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Scottish Game Jam 2010 was a resounding success, with a total of 9 teams taking part in the 48 hour challenge . The theme and constraints? To design a game based on deception incorporating either ‘rink’, ‘wink’ or ’sink’.

Check out all the action from Scottish Game Jam 2010

Thanks to Jon Sykes for making the video and capturing the essence of the Jam.

Registration is now open for global game jam 2010 and is strictly on a first come first serve basis! Think you have what it takes to make a game in 48 hours? Enjoy team work? Fancy a challenge? Well then this is for you!!

For more details please visit the scottish game jam website

The section below is on social facilitation and is taken from chapter 2 of my phd. I have still to review Cottrell’s Evaluation Apprehension Theory and Baron’s Distraction Conflict Theory and make some further changes.

Social facilitation refers to the effect that the mere presence of others has on performance and this has been of great interest to social psychologists since the field’s inception. These effects can either be positive, which increases / facilitates the performance or negative, which decreases / inhibits the performance. Research into social facilitation has concentrated on two settings: coaction and audiences. Coaction is when people perform the same task side by side e.g. people lifting weights together or taking a test in a room. In an audience setting, spectators watch a person perform a task.

Norman Triplett (1898) published the first study in the field of social psychology (Strube, 2005), looking into the effect of social facilitation. Triplett observed that among bicycle racers, the presence of other cyclists tended to increase performance, leading to faster race times. Triplett believed that the “bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available” (Triplett, 1898). Triplett’s experiment however, did not produce strong results at least by modern standards in psychology (Strubbe, 2005).

Since Triplett’s experiment, the theory of social facilitation attracted a lot of interest from social psychologists who implied a number of causal factors such as mere presence, evaluation apprehension, competition, attention and distraction. They discovered that there were exceptions to the concept of “working with others enhances performance”. Allport (1920) conducted studies of ‘co-working’ or ‘co-feeling’ groups and discovered that they did not always yield evidence of social facilitation. Similarly, other researchers found that while the presence of others or coaction resulted in a gain in performance it could also be detrimental to their performance (Burwitz & Newell, 1972; Carment, 1970; Martens & Landers, 1972; Travis, 1928; Weston & English, 1926).

Psychologists suggest that a person’s motivation arises from their expectations of what they can do and the likely consequences of their actions. Bandura’s (1977, 1986, 1989) theory of self-efficacy maintains that a person’s motivation is determined by efficacy expectancy, when a person believes that they can perform the necessary behaviour; and outcome expectancy, when a person believes that a particular outcome is the product of a given behaviour or set of behaviours. We discuss Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy in greater detail later in this chapter.

Zajonc’s (1965) Drive Theory, based on Clarke Hull’s ideas on drives and behavioural responses, to explain social facilitation reignited interest in the area. He suggests that simply the presence of others, as coactors or an audience, triggers an innate response of increased arousal, which increases the performance of dominant responses. As Triplett’s (1898) study demonstrated, an individual’s performance is improved in the presence of others when dominant responses are correct such as in simple or well-learned tasks. Incorrect dominant responses, on the other hand, in tasks that are deemed to be difficult or not well-learned would actually result in performance being impaired by the presence of others. Some researchers think that there is a cognitive basis for arousal in the presence of others whereas Zajonc has proposed that it is a biologically innate response. His conclusion was based on meta- analysis of studies carried out before 1965. Later research by Zajonc et al (1969), Michaels et al (1982) and Bell and Yee (1989) also favoured this hypothesis.

Social facilitation effects have been explained by a variety of theories (Geen, 1989). Traditional views have qualified task difficulty as the main variable, however recent studies indicate that the participant’s expectation of efficacy is influenced by task difficulty, thereby affecting performance. Before discussing self-efficacy we need to understand what the term ‘self’ means in Psychology.

The post below talks about the ’self’ and in due course I will upload what I’ve written on self-efficacy.

In Psychology, ‘the self’ refers to the cognitive representation of one’s identity and plays an integral part in human motivation, affect and social identity. Self-image and self-esteem have been studied in great depth by researchers and according to some social psychologists they are a useful measure of behaviour and personality. To assess self-image and self-esteem, psychologists use a variety of self-rating methods.The most commonly used scales for measuring self-esteem are the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965) and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (1967/1981). The Rosenberg test comprises of ten statements relating to overall feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance. The statements are answered on a four-point response system ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The Coopersmith Inventory measures attitudes toward self in multiple contexts by using fifty-questions which participants are asked to rate as either positive or negative characteristics of someone as similar or dissimilar to themselves.

After reworking the different sections in chapter 2 I have finally rearranged them into something I’m happy with, at least for the time being! Chapter 2 explores the social nature of games and discusses how the presence of others affects player experience. I discuss social facilitation and the concept of self-efficacy, which is central to Bandura’s theory of social cognition.

So this is what the chapter looks like:

1. Intro (Obvious one)

2. Exergames and Health: Promoting A Healthier Lifestyle

3. Play Experience and Social Effect

3.1 Social Facilitation

3.2 The Self

3.3 Self Efficacy – This includes ‘factors influencing self efficacy’, ‘expectancy and outcome expectancy’, ‘role of self efficacy in sports’, ’self efficacy and motivation in sports’ and ‘perceived self efficacy for health behaviours’

3.4 Groups

4. Using Social Support for Health Promotion

4.1 Social Technology

4.2 Social Support and Health Promotion

4.3 Exergames and Social Technology: Enhancers for Health Promotion?

5. Conclusion

Once I’m happy with the draft I will upload snippets of each section……

Get paid for using your mobile phone!

How would you like to get paid for using your mobile phone?
Too good to be true? This is exactly what eMotionLab at
Glasgow Caledonian University are offering students as part of
their new mobile behaviour study.

eMotionLab has teamed with a hot new Scottish technology firm to investigate student mobile phone habits. They are looking for students with Nokia N Series or E Series phones who use their mobile to connect to Facebook. Interested students sign up
to join the research team, and in return for their low-level
involvement are lavishly rewarded with gifts, and a final cash payment. The mobile behaviour study is considered light-touch. This means that the study is nonintrusive, requiring very little
input by participants. Once a week, you receive two questions
via SMS to your phone, and we ask that you reply within 24
hours. The questions are simple, pertaining to how you use your
mobile phone. It should take only a couple of minutes to text
back a reply. Other than that, we ask participants to complete a
short on-line questionnaire at the end of the study, so that we
better understand their personal requirements.

The study lasts a maximum of 8 weeks, during which time
students are regularly rewarded with ‘thank-you’ gifts. Also, a
final cash payment is issued on receipt of the on-line
questionnaire.

The study starts June 1st and will continue for 8 weeks.

INTERESTED?
email: jon.sykes@gcal.ac.uk

While waiting for participants to take part in my study, I decided to submit an abstract to the Games Innovation Conference in London. The work I’ve proposed looks at the importance of the personalisation of music on player experience in exergames.

For more details about the conference click here

Notification of acceptance is on the 1st of June so until then I can focus on other things!

Good news, the DiGRA Cfp has now been pushed back to the 17th of April. This gives me ample time, or certainly more time, to work on proposals for the conference. Interested in a symposia or workshop followed by a paper submission.

The first DiGRA I attended was in Vancouver ‘05 with my fellow eMotion Lab colleagues, back then we were in the very early stages of our academic endeavours. The conference gave us a taste of what academia entailed and 4 years later we’re still pursuing it which means we definitely liked what we saw

Setup a twitter feed and facebook group for the eMotion lab. You can now keep upto date with what’s happening with everyone involved with the lab.

www.twitter.com/emotionlab

Facebook search = emotion lab