Effects of player-video game interaction on the mental effort of older adults with the use of electroencephalography and NASA-TLX.

While player-video game interaction appears to affect older adults in gaming, there is limited knowledge regarding the cognitive demands associated with the anticipation of performing a button press, specifically focusing on the input and game elements relation (I/E relation) in game environments. The study aims to investigate the effects of lateral and rotational displacement amplitudes of game elements, triggered by a single button-press, on the cognitive effort of older adults. Both subjective and objective measurement methods were employed to assess these effects. A total of 48 older adults participated in three casual video game tasks encompassing lateral and rotational displacements at varying I/E relations (low, medium, and high). Results obtained from the NASA Task Load Index and electroencephalography (EEG) measurements revealed significant differences between the I/E relations. Specifically, the subjective rating of cognitive demand among older players was significantly impacted by a small rotation angle associated with a button press, leading to increased mental, physical, and temporal demands, along with decreased performance. Surprisingly, the analysis of EEG data, particularly the theta-alpha ratio, revealed significant interaction effects of I/E relations, button press type, and game type on the cognitive demand required during gameplay. These findings offer practical implications and point towards future avenues for developing player-video game interactions that are more cognitively friendly for older players in gaming environments.

Effects of photopic and cirtopic illumination on steady state pupil sizes.

The conventional view was that cones are responsible for pupil constriction in photopic lighting conditions. With the discovery of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC), it was found that signals from ipRGCs along with cones mediated the pupil light reflex in photopic lighting conditions. Although both signals contributed, it was unclear how these signals were summed. In the work reported here, steady-state pupil size was measured with an infrared camera under LED lighting conditions with different color temperatures and luminance. A formula was then derived for pupil size according to the linear summation of cirtopic and photopic luminance. This formula allowed direct calculations to predict pupil size well when LED photopic luminance ranged from about 50cd/m2 to 300cd/m2, which is the general luminance level range for computer and smartphone screens.

Task factor usability ratings for different age groups writing Chinese.

This study evaluated how different task factors affect performance and user subjective preferences for three different age groups of Chinese subjects (6-11, 20-23, 65-70 years) when hand writing Chinese characters. The subjects copied Chinese character sentences with different settings for the task factors of writing plane angle (horizontal 0 degrees , slanted 15 degrees ), writing direction (horizontal, vertical), and line spacing (5 mm, 7 mm and no lines). Writing speed was measured and subjective preferences (effectiveness and satisfaction) were assessed for each of the task factor settings. The result showed that there was a conflict between writing speed and personal preference for the line spacing factor; 5 mm line spacing increased writing speed but it was the least preferred. It was also found that: vertical and horizontal writing directions and a slanted work surface suited school-aged children; a horizontal work surface and horizontal writing direction suited university students; and a horizontal writing direction with either a horizontal or slanted work surface suited the older adults.

Effects of different task factors on speed and preferences in Chinese handwriting.

This study was conducted to determine the speed of Chinese handwriting and explore the effects of the task factors, tool type, paper texture, writing plane angle, and line spacing on writing speed and subjective preferences. The results showed that the average duration of writing a 9-stroke character was 1487 ms. Paper texture and line spacing had a significant effect on production speed. Uncoated paper and 3 mm-line spacing enhanced writing speed. Subjects had clear preferences for writing with a pen, on uncoated paper, in a horizontal plane, and with relatively wide line spacing (5 mm/7 mm/lineless). There was a conflict between writing speed and personal preference on the line spacing factor. Although narrow line spacing (3 mm) increased writing speed, it was not preferred by the subjects over wider spacing on the evaluation attributes of comfort, ease, fatigue, and overall preference. To take a balance between writing speed and personal preference, a line spacing of at least 5 mm is recommended.