Psychophysiology / Biometrics

The psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic emotional responses to violent video game events.
Ravaja, Niklas; Turpeinen, Marko; Saari, Timo; Puttonen, Sampsa; Keltikangas-Järvinen, Liisa
Emotion. 2008 Feb Vol 8(1) 114-120
10.1037/1528-3542.8.1.114

"The authors examined emotional valence- and arousal-related phasic psychophysiological responses to different violent events in the first-person shooter video game "James Bond 007: NightFire" among 36 young adults. Event-related changes in zygomaticus major, corrugator supercilii, and orbicularis oculi electromyographic (EMG) activity and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded, and the participants rated their emotions and the trait psychoticism based on the Psychoticism dimension of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire--Revised, Short Form. Wounding and killing the opponent elicited an increase in SCL and a decrease in zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity. The decrease in zygomatic and orbicularis oculi activity was less pronounced among high Psychoticism scorers compared with low Psychoticism scorers. The wounding and death of the player's own character (James Bond) elicited an increase in SCL and zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity and a decrease in corrugator activity. Instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent may elicit high-arousal negative affect (anxiety), with high Psychoticism scorers experiencing less anxiety than low Psychoticism scorers. Although counterintuitive, the wounding and death of the player's own character may increase some aspect of positive emotion."

@inproceedings{1463226,
author = {Jeppe Komulainen and Jari Takatalo and Miikka Lehtonen and G\"{o}te Nyman},
title = {Psychologically structured approach to user experience in games},
booktitle = {NordiCHI '08: Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction},
year = {2008},
isbn = {978-1-59593-704-9},
pages = {487--490},
location = {Lund, Sweden},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1463160.1463226},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1422196,
author = {Georgios N. Yannakakis and John Hallam},
title = {Entertainment Modeling in Physical Play Through Physiology Beyond Heart-Rate},
booktitle = {ACII '07: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction},
year = {2007},
isbn = {978-3-540-74888-5},
pages = {254--265},
location = {Lisbon, Portugal},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74889-2_23},
publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
address = {Berlin, Heidelberg},
abstract = {An investigation into capturing the relation of physiology, beyond heart rate recording, to expressed preferences of entertainment in children's physical gameplay is presented in this paper. An exploratory survey experiment raises the difficulties of isolating elements derived (solely) from heart rate recordings attributed to reported entertainment and a control experiment for surmounting those difficulties is proposed. Then a survey experiment on a larger scale is devised where more physiological signals (Blood Volume Pulse and Skin Conductance) are collected and analyzed. Given effective data collection a set of numerical features is extracted from the child's physiological state. A preference learning mechanism based on neuro-evolution is used to construct a function of single physiological features that models the players' notion of `fun' for the games under investigation. Performance of the model is evaluated by the degree to which the preferences predicted by the model match those expressed by the children. Results indicate that there appears to be increased mental/emotional effort in preferred games of children.},
}

@article{1341618,
author = {Georgios N. Yannakakis and John Hallam and Henrik Hautop Lund},
title = {Entertainment capture through heart rate activity in physical interactive playgrounds},
journal = {User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction},
volume = {18},
number = {1-2},
year = {2008},
issn = {0924-1868},
pages = {207--243},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11257-007-9036-7},
publisher = {Kluwer Academic Publishers},
address = {Hingham, MA, USA},
abstract = {An approach for capturing and modeling individual entertainment ("fun") preferences is applied to users of the innovative Playware playground, an interactive physical playground inspired by computer games, in this study. The goal is to construct, using representative statistics computed from children's physiological signals, an estimator of the degree to which games provided by the playground engage the players. For this purpose children's heart rate (HR) signals, and their expressed preferences of how much "fun" particular game variants are, are obtained from experiments using games implemented on the Playware playground. A comprehensive statistical analysis shows that children's reported entertainment preferences correlate well with specific features of the HR signal. Neuro-evolution techniques combined with feature set selection methods permit the construction of user models that predict reported entertainment preferences given HR features. These models are expressed as artificial neural networks and are demonstrated and evaluated on two Playware games and two control tasks requiring physical activity. The best network is able to correctly match expressed preferences in 64% of cases on previously unseen data (p¿value 6 · 10¿5). The generality of the methodology, its limitations, its usability as a real-time feedback mechanism for entertainment augmentation and as a validation tool are discussed.},
}

