Investigations Into the Effects of Hint Reading Time and Hint Type in a Digital Mathematics Game Through Response Time Decomposition

This study explored 7th-grade students' help-seeking behaviors in a digital mathematics learning game.In particular, we applied response time decomposition to examine the relationships among the amount of time a student spent reading a hint (i.e., hint reading time), hint type, and in-game performance.The results showed significant differences in hint reading time by the following action and hint type.Overall, hint reading time was positively related to problem solving efficiency scores.However, this association varied by hint type.The use of an indirect hint was negatively correlated with efficiency on the problem in which the hint was accessed but positively correlated with efficiency on the next problem.These findings suggest that prompting students to pause and think about the hint presented may support efficient problem solving.Although indirect hints may cause students to struggle through the problem, they show the benefits of that struggle in subsequent performance.