The psychophysiological evaluation of the player experience

This thesis investigates the role of psychophysiology in the evaluation of the video game player experience. In doing so, it reports results from a program of research assessing the psychophysiological response of players to optimal and sub-optimal play experiences as moderated by challenge. The thesis identifies psychophysiological evaluation as an insightful and distinctive approach for assessing the player experience, proposes recommendations for the use of psychophysiology in related research, and clarifies current understanding of psychophysiological response to video game play

Statistical Significance Testing at CHI PLAY: Challenges and Opportunities for More Transparency

Statistical Significance Testing -- or Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) -- is common to quantitative CHI PLAY research. Drawing from recent work in HCI and psychology promoting transparent statistics and the reduction of questionable research practices, we systematically review the reporting quality of 119 CHI PLAY papers using NHST (data and analysis plan at https://osf.io/4mcbn/. We find that over half of these papers employ NHST without specific statistical hypotheses or research questions, which may risk the proliferation of false positive findings. Moreover, we observe inconsistencies in the reporting of sample sizes and statistical tests. These issues reflect fundamental incompatibilities between NHST and the frequently exploratory work common to CHI PLAY. We discuss the complementary roles of exploratory and confirmatory research, and provide a template for more transparent research and reporting practices.Peer reviewe