Game-Based Education, Work Compulsion, and Food Addiction
These are just a few of the questions addressed in the PPK researchers’ March publications.
Contents
- Game-Based Learning in Practice
- What Lies Behind Article Retractions?
- Why Can’t We Stop Working? – The Role of Habit Formation in Work Addiction
- Speak Up or Stay Silent? Voice and Silence in Organisations
- A New Questionnaire to Help Identify Food Addiction
Game-Based Learning in Practice
Game-based education can offer numerous benefits, particularly in boosting learning motivation, improving academic performance, and supporting complex personality development. However, the effective use of this methodology largely depends on teachers’ attitudes and beliefs. This systematic literature review aims to compare the perspectives and attitudes of practising teachers and trainee teachers regarding game-based learning and to explore the factors that may influence their current or future practices.
The results show that while teachers generally have a positive attitude towards game-based methods, they often do not apply them in practice, frequently citing external obstacles. To improve this, it would be worthwhile to examine the topic beyond just its digital aspects, as traditional tools may support easier implementation. Furthermore, clarifying and standardising the theoretical framework would significantly strengthen the theoretical basis of future research and promote correct terminology usage.
This study may prove useful for decision-makers and institution leaders who wish to support the practical implementation of playful teaching methods, as well as for current and future educators looking for guidance on successfully applying these approaches.
What Lies Behind Article Retractions?
Retracting a scientific article is one of the most serious consequences a researcher can face. While fraud and plagiarism often attract the most attention, many retractions result from simple human error. The authors of this paper interviewed researchers whose publications had to be retracted due to data handling mistakes. The responses revealed that even minor oversights — such as file handling errors, coding mistakes, or misinterpreted variables — can lead to retraction.
According to those affected, the retraction process is emotionally taxing. Since most mistakes stem from inattention, the authors recommend that researchers regularly review their data management practices and incorporate routines that reduce the risk of human error. They also encourage academic journals to establish retraction policies that support the open admission of honest mistakes — because the credibility of science depends not on the absence of error, but on the responsible handling of it.
Why Can’t We Stop Working? – The Role of Habit Formation in Work Addiction
Work addiction occurs when work dominates an individual’s life to such an extent that it harms their health, social relationships, and even job performance. This research explores why individuals continue compulsive work behaviours even when they are aware of its negative consequences. A key factor may be habit formation — when behaviours become overly automatic and work-related routines overly dominant.
The study compared people at high and low risk for work addiction in a task measuring how well participants learn unconscious repeating patterns. The results showed no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that excessive automatisation may not be the root cause. Instead, weaker goal-directed functioning — such as lower cognitive flexibility or reduced conscious control — may allow rigid, repetitive behaviour to take over. In other words, the issue may not be that work addicts are too good at forming habits, but rather that they struggle to break them.
Speak Up or Stay Silent? Voice and Silence in Organisations
There is an ongoing debate in organisational psychology over whether expressing opinions and deliberately withholding feedback in organisations are simply two ends of the same spectrum or should be seen as separate behaviours. There are arguments supporting the latter view: for example, prosocial motives might drive an employee both to speak up to improve the workplace and to stay silent to protect colleagues.
To investigate this, researchers developed a model integrating both voice and silence and examined how psychological safety and readiness for change predict these behaviours. Analysing responses from 577 participants, they found that low psychological safety more strongly predicts silence than the lack of voice, while high readiness for change is more strongly linked to increased voice than reduced silence.
These findings suggest that voice and silence are not mere opposites. Practically speaking, organisational interventions aimed solely at encouraging employees to speak up may not necessarily reduce silence unless the specific causes of silence are also addressed.
A New Questionnaire to Help Identify Food Addiction
The concept of food addiction suggests that certain foods — especially highly processed, tasty, and calorie-dense items — can trigger addictive symptoms. So far, there have been few reliable tools to measure this. The Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0), developed based on DSM criteria for substance-related and addictive disorders, aims to fill this gap.
This study validated the Hungarian version of YFAS 2.0 with a sample of 605 participants, who also completed various other psychological assessments. The researchers examined the reliability of the Hungarian scale and its relationship to psychological factors.
The results showed that the Hungarian version of YFAS 2.0 is a useful tool for identifying food addiction in non-clinical, general population settings. According to the data, 18.5% of respondents met the criteria for food addiction. The findings also revealed strong links between food addiction and other mental and behavioural issues. Additionally, higher BMI was associated with food addiction, particularly among overweight women.