@article{1410682,
author = {Georgios N. Yannakakis and John Hallam},
title = {Entertainment modeling through physiology in physical play},
journal = {Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud.},
volume = {66},
number = {10},
year = {2008},
issn = {1071-5819},
pages = {741--755},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2008.06.004},
publisher = {Academic Press, Inc.},
address = {Duluth, MN, USA},
abstract = {This paper is an extension of previous work on capturing and modeling the affective state of entertainment (''fun'') grounded on children's physiological state during physical game play. The goal is to construct, using representative statistics computed from children's physiological signals, an estimator of the degree to which games provided by the playground engage the players. Previous studies have identified the difficulties of isolating elements of physical activity attributed to reported entertainment derived (solely) from heart rate (HR) recordings. In the present article, a survey experiment on a larger scale and a physical activity control experiment for surmounting those difficulties are devised. In these experiments, children's HR, blood volume pulse (BVP) and skin conductance (SC) signals, as well as their expressed preferences of how much ''fun'' particular game variants are, are obtained using games implemented on the Playware physical interactive playground. Given effective data collection, a set of numerical features is computed from these measurements of the child's physiological state. A comprehensive statistical analysis shows that children's reported entertainment preferences correlate well with specific features of the recorded signals. Preference learning techniques combined with feature set selection methods permit the construction of user models that predict reported entertainment preferences given suitable signal features. The most accurate models are obtained through evolving artificial neural networks and are demonstrated and evaluated on a Playware game and a control task requiring physical activity. The best network is able to correctly match expressed preferences in 69.64% of cases on previously unseen data (p-value=0.0022) and indicates two dissimilar classes of children: those that prefer constantly energetic play of low mental/emotional load; and those that report as fun a dynamic play that involves high mental/emotional load independently of physical effort. The generality of the methodology, its limitations, its usability as a real-time feedback mechanism for entertainment augmentation and as a validation tool are discussed.},
}


TY - CHAPTER
JF - Universal Access in Ambient Intelligence Environments
T1 - Display Characteristics Affect Users’ Emotional Arousal in 3D Games
SP - 337
EP - 351
PY - 2007///
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71025-7_22
M3 - 10.1007/978-3-540-71025-7_22
AU - Lin, Tao
AU - Imamiya, Atsumi
AU - Hu, Wanhua
AU - Omata, Masaki
N2 - Large computer screens are becoming more and more popular among users, and field of view and physical screen size are important considerations for users and manufacturers. In this study, we investigated the impacts of visual angles and physical screen size on users’ emotional arousal using subjective and physiological measures. The results suggest that larger visual angles cause greater galvanic skin responses (GSR), and the GSR data are mirrored in the subjective ratings of emotional arousal. We also found that physical screen size causes significant effects in subjective ratings. This study contributes to our understanding of how users interact with large displays and helps refine the requirements for what constitutes effective and desirable human–computer interaction (HCI).

ER -


The Chemistry Of Game Design


@article{,
author = {Wood,Richard T.A. and Griffiths,Mark D. and Chappell,Darren and Davies,Mark N.O.},
title = {The Structural Characteristics of Video Games: A Psycho-Structural Analysis},
journal = {CyberPsychology & Behavior},
volume = {7},
number = {1},
pages = {1-10},
year = {2004},
doi = {10.1089/109493104322820057},
note ={PMID: 15006163},
URL = {http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/109493104322820057},
eprint = {http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/109493104322820057}
}

ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that video game playing is a psychological and social phenomenon. This
paper outlines the main structural characteristics of video game playing (i.e., those characteristics
that either induce gaming in the first place or are inducements to continue gaming irrespective
of the individual’s psychological, physiological, or socio-economic status). This
online study is the first ever to assess what structural characteristics (if any) are important to
a group of self-selected video game players (n = 382). The main variables examined were
sound, graphics, background and setting, duration of game, rate of play, advancement rate,
use of humor, control options, game dynamics, winning and losing features, character development,
brand assurance, and multi-player features. Although there were many major gender
differences, one of the main overall findings was the importance of a high degree of
realism (i.e., realistic sound, graphics, and setting). Other important characteristics included
a rapid absorption rate, character development, the ability to customize the game, and multiplayer
features. Suggestions for future research are outlined.

@inproceedings{1028068,
author = {Niklas Ravaja and Mikko Salminen and Jussi Holopainen and Timo Saari and Jari Laarni and Aki J\"{a}rvinen},
title = {Emotional response patterns and sense of presence during video games: potential criterion variables for game design},
booktitle = {NordiCHI '04: Proceedings of the third Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction},
year = {2004},
isbn = {1-58113-857-1},
pages = {339--347},
location = {Tampere, Finland},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1028014.1028068},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

Richard T.A. Wood, Mark D. Griffiths, Darren Chappell, Mark N.O. Davies. CyberPsychology & Behavior. February 1, 2004, 7(1): 1-10. doi:10.1089/109493104322820057.

