Dec 282022
 

Gostava de ler este artigo “Video Game Play Any Association With Preteens’ Cognitive Ability Test Performance?” de May Jadallah, C. Shawn Green, e Jie Zhang

“This exploratory study examined the video gaming experience of 160 urban public-school preteen-age students as well as the association between video game play and students’ performance on a standardized cognitive ability test (CogAT), which includes verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal/spatial batteries. Overall, neither duration of play nor video game genres played had significant correlations with the CogAT measures. Similarly, when using an “extreme-groups” approach to examine relations with playing a subset of games previously linked with certain enhancements in cognitive skill (i.e., action video games), no significant effects were observed. These results are thus inconsistent with theories that predict diminished cognitive performance in children who play a great deal of video games, but they are also inconsistent with previous work suggesting possible enhancements in those who play certain types of games. The potential contribution of this null finding and an alternative explanation are discussed..”

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Sep 242022
 

Gostava de ler este artigo “Introduction on THINKING: Bioengineering of Science and Art” de Nima Rezaei e Amene Saghazadeh

“THINKING: Bioengineering of Science and Art is inclusive of the philosophy of thinking by using different knowledge works. This chapter is, therefore, no longer an attempt to introduce the book. Rather, we notice thoughts of different contexts and many relations among them, giving rise to various sets of integrations. One important result of this introduction is that integrated thinking represents the highest level of development, and scientific thinking may be only one of many integrant elements and a range of integrative relations—the point to which we devote our attention in THINKING: Bioengineering of Science and Art.”

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Aug 272022
 

The War on Terror beyond the barrel of a gun: The procedural rhetorics of the boardgame Labyrinth
Thomas Ambrosio, Jonathan Ross

“Utilizing Bogost’s procedural rhetoric framework in his book Persuasive Games, this article examines Labyrinth, a boardgame that simulates the conflict between the United States and global terrorism. The authors systematically integrate ludology (rules/gameplay) and narratology (narratives/representations) to illustrate how Labyrinth was intentionally designed so that players became active participants in a narrative about how good governance undermines the sources of terrorism and the counterproductive nature of militarized counterterrorism, as well as bear witness to the agency of the Muslim world and the region’s political dynamism on the tabletop. This is a very different account of the War on Terror than has previously been studied in the literature, which has focused overwhelmingly on first-person shooter videogames and, in turn, has provided a very limited range of how this conflict can be represented in ludic form. However, Labyrinth is not alone, and the wargames that many players grew up with have given way to a variety of boardgames which approach complex historical or contemporary situations and environments beyond simply killing one’s enemies. This represents a diverse, but largely untapped, resource already in the public space and ready to be investigated. Media studies can therefore benefit from considering how boardgames similar to Labyrinth present alternative ways in which the ‘real world’ has been, and indeed can be, translated through popular culture objects.”

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Aug 272022
 

Top-down Design of a CS Curriculum for a Computer Games BA
Nuno Fachada e Nélio Códices

“Computer games are complex products incorporating software, design and art. Consequently, their development is a multidisciplinary effort, requiring professionals from several fields, who should nonetheless be knowledgeable across disciplines. Due to the variety of skills required, and in order to train these professionals, computer game development (GD) degrees have been appearing in North America and Europe since the late 1990s. Following this trend, several GD degrees have emerged in Portugal. Given the lack of specialized academic staff, not uncommon in younger scientific areas, some of these degrees “borrowed” computer science (CS) programs and faculty within the same institution, leading in some cases to a disconnect between CS theory and practice and the requirements of GD classes. In this paper, we discuss our experience in adapting the CS curriculum of a three-year computer games BA in accordance with GD requirements. We used a top-down approach, where the game engine used for GD informs the choice of CS topics and programming languages lectured in the CS curriculum. The discussion is centered around the choices taken and the theoretical and empirical rationale behind our decisions. Preliminary empirical results indicate a substantial increase in GD project quality and a clear improvement in the students’ technical skills, as well as in their experimentation and adaptation capabilities.”

