Tunteiden ja sosiaalisten tekijöiden vaikutus pelikokemukseen

Arguably, the emotions elicited by playing are the reason why people play digital games. Social interaction is an important source of emotion during game play, but research on it is rather sparse. In this dissertation I briefly review the emotion-theoretic literature in order to better understand what emotion means in the context of games, and how this should be taken into account when measuring emotions related to a game experience. Study I presents a review of the use of psychophysiological methods in game research. I show that the theoretical background behind these methods generally tends to be neglected. This could be remedied by a theoretical framework that integrates the understanding of emotions and explicitly describes the links between different emotion measures and the theoretical concepts they are professed to reflect. I present my proposition for the first step towards such a framework in Study II. I employ the sociality characteristics framework by de Kort and IJsselsteijn (2008) and my interpretation of the social factors in order to study the effect of the central social context factors on the emotional game experience. Study III presents evidence that in addition to tonic physiological levels, the relationship between the participants also affects the momentary, phasic responses to the key game events victory and defeat. In particular, although physiological signals can, to a certain extent, be used to assess emotional experiences (such as positive responses to a victory), in some cases the typical psychophysiological mappings may even be completely opposite. Interpreting these signals requires a broader theoretical understanding than what is typically acknowledged. Study IV supports the earlier findings that competition is experienced more positively than cooperation but that the effect is dependent on gender, as this was found only in males. For females, there was no difference between the two modes, and no difference in negative activation. In addition, self-reports concerning social presence suggested that this concept is not always associated with higher positive emotions, while a form of friendly rivalry (associated with lower social presence) might be experienced positively a finding apparently new in existing literature. Finally, Study V provides insight into the practical significance of the measurements with a predictive validity study, showing practical effects how the certain kinds of game experiences may lead to greater game use and preference, but that these links are not as simple as previously suggested. In sum, this work offers new knowledge on how social context factors are generally related to the game experience, on how emotions can be studied in game research and what theoretical considerations should be taken into account, and on the emotional effects of particular social context factors during play. The results are mainly useful for further basic game research, but they have also potential implications for general emotion research, the game industry, and in the long run, society at large.Digitaalisten pelien herättämiä tunnekokemuksia on pidetty tärkeänä selittäjänä näiden suosiolle. Sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus pelin aikana taas on merkittävä tunnekokemuksien lähde, mutta sitä on tutkittu melko vähän. Tässä väitöskirjassa käyn osaksi läpi tunteita selittävää emootioteoriakirjallisuutta tarkastellakseni mitä tunteen tai emootion käsite tarkoittaa pelikontekstissa ja kuinka tämä tieto tulisi ottaa huomioon kun tunnekokemusta halutaan mitata pelitutkimuksessa. Tutkimus I esittää katsauksen psykofysiologisten menetelmien käytöstä pelitutkimuksessa, jonka avulla osoitan kuinka näiden menetelmien taustalla oleva teoreettinen perusta jätetään usein huomiotta. Tähän tyypilliseen puutteeseen olisi avuksi kokonaisvaltainen teoreettinen emootioiden ja niiden mittaamisen viitekehys. Esitän oman ehdotukseni kyseisenlaisen viitekehyksen suuntaan Tutkimuksessa II. Käytän tutkimukseni empiirisessä osuudessa tulkintaani de Kortin ja IJsselsteijnin (2008) teoreettisesta viitekehyksestä sosiaalisuuspiirteistä tutkiakseni merkittävien sosiaalisten tekijöiden merkitystä pelaamisen tunnekokemukselle. Tutkimuksessa III esitän todisteita, että pelaajien väliset suhteet vaikuttavat pitkien jaksojen keskiarvojen lisäksi myös yksittäisten tilanteiden voiton ja häviön laukaisemiin hetkellisiin reaktioihin. Tulokset osoittavat kuitenkin, että joissain tilanteissa reaktiot voivat olla odottamattomat, minkä vuoksi fysiologisten mittausten tulkinnassa tulisi käyttää laajempaa teoreettista ymmärrystä kuin on yleistä. Tutkimus IV:n tulokset tukevat aiempia löydöksiä, että peleissä kilpailu koetaan positiivisemmin kuin yhteistyö, mutta että tämä vaikutus riippuu sukupuolesta: tulos pätee vain miehiin, kun taas naiset eivät osoittaneet eroa näiden pelimuotojen välillä positiivisen eivätkä negatiivisen tunnereaktion suhteen. Lisäksi huomattiin, että sosiaalisen läsnäolon kokemuksella, joka on yleensä yhdistetty positiiviseen kokemukseen, ei ole selvää yhteyttä positiivisuuteen, kun taas emootiokirjallisuudessa esitetyn selityksen vastaisesti tietynlainen ystävällismielinen vahingonilo voidaan kokea positiivisena. Lopuksi, Tutkimus V esittää kuinka emootiomittauksilla voi olla käytännöllistä ennustevaliditeettia, missä tietynlaiset pelikokemukset voidaan yhdistää tulevaan pelikäyttäytymiseen, mutta että nämä yhteydet eivät ole niin yksinkertaisia kuin on aiemmin esitetty. Yhteenvetona, työni tarjoaa uutta tietoa siitä, mikä on sosiaalisten taustatekijöiden yleinen yhteys pelikokemukseen, kuinka emootioita voidaan tarkastella pelitutkimuksessa ja mitä teoreettisia näkökohtia tällöin tulisi ottaa huomioon, sekä siitä mitä ovat tiettyjen sosiaalisten taustatekijöiden emootiovaikutus pelikokemuksen aikana. Työn tuloksia voidaan käyttää lähinnä pelaamisen perustutkimuksessa, mutta niillä on myös mahdollista merkitystä yleisessä emootiotutkimuksessa, pelitutkimuksen käytännöllisessä soveltamisessa peliteollisuuden hyödyksi, sekä pitkällä aikavälillä myös laajempien yhteiskunnallisten kysymysten kannalta