@inproceedings{765958,
author = {Richard Hazlett},
title = {Measurement of user frustration: a biologic approach},
booktitle = {CHI '03: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2003},
isbn = {1-58113-637-4},
pages = {734--735},
location = {Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/765891.765958},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{985977,
author = {Regan Lee Mandryk},
title = {Objectively evaluating entertainment technology},
booktitle = {CHI '04: CHI '04 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2004},
isbn = {1-58113-703-6},
pages = {1057--1058},
location = {Vienna, Austria},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/985921.985977},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1031625,
author = {Regan L. Mandryk and Kori M. Inkpen},
title = {Physiological indicators for the evaluation of co-located collaborative play},
booktitle = {CSCW '04: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work},
year = {2004},
isbn = {1-58113-810-5},
pages = {102--111},
location = {Chicago, Illinois, USA},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031607.1031625},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1028068,
author = {Niklas Ravaja and Mikko Salminen and Jussi Holopainen and Timo Saari and Jari Laarni and Aki J\"{a}rvinen},
title = {Emotional response patterns and sense of presence during video games: potential criterion variables for game design},
booktitle = {NordiCHI '04: Proceedings of the third Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction},
year = {2004},
isbn = {1-58113-857-1},
pages = {339--347},
location = {Tampere, Finland},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1028014.1028068},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{286715,
author = {Jocelyn Riseberg and Jonathan Klein and Raul Fernandez and Rosalind W. Picard},
title = {Frustrating the user on purpose: using biosignals in a pilot study to detect the user's emotional state},
booktitle = {CHI '98: CHI 98 conference summary on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {1998},
isbn = {1-58113-028-7},
pages = {227--228},
location = {Los Angeles, California, United States},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/286498.286715},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1124925,
author = {Richard L. Hazlett},
title = {Measuring emotional valence during interactive experiences: boys at video game play},
booktitle = {CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems},
year = {2006},
isbn = {1-59593-372-7},
pages = {1023--1026},
location = {Montr\'{e}al, Qu\'{e}bec, Canada},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1124772.1124925},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@article{1225519,
author = {Richard L. Hazlett and Joey Benedek},
title = {Measuring emotional valence to understand the user's experience of software},
journal = {Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud.},
volume = {65},
number = {4},
year = {2007},
issn = {1071-5819},
pages = {306--314},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2006.11.005},
publisher = {Academic Press, Inc.},
address = {Duluth, MN, USA},
}

@inproceedings{765958,
author = {Richard Hazlett},
title = {Measurement of user frustration: a biologic approach},
booktitle = {CHI '03: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2003},
isbn = {1-58113-637-4},
pages = {734--735},
location = {Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/765891.765958},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1108405,
author = {Tao Lin and Masaki Omata and Wanhua Hu and Atsumi Imamiya},
title = {Do physiological data relate to traditional usability indexes?},
booktitle = {OZCHI '05: Proceedings of the 17th conference of the computer-human interaction special interest group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-human interaction},
year = {2005},
isbn = {1-59593-222-4},
pages = {1--10},
location = {Canberra, Australia},
publisher = {Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of Australia},
address = {Narrabundah, Australia, Australia},
}

@inproceedings{765957,
author = {Jonathan Sykes and Simon Brown},
title = {Affective gaming: measuring emotion through the gamepad},
booktitle = {CHI '03: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2003},
isbn = {1-58113-637-4},
pages = {732--733},
location = {Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/765891.765957},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1056983,
author = {Tim Marsh and Kiyoung Yang and Cyrus Shahabi and Wee Ling Wong and Luciano Nocera and Eduardo Carriazo and Aditya Varma and Hyunjin Yoon and Chris Kyriakakis},
title = {Automating the detection of breaks in continuous user experience with computer games},
booktitle = {CHI '05: CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2005},
isbn = {1-59593-002-7},
pages = {1629--1632},
location = {Portland, OR, USA},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1056808.1056983},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@inproceedings{1099086,
author = {Kiyoung Yang and Tim Marsh and Cyrus Shahabi},
title = {Continuous archival and analysis of user data in virtual and immersive game environments},
booktitle = {CARPE '05: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM workshop on Continuous archival and retrieval of personal experiences},
year = {2005},
isbn = {1-59593-246-1},
pages = {13--22},
location = {Hilton, Singapore},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1099083.1099086},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@article{566630,
author = {Michael Meehan and Brent Insko and Mary Whitton and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.},
title = {Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments},
journal = {ACM Trans. Graph.},
volume = {21},
number = {3},
year = {2002},
issn = {0730-0301},
pages = {645--652},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/566654.566630},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@techreport{897970,
author = {Michael Meehan and Brent Insko and Mary Whitton and Frederick P Brooks, Jr.},
title = {Physiological Measures of Presence in Virtual Environments},
year = {2001},
source = {http://www.ncstrl.org:8900/ncstrl/servlet/search?formname=detail\&id=oai%3Ancstrlh%3Auncch_cs%3AUNCCH_CS%2F%2FTR01-009},
publisher = {University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill},
address = {Chapel Hill, NC, USA},
}

First of all Regan Mandryk deserves top billing for her publications.

