Gamified Mobile Assessments as a Viable Alternative to Self-Report Questionnaires in Attention, Entrepreneurship, and Memory

Abstract Self-report questionnaires are a cornerstone of psychology but suffer from well-known biases and engagement issues. We investigated whether gamified mobile phone tasks can be an alternative to traditional self-report measures for key psychological constructs. A total of 402 adults from diverse backgrounds played a suite of short smartphone games designed to assess entrepreneurial tendency, everyday cognitive functioning, and attentional control. Performance metrics from these games (e.g., response times, accuracy, error rates) were correlated with scores on established questionnaires measuring the same constructs: the General Measure of Enterprising Tendency (GET2), the Everyday Cognition scale (ECog), and the Attentional Control Scale (ACS). Significant associations emerged between game behaviors and questionnaire scores where quicker and more accurate in-game responses were associated with higher self-reported enterprising tendencies and better everyday cognition. Although individual correlations were moderate, these links demonstrate convergent validity between gamified behavior and traditional surveys, given the inherent noise in self-report data. Our findings provide proof-of-concept that mobile game-based assessments can reflect the same individual differences captured by questionnaires while potentially reducing self-report biases and enhancing participant engagement. This study lays foundational evidence that behavioural metrics from smartphone games could eventually complement or replace questionnaire measures in research and applied settings​.