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Aug 052022
 

SonifyIt: Towards Transformative Sound for All Robots
Brian J. Zhang; Noel Sigafoos; Rabecka Moffit; Ibrahim Syed; Lili S. Adams; Jason Fick; Naomi T. Fitter

do resumo consta:
Transformative robot sound yields perceptual, functional, and social benefits in human-robot interactions, but broader research and implementation related to this topic is impeded by the lack of a common sound generation system for robots. Such a system could enable a wide array of situated robot sound studies, smoother collaborations with sound designers than current state of the art methods, and broader adoption of transformative robot sound. Based on other successful open-source projects in the robotics community, we integrated Robot Operating System, a popular robotics middleware, and Pure Data, a visual programming language for multimedia, to enable live sound synthesis and sample playback for robots. This sound generation system synthesized sound in an in-the-wild pilot study with positive qualitative results. Furthermore, an online within-subjects survey study with N=96 showed that the proposed sound system made the robot seem warmer, happier, and more energetic. This work benefits robotics researchers by providing the current sound system as a validated artifact and demonstrating its potential impact on broader robotics applications. We plan to develop this software into an open-source package: SonifyIt.

Jul 262022
 

Gostava de ter acesso a estes artigos:
Nintendo® WII? For the Elderly, Yes! : Contributions to a Better Inclusion and Quality of Life for the Elderly
“Video games are aimed at a younger audience, however, with this study we intend to demonstrate that they can also be leveraged with the elderly. The main objective was to investigate whether the Nintendo® Wii has characteristics that allow promoting and improving the inclusion and quality of life of the elderly. In methodological terms, an exploratory study was chosen, because the confinement constraints associated with the pandemic did not allow the participation of a larger group, in which the participant observation method was applied. Data collection was carried out at the Activities Center of a municipality in the district of Castelo Branco, with the participation of three users. After the activities carried out, it appears that video games contribute to the inclusion and quality of life of the elderly, due to the fact that a collaborative environment is felt among the participants, the relaxed and mutual environment and the smiles and laughter that were heard. The fact that they mastered a technological resource was also emphasized because it gave them a feeling of inclusion in a technological world to which, in most cases, they feel on the sidelines. In short, the use of the Nintendo® Wii made it possible to verify that it can promote and contribute to a healthier and more inclusive life for the elderly.”
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Algorithmic Interactions in Open Source Work
“This study focuses on algorithmic interactions in open source work. Algorithms are essential in open source because they remedy concerns incompletely addressed by parallel development or modularity. Following algorithmic interactions in open source allows us to map the performance of algorithms to understand the nature of work conducted by multiple algorithms functioning together. We zoom to the level of algorithmic interactions to show how residual interdependencies of modularity are worked around by algorithms. Moreover, the dependence on parallel development does not suffice to resolve all concerns related to the distributed work of open source. We examine the Linux Kernel case that reveals how algorithmic interactions facilitate open source work through the three processes of managing, organizing, and supervising development work. Our qualitative study theorizes how algorithmic interactions intensify through these processes that work together to facilitate development. We make a theoretical contribution to open source scholarship by explaining how algorithmic interactions navigate across module rigidity and enhance parallel development. Our work also reveals how, in open source, developers work to automate most tasks and augmentation is a bidirectional relationship of algorithms augmenting the work of developers and of developers augmenting the work of algorithms..”
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Developing Games with Data-Oriented Design
“Data-Oriented Design (DOD) is a software design process used in the commercial game industry for medium to large scale (AAA) games that revolves around data as the central design focus. Since DOD grew organically from industry practices, it has been viewed primarily as a set of tools and design patterns without a cohesive core. After studying data-oriented design, it has become clear that there is one core motivating concept behind DOD and that is that software exists to input, transform, and output data. In order to demonstrate the core concept and tools of DOD, examples are shown. The history and focus of DOD are discussed as well as how DOD is used in current commercial software..”
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Feb 132022
 

Gostava de ter acesso a este artigo:
“Do Real-Time Strategy Video Gamers Have Better Attentional Control?”
Objective
Do real-time strategy (RTS) video gamers have better attentional control? To examine this issue, we tested experienced versus inexperienced RTS video gamers on multi-object tracking tasks (MOT) and dual-MOT tasks with visual or auditory secondary tasks (dMOT). We employed a street-crossing task with a visual working memory task as a secondary task in a virtual reality (VR) environment to examine any generalized attentional advantage.

