The recent rise in the adoption of technology-enhanced methodologies for the assessment of psychological abilities (such as cognitive skills and soft skills) has shown the several advantages that these novel technologies have in comparison with traditional methods, including their interactive nature, immediate feedback and the ability to simulate real-life situations. However, the di erences between these methods are often di cult to quantify and conceptualize. The aim of the present study is to take a step forward in investigating these di erences by evaluating the implicit and explicit motivation in the completion of two tests that assess the ability to manage interpersonal con ict. A sample of 100 participants was asked to complete two psychological tests for con ict management: the ROCI-II, a traditional test and Enact, a serious game, followed by a self-report questionnaire. The motivation, pleasantness and perceived time spent on the two tests were compared. Results show that the technology-enhanced platform was evaluated as signi cantly more pleasant and interesting. Additionally, graduates/postgraduates in other disciplines than psychology signi cantly underestimated the time spent interacting with the technological platform in comparison with the standard paper and pencil test.
Serious games and technology-enhanced tests, in particular role-play and
simulation-based, are considered powerful tools thanks to their interactive [
To investigate explicit motivation, as described in the next section, an ad hoc questionnaire was developed, while implicit motivation and pleasantness was measured with the construct of time perception.
Concerning time perception, several studies analysed changes in the
individual perception of time, trying to evaluate the relationships between
objective time and subjective time and how these are related to several internal
and external conditions as well as subjective distortions [
The Rahim Organizational Con ict Inventory II, or ROCI-II [
The Enact game platform is a simulation-based serious game in which users
are asked to negotiate with one virtual agent in a real-life con ict situation
selecting one among ve di erent sentences, each re ecting one of the styles
de ned in Rahim and Bonoma's theory. The game is scenario-based and in each
scenario the virtual agent displays a di erent con ict management style, for a
total of 5 [
For the purpose of the research, an ad hoc self-report questionnaire was developed, as a methodology for assessing the explicit and implicit levels of motivation and pleasantness of the participants after the administration of the two tests. The questionnaire was composed as follows: { information sheet with informed consent { demographic questionnaire { pleasantness and time perception self-report In the self-report questionnaire, divided into three sections, participants were asked to respond to items using a three or ve-point Likert scale. The questionnaire evaluated: 1. the personal perception of time, interest in performing the two tests, pleasantness and attention; 2. the perception of having acquired greater awareness of their style of managing con ict after each test, and the consequent motivation and will to deepen or not the subject; 3. estimation of the time spent in the completion of the two assessment tools.
The research was conducted at the Natural and Arti cial Cognition (NAC) Lab at the University of Naples Federico II. The sample was selected randomly and consists of 100 participants equally distributed between males and females (N = 100 of which M = 50 and F = 50). The age of the sample is between 18 and 35 (mean = 23.98, st.d. = 2.749, female mean = 24, male mean = 23.96). 49% of the sample consists of BSc or MSc psychology students. The remaining 51% is made of other BSc or MSc students in 9% language, 7% law, 7% philosophy, 5% literature, 2% history, 2% physical education, 2% biology, and 1% from the following courses: history of art, phonology, physics, geology, speech therapy, engineering, digital cultures, political science, music, economics. Finally, 2% are interns and PhD students, and 5% did not specify. Each participant was uniquely identi ed with a code to ensure anonymity.
For convenience, the sample was divided into two groups: a group formed by graduates or postgraduates in psychology and one formed by graduates or postgraduates in other disciplines. Regardless of their gender, participants on average spent about 6 minutes to complete the ROCI-II and 12 to complete Enact. 3.1
Regarding the explicit perception of pleasantness, data from the answers given to the self-report was analyzed. The answer frequencies for each section of the self-report questionnaire are shown respectively in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3
From the analysis of the data of the rst section, the following results emerged: Item
1. Most of the sample (87%) believed that it took longer to complete Enact than ROCI-II. 2. Although students perceived that more time was spent on Enact, most of them found Enact more interesting (91%) and pleasant (84%) than the ROCI-II. Also the level of attention was considered by most students (77%) higher while completing the serious game compared to the traditional test. From the analysis of the data of the second section of the questionnaire, it is possible to evidence that: 1. 43% of the sample, thus the relative majority, did not believe that it took too long to nish Enact compared to ROCI II, while only 29% believed the opposite is true. 2. 40% of the sample declared that completing the ROCI-II was a more boring task compared to Enact. 3. The majority of the sample (72%) preferred to complete Enact rather than the ROCI-II. 4. More than half (52%) of the sample declared that they were not distracted during the execution of ROCI-II compared to Enact, and only 24% declared the opposite.
From the analysis of the data of the third section, the following results emerged: 1. The majority (51%) of the sample declared that, during the interaction with Enact, new knowledge regarding the ability to manage con ict was acquired and even more (59%) declared that they were motivated to deepen this knowledge. 2. On the other hand, 53% of the sample stated that they have not learned anything new during the administration of the ROCI-II.