Flow-kokemuksen psykofysiologia : eksploratiivinen tutkimus

This study explored the possibilities the psychophysiological methodology offer to flow research. Facial electromyography has often been used to index valence, and electrodermal activity to index arousal, the two basic dimensions of emotion. It was hypothesized that these measures can also be used to examine enjoyment, a basic component of flow experiment. A digital game was used to induce flow, and physiological activity of 32 subjects was measured continuously. Flow State Scale was used to assess flow. Activity of corrugator supercilii muscle, an index of negative valence, was negatively correlated with flow reports, as hypothesized. Contrary to hypothesis, skin conductance level, an index of arousal, was unrelated to self-reported flow. The results for association between flow and zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi muscle activities, indices of positive valence, were inconclusive, possibly due to experimental design where only tonic measures were available. Psychophysiological methods are recommended for future studies of flow. Specifically, the time series approach may be particularly viable in examining the temporal aspects of flow, an area currently unexplored. Furthermore, it is suggested that digital game research would benefit from psychophysiological study of game-related flow.Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin psykofysiologisien menetelmien tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia flow'n tutkimukselle. Kahden emootioiden perusulottuvuuden, valenssin ja kiihtymyksen, tutkimiseen on usein käytetty kasvolihastoiminnan ja ihon sähkönjohtavuuden mittaamista. Hypoteesina oli, että näitä menetelmiä voi myös käyttää mielihyvän, flow'n peruskomponentin, tutkimiseen. Flow-kokemuksen synnyttämiseen käytettiin digitaalista peliä, ja 32 koehenkilöltä mitattiin tooninen fysiologinen aktiviteetti. Flow State Scale -kyselyä käytettiin flow'n arvioimiseen. Hypoteesin mukaisesti negatiiviseen valenssiin yhdistetty corrugator supercilii -lihaksen aktiviteetti korreloi negatiivisesti flow-kyselyn tulosten kanssa. Hypoteesin vastaisesti kiihtyneisyyttä ilmaiseva ihon sähkönjohtavuuden taso ei ollut yhteydessä raportoituun flow-tasoon. Tulokset positiiviseen valenssiin yhdistettyjen zygomaticus major ja orbicularis oculi -kasvolihaksien aktiviteettien suhteesta flow-tasoon eivät olleet ratkaisevia, johtuen mahdollisesti toonisiin mittauksiin perustuvasta koeasetelmasta. Psykofysiologisia metodeja suositellaan käytettäväksi tulevissa flow-tutkimuksissa. Erityisesti aikasarja-lähestymistapa saattaa olla erityisen käyttökelpoinen tarkasteltaessa flow'n ajallisia ominaisuuksia, joista tällä hetkellä ei ole lainkaan tutkimusaineistoa. Lisäksi esitetään, että digitaalisten pelien tutkimus hyötyisi pelien aikana tapahtuvan flow'n psykofysiologisesta tutkimuksesta