Background
Similar to action video games, RTS video games require players to switch attention between multiple visual objects and views. However, whether the attentional control advantage is limited by sensory modalities or generalizes to real-life tasks remains unclear.

Method
In study 1, 25 RTS video game players (SVGP) and 25 non-video game players (NVGP) completed the MOT task and two dMOT tasks. In study 2, a different sample with 25 SVGP and 25 NVGP completed a simulated street-crossing task with the visual dual task in a VR environment.

Results
After controlling the effects of the speed-accuracy trade-off, SVGP showed better performance than NVGP in the MOT task and the visual dMOT task, but SVGP did not perform better in either the auditory dMOT task or the street-crossing task.

Conclusion
RTS video gamers had better attentional control in visual computer tasks, but not in the auditory tasks and the VR tasks. Attentional control benefits associated with RTS video game experience may be limited by sensory modalities, and may not translate to performance benefits in real-life tasks.

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Dec 312021
 

Gostava de ter acesso a:
“M. Kuwahara and N. Umezu, “Learning Environment based on an Interactive Projection Table for Children,” 2021 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR), 2021, pp. 109-113, doi: 10.1109/AIVR52153.2021.00026.
Abstract: This paper proposes a tabletop learning environment for children. Some physics-based phenomena such as reflection and refraction of light are difficult for children to understand. Our interactive projection significantly help children understand behaviors of light through watching simulated light particles and interacting with them by moving real objects on the table. Our system consists a PC, video projector, and depth sensor. Depth-based object detection is performed with each of captured frames at 60 FPS. In the prototype of our implemented system for learning behaviors of light, simulated light particles reacts in realtime with actual objects moved by a user hand, which would greatly help people including children understand behaviors of light such as propagation and reflection. Our future work includes to conduct a series of user experiments in local museums to evaluate usability of the proposed system. Development of other learning applications are also of high importance”

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Dec 182021
 

Gostava de ter acesso a:
“LEGO: THE TOY OF SMART INVESTORS” de Victoria Dobrynskaya, Julia Kishilova

Do resumo surge:
“We study financial returns on alternative collectible investment assets, such as toys, using LEGO sets as an example. Such iconic toys with diminishing over time supply and high collectible values appear to yield high returns on the secondary market. We find that LEGO investments outperform large stocks, bonds, gold, and alternative investments, yielding an average return of at least 11% (8% in real terms) in the sample period 1987–2015. LEGO returns are not exposed to market, value, momentum, and volatility risk factors but have an almost unit exposure to the size factor. A positive multifactor alpha of 4%–5%, a Sharpe ratio of 0.4, a positive return skewness, and low exposure to standard risk factors make the LEGO toy and other similar collectibles an attractive alternative investment with good diversification potential.”

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Dec 182021
 

Gostava de ter acesso a:
“Studying interrelations of computational thinking and creativity: A scoping review (2011–2020)” de Rotem Israel-Fishelson, Arnon Hershkovitz

do resumo surge:
Both computational thinking (CT) and creativity have been recognized as key skills for today’s learners. Over the last decade, research of both skills in a single context has emerged. In this paper, we present a scoping review of 62 such empirical from 2011 to 2020. Our goal was to have a thorough understanding of the educational settings in which research on both CT and creativity was conducted, the theoretical foundations it has laid down, and the research tools used. Our findings indicate a geographical bias (dominance of the US and prominence of developed European countries), as well as a focus on secondary education and on STEM-related disciplines; this could be explained by the current situation of CT spread. We also found that when studying CT and creativity jointly, it is most common to define CT in a broader perspective than merely programming of computer science. Additionally, while creativity is largely referred to as product-related, CT is barely referred to as such. Taken together, our findings point out some gaps in the current research of CT and creativity and suggest how it should be expended on the fertile grounds of creativity, as the latter crosses geographical, age, and subject borders. Doing so may build a bridge between CT and creativity in a way that will benefit both.

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