The article examines game mechanics as structural devices that shape cognitive models of decision-making rather than as entertainment-oriented rules. Relevance follows from the growing use of interactive systems where user choices emerge under uncertainty, time pressure, and reward contingencies, making the cognitive imprint of mechanics a design concern. Novelty consists in treating mechanics as cognitive interfaces that configure attention, inference, and action selection through repeated feedback cycles. The study aims to build an analytic account of how mechanic families (action-oriented and system-oriented) cultivate distinct decision strategies—reactive, planning-based, probabilistic, and systemic—through a stable core loop. The article applies analytical synthesis of recent research on game-based assessment, task-attention mechanisms, uncertainty management, and gamified system design. Results articulate a mechanics-to-model mapping that links feedback, constraints, and reward schedules to internal causal beliefs, risk heuristics, and transfer-ready strategies. The article targets researchers and designers working with gameful and decision-centric digital products.

game mechanics, decision-making, cognitive models, core loop, risk and reward, uncertainty, heuristics, attention, feedback, serious games

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