Inferring a Players Need for Cognition From Hints Santos Khan - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Inferring a Player’s Need for Cognition From Hints Santos Khan Markopoulos 7 MARCH 2016 IUI

Index • Need for Cognition • Nanobots Game • Method • Results 1

Need For Cognition (NfC) • Stable trait that indicates how much a person is willing to engage in cognitive activities rather than apply mental shortcuts and heuristics • High NfC: • Inclined to mental problem solving • Asses situations with higher degree of elaboration • Low NfC: • Prone to less elaboration and • Follow more heuristic and empirical strategies • Measured in a scale • Direct applications within Persuasive Technologies 2

Nanobots Game • Simple, two-player turn-based game • Players control the movement of a set of units • Objective is to eliminate the units of the opposing team • Included: • NfC questionnaire • Hints • http://imi.nhtv.nl/nanobots/ 3

Nanobots Game • Logged: • Number of hints requested • Number of hints followed • Number of turns • Total duration of the game play • Score • Does behavior around a hint mechanic correlate with NfC? 4

Results • Signi fj cant negative correlation between NfC and number of hints followed (N=105, r = -0.173, p = 0.078) 5

Is Nanobots Biased? • Checked all other variables: • Time per turn • Total time • Number of turns • Number of wins 6

Summary • Showed that a generic game mechanic can be utilized for inferring stable personality traits • Supports the unobtrusive detection of NfC • Potential adaptations: • High NfC players: − Additional cognitive tasks in a level − In-depth info for content purchases • Low NfC players: − More visual complex stimuli for content purchases − In exploration games get an in fm uential fj gure (e.g. priest or political leader) to impact their engagement and exploration with the game v.j.khan@tue.nl khan.gr @v_j_khan 7