Game balancing can help players with different skill levels play multiplayer games together; however, little is known about how the balancing approach affects performance, experience, and self-esteem-especially when differences in player strength result from given abilities, rather than learned skill. We explore three balancing approaches in a dance game and show that the explicit approach commonly used in commercial games reduces self-esteem and feelings of relatedness in dyads, whereas hidden balancing improves self-esteem and reduces score differential without affecting game outcome. We apply our results in a second study with dyads where one player had a mobility disability and used a wheelchair. By making motion-based games accessible for people with different physical abilities, and by enabling people with mobility disabilities to compete on a par with able-bodied peers, we show how to provide empowering experiences through enjoyable games that have the potential to increase physical activity and self-esteem.
The use of verbal report (e.g. "think-aloud") techniques in developing a survey instrument can be critical to establishing an instrument's cognitive validity, which helps ensure that participants interpret and respond to survey items in the manner intended by the survey designer(s). The primary advantage of utilizing a verbal cognitive validation protocol is having evidence that survey items are interpreted by participants in the same way the researcher intended before the instrument is administered to a large sample. Think-aloud protocols have been used to accomplish different goals in a variety of fields, including engineering education where thinkalouds are commonly used in problem solving research. While think-alouds have been used by engineering education researchers, the engineering education literature includes few resources for researchers regarding the use of these protocols with respect to large-scale survey development and refinement. In this paper, we present a protocol based on elements of thinkalouds conducted inside and outside the engineering education domain. By presenting results and examples from our own experience suing this protocol, we aim to provide a cognitive validation model which may be useful to engineering education researchers designing their own survey instruments.By following the model outlined in this paper, participants in our study verbalized several issues of concern when interacting with our web-based survey. These issues ranged from minor grammatical errors to serious cognitive mismatches which caused participants to interpret and/or respond to items differently than we intended. Participants were asked for suggestions to correct these issues, and changes were made to the survey based on this feedback. The survey was retested in two additional iterations of think-aloud sessions with new participants to ensure the revisions successfully remedied the issues encountered by previous participants. Finally, the refined survey was pilot tested and subsequently reviewed by an expert in the field before being administered at seven institutions. This paper includes evidence and specific examples of how the cognitive validation model resulted in a refined survey instrument, as well as recommendations for other engineering education researchers wishing to employ similar techniques in designing and validating survey instruments.
People using wheelchairs face barriers in their daily lives, many of which are created by people who surround them. Promoting positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities is an integral step in removing these barriers and improving their quality of life. In this context, persuasive games offer an opportunity of encouraging attitude change. We created a wheelchair-controlled persuasive game to study how embodied interaction can be applied to influence player attitudes over time. Our results show that the game intervention successfully raised awareness for challenges that people using wheelchairs face, and that embodied interaction is a more effective approach than traditional input in terms of retaining attitude change over time. Based on these findings, we provide design strategies for embodied interaction in persuasive games, and outline how our findings can be leveraged to help designers create effective persuasive experiences beyond games.
People using wheelchairs have access to fewer sports and other physically stimulating leisure activities than nondisabled persons, and often lead sedentary lifestyles that negatively influence their health. While motionbased video games have demonstrated great potential of encouraging physical activity among nondisabled players, the accessibility of motion-based games is limited for persons with mobility disabilities, thus also limiting access to the potential health benefits of playing these games. In our work, we address this issue through the design of wheelchair-accessible motion-based game controls. We present KINECT Wheels , a toolkit designed to integrate wheelchair movements into motion-based games. Building on the toolkit, we developed Cupcake Heaven, a wheelchair-based video game designed for older adults using wheelchairs, and we created Wheelchair Revolution, a motion-based dance game that is accessible to both persons using wheelchairs and nondisabled players. Evaluation results show that KINECT Wheels can be applied to make motion-based games wheelchair-accessible, and that wheelchair-based games engage broad audiences in physically stimulating play. Through the application of the wheelchair as an enabling technology in games, our work has the potential of encouraging players of all ages to develop a positive relationship with their wheelchair.
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