Serious games for psychological assessment: Proposal and validation of two behavioral measures of impulsivity

Gomins is a space adventure game for entertainment and also for psychological testing purposes. Several games are included in order to assess children's social-emotional skills. The aim of this study is to validate two behavioral measures obtained from the games: impulsivity and self-control. A total of 268 children participated in this study (178 boys; range of age: 4 to 12, M = 8.35, SD = 2.06). In addition to these measures, two questionnaires (CBQ-VSF and SDQ) were completed by parents and clinical psychologists carried out assessments to examine children's social-emotional skills. Moderate correlations were found in the impulsivity index and all clinical assessment variables. Only a moderate correlation was observed between the self-control index and the delay of gratification. These results indicate an appropriate convergent validity for both indexes but not discriminant validity for impulsivity index. Patterns of correlations were different across age ranges (4-6, 7-8, 9-12). Convergent and discriminant validity were adequate for both indexes in 7-8-year-old group in which only two significant correlations were obtained: impulsivity x inhibitory control and self-control x delay of gratification. No additional validity indicators were found from correlations with parents' questionnaire scores. The findings of this study provide some evidence of validity of these behavioral measures of impulsivity and self-control. However, different results across age ranges demand further research into the effects of task parameters on the measures.