Then, we analysed gender di erences in the distribution of the answers to the questionnaire. The following statistically signi cant di erences were found: { the serious game Enact was evaluated di erently in terms of the perception of learning new knowledge concerning con ict management skills between males and females (p = 0.001). Speci cally, most female participants (66%) evaluated Enact positively, (22% do not take a position on this and 12% evaluate it negatively); while male students are almost equally divided between those who positively rate it (34%), those who do not take a position (30%) and those who evaluate it negatively (36%); { the ROCI-II test is evaluated di erently in terms of perception of new acquired knowledge regarding their con ict management skills by participants based on their gender (p = 0.038). Speci cally, almost half of the female participants (46%) assessed ROCI II negatively, while the other half either takes no position (30%) or evaluates it positively (24%); the percentage of male students that rate it negatively instead is much higher (60%), while 28% do not take a position on it and only 12% rate it positively. Summarizing the results, most participants correctly estimated that it took longer to complete Enact rather than the ROCI-II. However, the serious game was perceived as more interesting and enjoyable to play, while the traditional test was less appreciated. More than half of the sample also declared to have learned new knowledge about their way of managing con ict with others thanks to the use of the serious game Enact (while the opposite was true about the traditional test) and was motivated to deepen this knowledge. 3.2
Regarding the implicit perception of pleasantness, the rst analysis performed aimed at comparing the real time spent to complete the two assessment tools and the subjective time spent as perceived by the participants. Table 4 shows the statistical averages and the standard deviations referring to the real time (expressed in minutes) used to perform the ROCI-II test and the Enact game.
There are no signi cant di erences between males and females in the real time spent to complete Enact (p = 0.697) nor the real time spent to complete the ROCI-II (p = 0.931).
To express their perception of time, participants could choose one option among: less than 10 minutes, between 10 and 15 minutes and more than 15 minutes. The results are summarized in Table 5.
In contrast to the lack on any di erence on real time spent, the gender variable determines e ects on the perceived duration of the two tests: the perceived time spent to complete Enact, in fact, is estimated di erently according to the gender (p = 0.034). In particular female students tend to more accurately estimate the administration time of Enact, while male students tend to Gender Stat Real Time Enact Real Time ROCI-II F Average 12.38 5.50
St. Dev. 3.557 1.741 M Average 12.00 6.42
St. Dev. 3.338 1.727 TOT Average 12.19 5.96
St. Dev. 3.437 1.786 Table 4. Average time (minutes) taken by the participants to complete the two assessment tools divided by gender. underestimate it, as shown in Figure 1. Time perception also appears to be in uenced by the type of degree (graduate/postgraduate in psychology versus graduate/postgraduate in other subjects). The two groups signi cantly di er in terms of perceived time spent on Enact (p = 0.015, measured with the MannWhitney U test). Figure 2 shows the distribution of the answers given to the self-report by the two groups, concerning the time perceived in executing Enact.
It emerged that participants in the group "Psychology graduates/postgraduates" were able to correctly estimate the time spent completing Enact, while those enrolled or graduated in other disciplines did present a bias towards the underestimation of this time. 4
From the results, it emerged that the majority of the sample correctly estimated the time taken to perform the two evaluation tools, recognizing that the serious game requires more time. However, the serious game was perceived as more interesting and enjoyable to play, while the traditional test was less liked. This data con rms the hypothesis that the perception of explicit pleasantness of the participants, in reference to the two evaluation tools, is higher towards the serious game Enact.
The gender variable does not determine e ects on the actual duration of
Enact and ROCI-II, but it signi cantly determines the subjective perception of
time: female subjects tended to estimate more correctly the execution time of
Enact, while males tended to slightly underestimate it. Females are also more
likely to positively evaluate Enact (in terms of perception of acquiring new
knowledge regarding their ability to manage con ict), while males evaluate ROCI-II,
more negatively than females. Data related to gender di erences sees the female
sample having a signi cantly higher score in the items that express a greater
appreciation explicit towards Enact (unlike males who maintain on average more
neutral responses. This is in accordance with a previous study about Enact
pleasantness [
The di erence emerged between the sample group that was
graduate/postgraduate in psychology and the group that was graduate/postgraduate in other
disciplines concerning the perception of time in reference to Enact sparks particular
interest: participants that were graduated/postgraduate in disciplines other than
psychology tended to underestimate the time spent on Enact, and this can be
interpreted as an evaluation bias introduced by their interest and engagement with
the game. However, graduates/postgraduates in psychology were not a ected by
this bias. Indeed, previous literature showed that graduates/postgraduates in
psychology are more aware of the subjective aspects that in uence our
perception of time, as they, during their academic journey, come into contact with
psychological constructs such as human metacognition and the biases associated
with it. Theories on metacognition argue that there is a causal link between
metacognitive re ections, control processes and cognitive performance [
The present research aimed to explore the di erences in pleasantness and motivation during the administration of standard paper and pencil tests and technologyenhanced tests for psychological assessment. For this purpose, participants were asked to complete two assessment tools that test the ability to manage interpersonal con ict, in particular the ROCI-II test (a paper-and-pencil test) and the Enact game platform (a simulation-based serious game). Then, participants were asked to ll a self-report questionnaire. Results show that, even if the serious game Enact took much longer to complete, it was generally assessed as signi cantly more pleasant and interesting, regardless of the gender and degree of the participant. Additionally, perceived time spent on the Enact platform was signi cantly underestimated, but only by participants who were not graduates/postgraduates in psychology. Also, the majority of the sample reported that new knowledge regarding negotiation and con ict management was acquired during the Enact gameplay, while this was not reported for the ROCI-II.