Gamifying Research - Researchifying Games

While tra­di­tional exper­i­men­tal par­a­digms offer tight stim­u­lus con­trol and repeata­bil­ity, then tend to be a bit boring and removed from many real-world sit­u­a­tions, which can limit real-world trans­fer­abil­ity of results.

How can we bring together the method­olog­i­cal strenghs of research with the intrin­sic moti­va­tion of play­ful­ness and gaming?

The goal of this project is to design and use a gam­i­fied research par­a­digm that syn­er­gis­ti­cally com­bines the advan­tages of lab-based psy­chophysics VR research (e.g., stim­u­lus con­trol, repeata­bil­ity) with the advan­tages of gam­i­fi­ca­tion. These include increased and more intrin­sic user moti­va­tion, and the poten­tial to reach larger and more diverse par­tic­i­pant sam­ples, both local and online, that can enhance inter­nal and exter­nal valid­ity. Perceptual and psy­chophys­i­cal research often uses arti­fi­cial or abstract stim­uli and sit­u­a­tions tend to be not very moti­vat­ing for the par­tic­i­pants, which might reduce real-word trans­fer­abil­ity of lab results. [stay tuned, we’re just start­ing this project]