Effect of puck mass as a task constraint on skilled and less-skilled ice hockey players performance

Manipulation of task constraints have previously been effective in task simplification enhancing skill development. This study examines how manipulation of puck masses affects movement behaviors in skilled and less skilled ice hockey players during a representative ice hockey task. Fifty participants were separated into a skilled (n = 25) or less-skilled (n = 25) group. Three trials per condition of an obstacle course and breakaway goal attempt were completed in a counter-balanced design using three puck masses, categorised as: light (133g), regulation (170g), and heavy (283g). Findings revealed that use of the light puck by less-skilled participants reduced obstacle-course completion time (p < .05, η2p = .781) and error occurrence (p < .05, η2p = .699) while improving shot accuracy (p < .05, η2p = .430) and goal success (p < .05, η2p = .092) compared to the regulation and heavy puck. However, skilled participants had a decrease in performance when deviating from the regulation puck for all the dependent measures excluding an increase in goal success when using the light puck (p < .05, η2p = .430). Findings demonstrated the functional coupling of puck mass and movement behaviors are dependent on the skill level of the performer

Quest

Quest is a role-playing game that encourages players to utilize the different abilities of three controllable characters to overcome 18 unique levels. Using libGDX, a Java-based framework, Quest uses complex artificial intelligence to challenge players as they progress through the adventure. Players have the opportunity to apply a variety of strategies to overcome an increasingly challenging assortment of enemies

Quest

Quest is a role-playing game that encourages players to utilize the different abilities of three controllable characters to overcome 18 unique levels. Using libGDX, a Java-based framework, Quest uses complex artificial intelligence to challenge players as they progress through the adventure. Players have the opportunity to apply a variety of strategies to overcome an increasingly challenging assortment of enemies

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Hypocognitive Mind: How Lacking Conceptual Knowledge Blinds Us to Everyday Objects and Social Privilege

This dissertation examines hypocognition, a phenomenon in which people lack cognitive or linguistic representations of concepts to describe ideas or interpret experiences. Chapter 1 presents a theoretical review of hypocognition and its implications for perception, affect, and behavior. Drawing from the cross-cultural and expertise literatures, I describe how hypocognition impoverishes one’s mental world, leaving cognitive deficits in recognition, explanation, and remembering while fueling cultural chauvinism and social conflict. Chapter 2 empirically demonstrates the cognitive consequences of hypocognition. In six studies, I show how hypocognition degrades identification, recognition, and memory of fundamental information in one’s living environment. Chapter 3 explores the social implications of hypocognition. Eight studies point to hypocognition as a cognitive blind spot underlying the invisibility of one’s social privilege and denial of discrimination. Chapter 4 discusses future directions and explores whether hypocognition can be motivated, where it originates, and its implications with regard to public health and sustainability. I end with a caution against going too far to reduce hypocognition and risking its opposite, hypercognition––overapplying a familiar concept to circumstances where it does not belong.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162899/1/kaidiwu_1.pd

Mastery and the mobile future of massively multiplayer games

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-66).What game design opportunities do we create when we extend massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to cell phones? MMOs allow us to create representations of our own increasing mastery, and mobile gives us better access to this mastery and allows us to integrate it more fully into the ways we see ourselves. MMOs motivate mastery by making that mastery personally and socially relevant, and visibly showing it increase. Virtual worlds that make players feel physically and socially present increase motivation to achieve mastery. MMOs that convince players their avatars represent some aspect of their personalities increase motivation to invest in and experiment with different constructions of self. I apply these principles to an analysis of two games: Labyrinth, a game I helped create, and World of Warcraft, the current leading MMO. With Labyrinth, I explain the design decisions we made and their impact. With World of Warcraft, I described how altering the design could accommodate mobile play and better motivate increasing mastery.by Daniel Roy.S.M

Spartan Daily October 24, 2013

Volume 141, Issue 25https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1444/thumbnail.jp

Role-playing Games as Cooperative Capstone Design Projects

The purpose of this study was the design and construction of a new capstone design project for electrical engineering students based on games. Games provide context and a common interest for our students. Many characteristics of good design projects can easily be found in the structure of games. In a fundamental way games represent design. A design for a wearable gaming platform, called MAGE, was created. Several prototypes of the system were designed, built, and used by students in a capstone design course. During the course of development many lessons were learned. Students struggled with projects based on MAGE because the system was incomplete. Continuous development meant that creating and maintaining up to date documentation was nearly impossible. There is positive anecdotal feedback in the form of high project success rates, which suggest MAGE, supports the education of students. However, more research is needed to make any definitive determination.School of Electrical & Computer Engineerin