The overall research focus in this interlinked project concerns the affordances of game based learning for (pre-)vocational track students in the domain of mathematics. Specific research questions concern the effects of game characteristics on students? motivation, learning processes, and acquired knowledge. In a set of research projects that share common elements (the game-based learning environment, tests, and process measures) variations in the game that concern learner control, competency, level of uncertainty, situatedness, reflective prompts, and curiosity are investigated. To help explain effects, dedicated process measures are applied, including (neuro)physiological techniques. After a set of studies within each project, results will be grouped and implemented in (a) final design(s) of the learning game and comparisons to a direct instructive methods will be made. The interlinked programme will indicate concrete conditions under which positive learning effects are established. It will result in design guidelines for effective game-based learning.

Since the 1990s, the number of websites has increased extensively and online information seeking (IS) has become an integral part of our daily activities. In parallel, the population aged over 65 is increasing in all OECD countries, a trend that is expected to continue in the coming decades (OECD, 2009). Accessing the Web for older people is a very important challenge, as it helps them to foster independence, reduce isolation, and to increase communication and wellbeing. Despite its importance, there is still a lack of focus on improving the use of Internet by older people by developing detailed process models that account for age-related individual differences in information seeking. The aims of this research project are: (1) To develop a new computational model of information seeking taking into account individual differences related to aging. (2) To create tool to support older people while seeking information on the Web. Firstly, the development of such a model is required for a better understanding of the IS activities and for supporting older users. To this end, the current project aims to determine the effect of cognitive processes and abilities related to fluid and crystallized intelligence on IS while considering the age of participants (old vs. young adults) and type of documents to be interacted with, during different stages of IS, i.e. from the formulation of the query with a search engine to the processing of and navigation through web pages. We will compare search and navigation performance and strategies of younger and older web users to the performance obtained by two complementary models of search and navigation: SNIF-ACT and CoLiDeS+Pic. Secondly, the objectives are to achieve a better understanding of cognitive difficulties experienced by older adults, and to improve our model of IS activity and on basis of that to develop tools to support this IS activity. The project falls within the fields of Cognitive Psychology (and Ergonomics) and Science and Technology Studies. Two methods will be used: (1) Experimental method, using various techniques depending on the objectives of the study (analysis of online seeking behavior and eye tracking); (2) simulating and modelling activity. The project is divided into four parts with different objectives and experiments. The experimental studies aim to determine the effects of age (younger vs. older adults), the level of prior domain knowledge (high vs. low), the relevance of pictures and specificitiesof seek tasks to be performed (difficulty, preciseness, complexity) on IS activity. In parallel, CoLiDeS+Pic and SNIF-ACT models will be developed to simulate users performance and behavior. More precisely, Part A establishes baseline performance in seeking information from formulation of queries to navigation in websites. The experiments will be carried out in an ecological context, i.e. with real search engines and websites. Part B addresses the role of aging, pictures, prior domain knowledge, search difficulty and complexity during formulation of queries and selection of links visited with experimental search engines. Part C studies the role of aging, pictures, prior domain knowledge, and search difficulty during navigation in experimental websites. Part D aims to develop a new model of IS taking into account participants age. Results from each stage of the project will lead to an assistive tool that supports older people to more effectively seek online information.