Economic Attitudes, Social Attitudes and Their Psychological Underpinnings – A Study of the Finnish Political Elite

We investigated the relation between economic and social attitudes and the psychological underpinnings of these attitudes in candidates (N = 9515) in the Finnish 2017 municipal elections. In this politically elite sample, right-wing economic attitudes and social conservatism were positively correlated (r = 0.41), and this correlation was predominantly driven by those on the economic left being socially liberal, and vice versa. In terms of underlying psychological processes, consistent with dual process models of political ideology, the anti-egalitarian aspect of social dominance orientation was more strongly associated with right-wing economic attitudes, and the conventionalism and aggression aspects of right-wing authoritarianism with social conservatism. Our results show that even in a non-United States context in which the masses organize their political attitudes on two independent dimensions, these dimensions are moderately aligned among certain parts of the political elite, and that the political attitudes of the political elite can be traced to underlying psychological motivations. We argue that equality concerns could play a role in explaining why the left-right and liberal-conservative dimensions are more strongly aligned among those on the left and those more liberal.Peer reviewe

Framework for Electroencephalography-based Evaluation of User Experience

Measuring brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG) is mature enough to assess mental states. Combined with existing methods, such tool can be used to strengthen the understanding of user experience. We contribute a set of methods to estimate continuously the user's mental workload, attention and recognition of interaction errors during different interaction tasks. We validate these measures on a controlled virtual environment and show how they can be used to compare different interaction techniques or devices, by comparing here a keyboard and a touch-based interface. Thanks to such a framework, EEG becomes a promising method to improve the overall usability of complex computer systems.Comment: in ACM. CHI '16 - SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing System, May 2016, San Jose, United State

Gender Differences in Emotional Responses to Cooperative and Competitive Game Play

Peer reviewe

Keep your opponents close : Social context affects EEG and fEMG linkage in a turn-based computer game

Peer reviewe

Review of Intrinsic Motivation in Simulation-based Game Testing

This paper presents a review of intrinsic motivation in player modeling, with a focus on simulation-based game testing. Modern AI agents can learn to win many games; from a game testing perspective, a remaining research problem is how to model the aspects of human player behavior not explained by purely rational and goal-driven decision making. A major piece of this puzzle is constituted by intrinsic motivations, i.e., psychological needs that drive behavior without extrinsic reinforcement such as game score. We first review the common intrinsic motivations discussed in player psychology research and artificial intelligence, and then proceed to systematically review how the various motivations have been implemented in simulated player agents. Our work reveals that although motivations such as competence and curiosity have been studied in AI, work on utilizing them in simulation-based game testing is sparse, and other motivations such as social relatedness, immersion, and domination appear particularly underexplored

Media experience as a predictor of future news reading

The newspaper medium is forced to evolve in the digital age. In order to transfer the core media experience of newspaper reading to new digital formats, its very nature must be examined. In an experiment with 24 readers of a digital newspaper, responses to seven different news sections (people, city, culture, opinion, business, foreign, sports) were measured with psychophysiological methods and self-reports and the differences in responses to them were examined. These data were then compared to actual reading behavior during a six week follow-up period to investigate how immediate media experience predicts future news reading. It was found that the news sections were differentiated by self-reported emotional responses and other message ratings (e.g., relevance to the self, interestingness, reliability), but not by physiological responses. In addition, both self-reports and physiological responses (facial electromyography and heart rate) predicted news reading during the follow-up period, but the strength or direction of the association varied by news section. Different kinds of emotions predict future reading for different news sections, suggesting that people expect differential emotional experiences from different sections.Peer reviewe

Physiological compliance for social gaming analysis : cooperative versus competitive play

We report the results of an empirical study demonstrating the value of using physiological compliance as a measure of social presence during digital game playing. The physiological activity (facial EMG, electrodermal activity, cardiac activity and respiration) of 21 dyads were acquired synchronously while they were playing a digital game either cooperatively or competitively and either at home or in the laboratory. Physiological compliance was defined as the correlation between the physiological signals of the dyad members. The results of this study confirm that physiological compliance is higher in a conflicting situation than when playing cooperatively. Importantly, the results also demonstrate that physiological compliance is related to self-reported social presence. This suggests that physiological compliance is not limited to negative situations but rather increases due to rich interactions. Only minor differences in physiological compliance were observed between home play and laboratory play, suggesting the ecological validity of laboratory measures. Finally, we propose that compliance measures can be considered as objective indices of social presence in digital gaming