Studies on software tutoring systems for complex learning have shown that confusion has a beneficial relationship with the learning experience and student engagement (Arguel et al., 2017). Causing confusion can prevent boredom while signs of confusion can serve as a signal of genuine learning and as a predecessor for frustration. There is little to no research on the role of confusion in early childhood education and playful learning, as these studies primarily focus on high school and university students during complex learning tasks. Despite that, the field acknowledges that confusion may be caused by inconsistency between information and a student's internal model referred to as cognitive disequilibrium known from the theory of cognitive development, which was originally theorized based on observational studies on young children (D'Mello and Graesser, 2012). Therefore, there is reason to expect that the virtues of confusion also apply to young children engaging in learning activities, such as playful learning. To investigate the role of confusion in playful learning, we conducted an observational study, in which the behavior and expressed emotions of young children were collected by familiar pedagogues, using a web app, while they engaged with playful learning games designed for kindergartens. The expressed emotions were analyzed using a likelihood metric to determine the likely transitions between emotions (D'Mello and Graesser, 2012). The preliminary results showed that during short play sessions, children express confusion, frustration, and boredom. Furthermore, the observed emotional transitions were matched with previously established models of affect dynamics during complex learning. We argue that games with a learning objective can benefit by purposely confusing the player and how the player's confusion may be managed to improve the learning experience.

翻译：关于复杂学习任务中软件辅导系统的研究表明，困惑与学习体验及学生参与度之间存在有益关联（Arguel等，2017）。引发困惑可防止无聊情绪，而困惑迹象既能作为真实学习的信号，也可能成为挫败感的前兆。目前针对困惑在幼儿教育与游戏化学习中的作用研究几乎空白，现有研究主要关注高中生和大学生在复杂学习任务中的表现。然而，该领域已认识到困惑可能源于信息与学生内部模型的不一致——这种被称为认知失衡的现象源自认知发展理论，而该理论最初正是基于对幼儿的观察研究建立的（D'Mello和Graesser，2012）。因此有理由预期，困惑的积极效应同样适用于参与游戏化学习等活动的幼儿。为探究困惑在游戏化学习中的作用，我们开展了一项观察研究：由熟悉幼儿的教育工作者通过网页应用程序，收集幼儿在参与专为幼儿园设计的游戏化学习活动时的行为表现与情绪表达。采用似然度量法分析情绪表达，以确定情绪间的可能转换模式（D'Mello和Graesser，2012）。初步结果显示，在短暂游戏过程中，儿童会表现出困惑、挫败感和无聊情绪。此外，观察到的情绪转换模式与先前建立的复杂学习过程中情感动态模型相吻合。我们认为，具有学习目标的游戏可通过有意引发玩家困惑获益，而合理调控玩家的困惑状态则可优化学习体验。