcke & Brand, 2012). It is also related to the Yerkes-Dodson law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908), which indicates that people perform worse under higher than optimal stress conditions. The Yerkes-Dodson law, describing a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship between stress and performance, further implies that a slight level of experienced stress is nonetheless beneficial compared to experiencing no stress at all (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). This relationship is of paramount importance when a high quality decisionmaking process is needed, such as decision making in the context of crisis management. In some crisis situations the decisions to be taken are similar to dilemmas: No matter what exact decision is made, the result is never perfect for all parties involved. In these situations, it is crucial to have a high quality decision-making process, thereby ensuring that decisions are not hasty and unwise, but well thought through, and that important factors are considered (Crichton, Flin, & Rattray, 2000). One of the crucial aspects of crisis management is situation assessment, in which the available information and its meaning are examined and evaluated (Mezey, 2004). A thorough analysis of the crisis situation is also crucial for situational awareness (SA; Endsley, 2000), about which the author stated: “Most simply put, SA is knowing what is going on around you” (p. 2). Knowing that, we can reasonably conclude that situational awareness and situation assessment are key in decision making in crisis management (Mezey, 2004; van der Hulst, Muller, Buiel, van Gelooven, & Ruijsendaal, 2014; Veiligheidsregio Twente, 2016). Further looking at the role of stress, Mezey (2004) explained that stress can be produced in crisis situations, which would influence the crisis manager’s performance.