Validity evidence for the Curious Cases in Laptitude, a serious game for laparoscopic skills training

Purpose Box-trainer laparoscopic skills training may be limited by portability, reliance on instructor feedback, and repetitive exercises that reduce motivation. Laptitude is a serious-gaming platform targeting core laparoscopic psychomotor skills. This study gathered validity evidence to support the interpretation that Laptitude’s Curious Cases are realistic and cognitively equivalent to matched Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) tasks, and explored user attitudes. Methods In this observational, questionnaire-based study, 76 fourth-year medical students completed three FLS-matched Laptitude tasks (Transferring, Cutting, Ligation) and one non-matched task (Energy Dissection); which was paired with a Labyrinth task as a control pair. After each pair, participants rated realism, cognitive equivalence, and enjoyment on 5-point Likert scales; perceptions of serious gaming were also assessed. Associations with prior gaming and laparoscopic experience were analyzed. Results Matched tasks were rated favorably (mean scores: Transferring 3.9, Cutting 3.9, Ligation 3.7; median 4 for realism, cognitive equivalence, and enjoyment). Energy Dissection scored lower (mean 3.4, median 3). Repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant effect of task type (F(2.72, 204.13) = 27.52, p < .001, partial η²=0.27); post hoc comparisons confirmed Energy Dissection was rated lower than all matched tasks (all p < .001). No associations were found with prior gaming or laparoscopic experience. Perceptions of serious gaming were positive (median 4), while willingness to purchase a personal copy was neutral (median 3). Conclusion This study provides initial validity evidence, based on content alignment, response process ratings, and relation to other variables, supporting the interpretation that three Laptitude Curious Cases (Transferring, Cutting, Ligation) are realistic and cognitively equivalent to their FLS counterparts.