Fun of Gaming has a list of papers that might be worth reading.

"FUGA - The Fun of Gaming: Measuring the Human Experience of Media Enjoyment

Project funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme:
New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST)

Contract: FP6-NEST-28765
Duration: May 1, 2006 - April 30, 2009
Contact: Dr. Niklas Ravaja (Coordinator)"

"The main objective of FUGA is to create novel methods and improve existing measures in order to examine how the different dimensions of Game Experience can be assessed comprehensively with high temporal resolution. FUGA will employ a broad variety of innovative techniques based on (a) laboratory and mobile psychophysiological recordings (i.e., facial electromyography [EMG], electroencephalography [EEG], electrocardiography [ECG], electrodermal activity [EDA], and respiration), (b) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), (c) eye movement recordings, (d) the so-called (online) implicit association test, and (e) tracking of behavioral indicators of emotion and motivation."

The Acagamic (Lennart Nacke) has a piece on biofeedback. He's also listed an an author in the FUGA publications.

@proceedings { 3235,
title = {Log who’s playing: psychophysiological game analysis made easy through event logging},
editor = {Panos Markopoulos, Boris de Ruyter, Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Duncan Rowland},
volume = {5294/2008},
year = {2008},
note = {http://gamescience.bth.se/download/31/, http://tinyurl.com/64v6tv},
month = {20/10/2008},
pages = {150-157},
publisher = {Springer Berlin / Heidelberg},
address = {Eindhoven, The Netherlands},
abstract = {Modern psychophysiological game research faces the problem that for understanding the computer game experience, it needs to analyze game events with high temporal resolution and within the game context. This is the only way to achieve greater understanding of gameplay and the player experience with the use of psychophysiological instrumentation. This paper presents a solution to recording in-game events with the frequency and accuracy of psychophysiological recording systems, by sending out event byte codes through a parallel port to the psychophysiological signal acquisition hardware. Thus, psychophysiological data can immediately be correlated with in-game data. By employing this system for psychophysiological game experiments, researchers will be able to analyze gameplay in greater detail in future studies.},
keywords = {instrumentation, gameplay, experience, play, design, metrics, ux, level design, psychophysiology, physiological, biometrics, interactive, software, techniques, gameplay, analysis, usability, Half-Life 2, logging, events,},
ISBN = {978-3-540-88321-0},
URL = {http://www.springerlink.com/content/f3560134p7017541/},
author = {Nacke, Lennart and Lindley, Craig A and Stellmach, Sophie}
}

The IEEE Task Force on Player Satisfaction Modeling (PSM) have some interesting papers.

Additionally there are a couple of chapters in Isbister and Schaffer's Game Usability book (Elesevier, 2008) that are of interest. I'll add more here as and when I can.

There's a DIY photo-how-to about fitting GSR sensors to a standard two button mouse. The hardware mod steps are very well documented, but unfortunately there are no recommendations for what GSR equipment to use, where to source it, or how to process the data.

Rather excitingly, the one games company who I've been consistently impressed by - Valve - are interested in using biometric data as part of their UX studies.

EmSense are a private company who create and use physiological measurement devices, perhaps similar to The MindLab. Currently they advertise their solutions for games, politics and advertising.

The might be further potential for collaboration with these other parties on campus,

Dr Stefan Koelsch (Senior Research Fellow, Psychology) is interested in "Neurocognition of music and language; music and emotion; developmental aspects of language and music cognition; emotion and its effects on autonomic, hormonal, and immune function".
His publications from his personal homepage include:

Music and emotion: Electrophysiological correlates of the processing of pleasant and unpleasant music. (with sound samples.)
A cardiac signature of emotionality

Dr Luc Berthouze (Senior Lecturer, Informatics) is interested in "Motor development in infants and in machines; clinical applications of a dynamical systems approach to characterizing infant movements (particularly in cerebral palsy); EEG-based brain-machine interfaces, intelligent neuro-prostheses; epigenetic or developmental robotics, modelling cognitive development with robotic systems."
His publications don't sound so relevant though.

Jamie Ward say "I conduct research in human cognitive neuroscience using methods such as neuropsychology, fMRI, TMS and EEG"

Samuel Hutton

Prof. Hugo Critchley.