Exploring How Individual Traits Influence Enjoyment in a Mobile Learning Game

This study investigated individual traits as predictors of game enjoyment by including learning style, intrinsic motivation, collaboration skills, and computer game attitude as key parts of a model that also included achievement. Results of correlation and regression analyses revealed that intrinsic motivation was the only variable to predict game enjoyment. This supports the conceptualization of enjoyment as need satisfaction of intrinsic needs. Enjoyment was also found to be positively correlated with achievement. Other significant relations emerged, particularly how a player’s attitude toward games predicted intrinsic motivation. The present study examined children’s enjoyment experiences in the mobile version of the Minecraft game. It also highlights the complexity of game enjoyment as it relates to mobile learning games

Animal mayhem games and nonhuman-oriented thinking

A host of recent videogames revolve around animals that wreak havoc on human communities and the urban spaces they live in. After introducing this strand of “animal mayhem games,” my paper links it to recent arguments on human-nonhuman entanglement in times of ecological crisis. Games like Goat Simulator, Deeeer Simulator and Tokyo Jungle ask players to engage with an animal avatar while simultaneously unsettling dichotomies between human societies and nonhuman phenomena. The destabilization of anthropocentric assumptions, I argue, is the deeper significance of animal mayhem. The subversive fun generated by these games speaks to core ideas of nonhuman-oriented thinking, particularly Timothy Morton’s concept of “strange stranger.” My close readings of Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game focus on the intersection of nonhuman agency and generic templates drawn from open world and puzzle games, respectively

Pleasure, pain, and emotion

In this dissertation I analyse the concepts of pleasure and unpleasantness and outline an approach whereby the insights gained about pleasure and unpleasantness are applied to the analysis of a number of feeling and emotion concepts. In trying to understand what pleasure is and hew it is related to pain and unpleasantness, I tackle various basic questions about the role of pleasure, pain, and unpleasantness in motivation and about the intrinsic goodness of pleasure and the intrinsic badness of pain and unpleasantness. In pleasure's nature of being good, wanted, and sought and pairfs nature of being bad, unwanted, and avoided we locate the way in which pleasure and pain are opposites and the central defining properties of the 'pleasant' and the 'unpleasant'. Within my analysis of pleasure and unpleasantness I reach the conclusion that pleasure and unpleasantness are 'special experiences' : I explain what is involved in this claim and defend it against the objections which Ludwig Wittgenstein raised in his Private Language Argument. The view of the emotions which I outline and defend is the view which Aristotle, Spinoza, and many other philosophers have held. According to this view, emotions or 'feelings' such as con¬ fidence or fear, delight or misery, and pride or shame, are 'modes' of pleasure or unpleasantness. Given my views on pleasure and unpleasantness, it would follow that a number of emotions are, in part, the 'special experiences' of pleasure and unpleasantness

Bookscapes: A Study in the Interconnectivity of Landscape and Narrative Visualization and Communication in Landscape Architecture

The fields of landscape architecture and literacy have the potential to be linked through a simulated environment. Through this connection, opportunity for education arises. This thesis creates and describes a program called Bookscapes, which presents a narrative inside a simulated landscape for the purpose of communicating landscape architecture/urban planning principles. Bookscapes is a stand-alone computer program designed using theories in education and guidelines for virtual and restorative environments (including Huang’s elements, Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory for restorative environments, constructivist theory of situational learning) and the revolving design process in landscape architecture’s communication to clients through 3D modeling. This thesis first discusses the literature and foundational framework behind the creation of Bookscapes, and why creating a program that will engage users in a narrative is important and relevant today. This section also talks about how the field of landscape architecture uses 3D modeling techniques to design, setting the stage for combining both disciplines of Narrative and Landscape Architecture into one unified program. Next in this paper is a description of the physical and philosophical creation of Bookscapes in the methodology which includes 9 steps including: book selection, a site visit, architectural and historical research, sketch studies, 3D modeling techniques, preliminary renders and edits, mood and texture studies, programming, and finally the completion of the process resulting in a program titled Bookscapes. A proposed study is discussed in the appendix to test if Bookscapes has the potential to increase immersion and interest to create a higher level of recall in students who use Bookscapes to learn about landscape architecture principles. This appendix discusses proposed testing instruments, testing environment, and sample size. All the information in Bookscapes is also available in a paper packet. The paper packet can be used to asses user interest, learning, and immersion as it compares to the computer program version. The proposed instruments to measure these factors are a self-recorded pre and post-test which can be found in the appendix

