Students learning problem solving in programming with a game are more likely to be in the flow state, as defined by Csikszentmihalyi [1], than students learning in traditional ways. Students’ intrinsic motivation was also greater when a game was used.

The psychological state of a student influences the problem-solving strategies employed. The three states considered are flow, boredom, and anxiety. Students experiencing a flow experience tended to apply trial-and-error, learning by example, and analytical reasoning. Students in the boredom or anxiety states tended not to use in-depth problem-solving strategies. The research was done with 117 or so students using questionnaires and activity logs. (Only ten students were in the boredom state.)

State diagrams show the sequences of strategies used and the calculated transition probabilities between states. One observation is that anxious students seldom went from “solution reuse” to “experiment”; they seldom learned by example. This thorough and readable paper presents a promising approach.