Goals

Knowing the Elements on the screen is crucial for our analysis, but all of it would lack a real value if we didn’t know what are the micro-objectives in the current activity the kid is playing, and of course the final goal. Knowing what the kid has to do is as important as knowing what the kid actually does. Knowing what the kid has to do is what Goals are for.

Subtypes

There are several classes of Goals, depending on the final objective of each activity. To make it clearer in the SDK, developers can choose from different implementations of the Goal class, which are explained below.

Selection Goals

A selection goal object is used whenever the objective requires the kid to select an item from a list of possible elements, where some of them (or all except one) are incorrect. In the following example only one element is correct:

For this activity we would use the SelectionGoal class. All of the following are valid examples:

// A simple Goal with just a goal name.
//  The 'unique_solution' parameter is true by default
SelectionGoal simple_two_wings_goal = new SelectionGoal("two_wings_goal");
infantium.addGoal(simple_two_wings_goal);

// An improved SelectionGoal with some optional parameters
//  'name', 'unique_solution', and number of 'correct' and 'incorrect' choices.
SelectionGoal improved_two_wings_goal = new SelectionGoal("two_wings_goal", true);
improved_two_wings_goal.set_n_correct_choices(1);
improved_two_wings_goal.set_n_incorrect_choices(2);
infantium.addGoal(improved_two_wings_goal);

// A full SelectionGoal with all the optional parameters
//  'name', 'unique_solution', 'needed_action', 'correct' and 'incorrect' choices.
SelectionGoal full_two_wings_goal = new SelectionGoal("two_wings_goal", true, "tap");
full_two_wings_goal.set_correct_choices(Arrays.asList("two_wings_element"));
full_two_wings_goal.set_incorrect_choices(Arrays.asList("one_wing_element",
    "three_wings_element"));
infantium.addGoal(full_two_wings_goal);

Matching Goals

In other kind of games, the kid is required to match one element with a target, usually corresponding to elements and their shadowed silhouettes, or puzzle pieces into a shadow of the resolved image or just an empty space. For instance:

In these cases the MatchingGoal is the most appropriate class:

// A simple Goal with just a goal name and the 'matching_element' parameter
MatchingGoal simple_select_key_goal = new MatchingGoal("key_goal_1", "squared_element");
infantium.addGoal(simple_select_key_goal);

// A full MatchingGoal with the optional parameters 'target_element' and 'correspondence_type'
MatchingGoal full_select_key_goal = new MatchingGoal("key_goal_1", "squared_element",
    "squared_shadow_element");
full_select_key_goal.add_correspondence_type("shape");
full_select_key_goal.add_correspondence_type("size");
infantium.addGoal(full_select_key_goal);

However, there are some game activities where the kid can match different elements among them, where for a given target multiple elements fit as the correct solution, for instance the following activity, where all the flowers fit each of the targets:

In this case you can add a list of element IDs that fit the same target, or even use the keyword “ALL” to mark that all the elements can fit that target. An example of the code:

// The same previous Goal with just a goal name and a list of 'matching_element' ids
//  as a parameter
MatchingGoal multiple_select_key_goal = new MatchingGoal("key_goal_1",
    Arrays.asList("flower_1", "flower_3", "flower_5"));
infantium.addGoal(multiple_select_key_goal);

// A full MatchingGoal with the optional parameters 'target_element' and 'correspondence_type'
//  which can accept ALL elements as correct elements
MatchingGoal full_multiple_select_key_goal = new MatchingGoal("key_goal_1", "ALL",
    "flower_spot_element_1");
full_multiple_select_key_goal.add_correspondence_type("shape");
full_multiple_select_key_goal.add_correspondence_type("size");
infantium.addGoal(full_multiple_select_key_goal);

Tapping Goals

A tapping goal is a kind of goal where the kid just has to tap on the elements he’s seeing, without making any distinction of the nature of the element, i.e., all elements need to be tapped. An example could be:

In this case, there is an object named TappingGoal which adapts to this scenario:

// A TappingGoal with the least parameters
TappingGoal simple_tapping_goal = new TappingGoal("tap_odd_flies",
    Arrays.asList("fly_1", "fly_3", "fly_5"));
infantium.addGoal(simple_tapping_goal);

// The "ALL" parameter can be used here too
TappingGoal simple_tapping_goal = new TappingGoal("tap_all_flies", "ALL");
infantium.addGoal(simple_tapping_goal);

If it is possible to give more information about the nature of the elements on the screen, it can be done by specifying the type of those elements with an additional type parameter, which can take the values: “moving” for dynamic elements, “highlighted” for elements which stand out intentionally from the rest of the elements, or “hidden” for partially hidden elements.

// A TappingGoal with the least parameters
TappingGoal moving_tapping_goal = new TappingGoal("tap_all_flies", "ALL", "moving");
infantium.addGoal(moving_tapping_goal);

Generic Goals

There are some kind of goals which do not fall inside any of the previous sutbypes. For those kind of objectives the generic Goal should be enough to describe the nature of the activity. For instance the following painting game:

This activity could be defined with the default Goal class:

// A Goal with the least parameters
Goal painting_goal = new Goal("paint_the_elephant");
infantium.addGoal(painting_goal);

// A full Goal with all the optional parameters:
//  'time_limit' (in milliseconds),
//  'instructions' referencing to an element id of the help text,
//  'auto_eval' which describes if the action automatically triggers
//    the evaluation process or not
Goal full_painting_goal = new Goal("paint_the_elephant", 10000, true);
full_painting_goal.set_instructions("instructions_element");
infantium.addGoal(full_painting_goal);

For more information about the Goals you can head to the Goal Javadocs.

Docs version: 2.3
Last update: April 24, 2014