Living with Changing Health: Perimenopause among Chinese Women in Taiwan

The purpose of this qualitative study was to generate theory about women\u27s perimenopausal life experiences. Thirty-five Taiwanese women aged 40 to 59 who perceived themselves as perimenopausal and who were not using hormone therapy were interviewed. Data were generated from interviews which were conducted in Mandarin. Living with Changing Health was the core category for describing and guiding the process of perimenopause. During this process, Awareness was identified as the antecedent condition. Once the woman became aware, she would begin the process of living with her changing health. This process would be marked by action and interaction among the categories of Emotional Fluctuation, Searching for Answers, Compromising, Pursuing the Better Life, and Keeping on. Throughout this process women viewed perimenopause as A Natural Life Process during which they lived with their changing health. Although for Taiwanese women perimenopause is a natural life process, it is no longer a silent passage. Nurses should be sensitive to mid-life women noting if there is peaceful and silent passage or if there is hidden turbulence beneath their apparently peaceful lives. Helping them to live with their changing health is the most important issue for the care of Taiwanese perimenopausal women

Flow and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of Personality Characteristic

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on November 24, 2015Dissertation advisor: Jacob MarszalekVitaIncludes bibliographical references (page 193-197)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2015Flow is an area that has had a flourish of research emerge within the past couple of decades originating in the sport psychology literature (Jackson & Eklund, 2006; Hefferon & Ollis, 2006; Kee & Wang, 2008) and in a multitude of other areas of study since such as academics, creativity, motivation, and gaming (Cermakova, Moneta, & Spada, 2010; Fritz & Avsec, 2007; Fullagar & Mills, 2008; Jin, 2011; Lee, 2005). Presently, the study of flow has arisen in the area of personality and the individual characteristics that contribute to one’s personality (Ullén, et al., 2012). The purpose of the current study was to provide the beginning investigation into flow and personality characteristics (as represented by the Five-Factor Model of Personality) to offer insight into dispositional flow and the autotelic personality. Additionally, the purpose of this study was to improve on the limitations that were presented in Ullén and colleagues’ (2012) and Ross and Keiser’s (2014) studies. The sample consisted of 409 English-speaking adults who completed the study measures online. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated relationships between dispositional flow and four of the five personality factor. Specifically, results revealed positive relationships between dispositional flow and the following personality factors: extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. These relationships suggest that individuals higher in these personality traits may have a greater disposition to experience flow. Results revealed an inverse relationship between dispositional flow and neuroticism suggesting that neurotic tendencies may possibly hinder an individual’s disposition to experience flow. Furthermore, the present study improved upon the limitations of the current studies by providing a larger, more heterogeneous sample that aligned more closely with the normative sample of the measurements and utilized valid and reliable measurements for dispositional flow and personality. The present findings highlight the complex and multi-dimensional relationships that exist between dispositional flow and personality characteristics; as well as providing a foundation for future research to continue to explore these relationships. Limitations, future areas of research, and implications are discussed.Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Analysis -- Discussion -- Appendix A. Demographic form -- Appendix B. Solicitation email for listservs -- Appendix C. Solicitation announcement for Psychpool -- Appendix D. Solicitation announcement for MTURK -- Appendix E. Informed consent for Listservs -- Appendix F. Informed consent for Psychpool -- Appendix G. Informed consent for MTURK -- Appendix H. Online raffle form -- Appendix I. IRB approval letter -- Appendix J. IRB amendment approval letter

Christian Kitsch: A Preliminary Examination of Christian Materialism through Theological Aesthetics and Cultural Politics

As a massive phenomenon animating the world of cultural politics, kitsch sensibility emerges in Western Christian materialism as a means to easily mediate genuine, if sentimental, expressions of religious devotion. Scorned by others as the manipulation of “bad taste,” reverence through kitsch in contemporary religious art would be better taken to reflect a crisis in modern religious thought. This thesis employs the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar to argue that modern Christian kitsch is the active mistaking of poor theological quality as a source of beauty, which is primarily felt as the sensibility of losing dynamis. Its evolution through late capitalism conveys an irreversible yet inevitable mutation of faith, understood by Slavoj Žižek as the “suspension of belief” in contemporary Christian consumerism and artful practice. Anticipating the restoration of quality is a reorientation of the imitatio Christi for the articulation of a new theological aesthetics

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Towards a Trait Model of Video Game Preferences

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction on 2018-04-19, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1461765Typologies for understanding players’ preferences toward different gameplay styles have gained popularity in research. However, attempts to model players’ preferences are based on type models instead of trait models, contrary to the latest personality research. One such model, BrainHex, was designed as an interim model to enable investigations toward a definitive player trait model. However, it lacks empirical validation in support of its psychometric properties. The present work analyzed a dataset with over 50,000 respondents to devise a player traits model based off the BrainHex scale. Results indicate three player traits: action, esthetic, and goal orientation. Furthermore, we analyzed the games listed by participants as examples of what they enjoy, to understand which factors influence player preferences. Results illustrate that the emergent player traits and participants’ genders and attitudes toward story can partially explain player preferences toward certain games. Finally, we present the implications toward a definitive player traits model.NSERC || RGPIN-418622-2012, Discovery, SWaGUR CREATE SSHRC || 895-2011-1014, IMMERSe CFI || 35819 Mitacs || IT07255 CNPq, Brasil NSERC Bantin