Beyond cute: exploring user types and design opportunities of virtual reality pet games

Virtual pet games, such as handheld games like Tamagotchi or video games like Petz, provide players with artificial pet companions or entertaining pet-raising simulations. Prior research has found that virtual pets have the potential to promote learning, collaboration, and empathy among users. While virtual reality (VR) has become an increasingly popular game medium, litle is known about users' expectations regarding game avatars, gameplay, and environments for VR-enabled pet games. We surveyed 780 respondents in an online survey and interviewed 30 participants to understand users' motivation, preferences, and game behavior in pet games played on various medium, and their expectations for VR pet games. Based on our findings, we generated three user types that reflect users' preferences and gameplay styles in VR pet games. We use these types to highlight key design opportunities and recommendations for VR pet games

Assessing Vividness of Mental Imagery: The Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire

Publisher allows archiving of submitted msMental imagery may occur in any sensory modality, although visual imagery has been most studied. A sensitive measure of the vividness of imagery across a range of modalities is needed: the shorter version of Bett’s QMI (Sheehan, 1967) uses outdated items and has an unreliable factor structure. We report the development and initial validation of the Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire (Psi-Q) comprising items for each of the following modalities: Vision, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch, Bodily Sensation and Emotional Feeling. An Exploratory Factor Analysis on a 35-item form indicated that these modalities formed separate factors, rather than a single imagery factor, and this was replicated by confirmatory factor analysis. The Psi-Q was validated against the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (Reisberg, Pearson & Kosslyn, 2003) and Marks’ (1995) Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire-2. A short 21-item form comprising the best three items from the seven factors correlated with the total score and subscales of the full form, and with the VVIQ-2. Inspection of the data shows that while visual and sound imagery is most often rated as vivid, individuals who rate one modality as strong and the other as weak are not uncommon. Findings are interpreted within a working memory framework and point to the need for further research to identify the specific cognitive processes underlying the vividness of imagery across sensory modalities

The psychological therapy preferences of patients who hear voices

Background Voice-hearing is a common, phenomenologically diverse, experience across different mental health diagnoses. Patient preferences for psychological therapies are helpful in informing treatment commissioning and provision, especially in the context of complex and variable experiences like voice-hearing. There is, however, very limited evidence as to the psychological therapy preferences of transdiagnostic voice-hearers. Methods Three-hundred and thirty-five voice hearers were recruited from secondary care NHS mental health services across England, between 2020 and 2022. Participants completed a questionnaire battery, involving a psychological therapy preference survey. Participants ranked their preferences across categories of practical, technical and relational therapy elements. Therapy preferences were examined using non-parametric ANOVAs and the significance of pairwise comparisons between different therapy elements. Results There were significant differences in all categories of preference elements. Clear hierarchies of preference were observed in therapy location, timing, delivery, and therapy approach. Preferences were evident, albeit with less clear vertical hierarchies, for number of sessions, mode, therapist qualities, and therapy focus, tasks and outcomes. Discussion Overall, participants expressed a preference for individual, face-to-face intervention of at least nine sessions, with a highly experienced therapist and a core focus on enhancing coping strategies for voice-hearing experiences

Neurophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Music Therapy in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Assessment of awareness for those with disorders of consciousness is a challenging undertaking, due to the complex presentation of the population. Debate surrounds whether behavioral assessments provide greatest accuracy in diagnosis compared to neuro-imaging methods, and despite developments in both, misdiagnosis rates remain high. Music therapy may be effective in the assessment and rehabilitation with this population due to effects of musical stimuli on arousal, attention, and emotion, irrespective of verbal or motor deficits. However, an evidence base is lacking as to which procedures are most effective. To address this, a neurophysiological and behavioral study was undertaken comparing electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate variability, respiration, and behavioral responses of 20 healthy subjects with 21 individuals in vegetative or minimally conscious states (VS or MCS). Subjects were presented with live preferred music and improvised music entrained to respiration (procedures typically used in music therapy), recordings of disliked music, white noise, and silence. ANOVA tests indicated a range of significant responses (p ? 0.05) across healthy subjects corresponding to arousal and attention in response to preferred music including concurrent increases in respiration rate with globally enhanced EEG power spectra responses (p = 0.05–0.0001) across frequency bandwidths. Whilst physiological responses were heterogeneous across patient cohorts, significant post hoc EEG amplitude increases for stimuli associated with preferred music were found for frontal midline theta in six VS and four MCS subjects, and frontal alpha in three VS and four MCS subjects (p = 0.05–0.0001). Furthermore, behavioral data showed a significantly increased blink rate for preferred music (p = 0.029) within the VS cohort. Two VS cases are presented with concurrent changes (p ? 0.05) across measures indicative of discriminatory responses to both music therapy procedures. A third MCS case study is presented highlighting how more sensitive selective attention may distinguish MCS from VS. The findings suggest that further investigation is warranted to explore the use of music therapy for prognostic indicators, and its potential to support neuroplasticity in rehabilitation programs

Concept Mapping and the Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) Approach As An Intervention Framework for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Individuals who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience a range of difficulties that impact their daily occupational performance. The current body of research identifies the importance of occupational engagement and competence as fundamental elements in facilitating an individual’s social connections, development of personal autonomy and overall wellbeing. This dissertation explores the use of concept mapping embedded within the meta-cognitive framework of the Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach, to engage adolescents with ASD in meaningful occupations. This thesis contains three manuscripts, an introductory and a final reflection chapter. The first manuscript is a methodological paper that outlines a qualitative concept mapping framework that can be applied within the field of occupational science. The second manuscript explores how concept mapping can be theoretically embedded with the CO-OP approach to facilitate the engagement, occupational competence, relatedness and autonomy of adolescents with ASD. The third manuscript presents the findings of a focused sensory ethnography exploration that explores the personalized and socio-cultural perceptions of adolescents with ASD while participating in a novel intervention. The third manuscript is analyzed using an occupational science framework, and highlights the themes identified by the participants through their concept maps and personal reflections. The data were analyzed using the qualitative concept mapping framework presented in the first manuscript, and through deductive thematic analysis using a theoretical codebook derived and highlighted in the third manuscript. This thesis contributes new knowledge to shaping the development and delivery of interventions focused on enhancing the occupational performance of adolescents with ASD in meaningful goals important in the transition to adulthood. It has expanded the limited research that approaches the topic from the frameworks of qualitative research, multi-modal and multi-sensory methods. It also uniquely explores the concept of human occupation as it relates to culture of ASD, and the development of meaningful life skills within a group environment. This work has implications for the future methodologies and research questions for studies exploring the lives of adolescents with ASD, the CO-OP approach, and the use of visual methods in exploring occupational meaning