The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1) replicate the results of Phan, Jardina, Hoyle, and Chaparro (2012), and 2) extend their work on video gamers by understanding how female and male hardcore gamers differ from those who play casually, as well as examine the differences between hardcore gamers. Two hundred and twenty-five undergraduate students completed an online survey related to gaming behaviors, technology usage, and demographics. The outcomes of our study aligned with a majority of the findings of Phan and colleagues (2012). However, we extend these results by explaining the differences between females and males who play often (e.g., hardcore) and those who play occasionally (e.g., casually). The results indicated that men were more likely to be hardcore gamers than women. Hardcore female and hardcore male gamers did not significantly differ on most of the outcome measures. The implications of these results will be discussed at greater length.
Every year, structure fires account for billions of dollars in property damage and injuries to firefighters and civilians. Emerging technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) have been identified to assist in mitigating the loss of life and property, but they have not been fully evaluated. The goal of this work is to clearly identify how AR can enhance fire suppression operations by mapping feedback from a needs assessment conducted with firefighters to the areas where technology could be leveraged to support an initial incident assessment ( size up), demonstrating the practical use of AR for the fire service.
In a fire suppression operation, seconds can mean the difference between a fatality or successful incident management. There have not been many recent studies that examine the information, tools, and technologies firefighters rely upon to gather facts about the incident scene before arrival. We conducted an international, web-based survey in which 50 firefighters of varying ranks characterized the benefits and challenges of using pre-incident plans, documents that assist firefighters in understanding information about a facility during an emergency. Our analysis showed that despite demographic differences in regions and the size of the population served, most departments reported severe challenges in accessing and retrieving planning information. Based upon participant feedback, we shed light on the problems with existing user interfaces and provide a path forward for the human factors community to build robust technology for first responders operating in dangerous and unpredictable environments.
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