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International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

HCII 2021: Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Supporting Everyday Life Activities pp 3–22Cite as

The Belief in Health Benefits of Digital Play Modulates Physiological Responses to Games: A Repeated-Measures Quantitative Study of Game Stress in Older Adults Playing Different Game Genres

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12787))

Abstract

To create games that target older adults’ interests in engaging in cognitively-boosting activities is a rising trend. However, the novelty of the digital medium of play, as well as the implicit expectation of cognitive performance can create stressful experiences for them. To address this question, we have previously proposed an empirical framework, Affective Game Planning for Health Applications (AGPHA). Drawing on Lazarus’s Transactional Theory of Stress Appraisal and Coping, AGPHA deploys an iterative evaluation of interactions between primary appraisal (PA) and secondary appraisal (SA) of the game challenge in relation to individual beliefs, as well as cognitive and physiological abilities, to predict whether players choose to learn and master the game further. In this study, we focused on the PA of health benefits of digital games (even before the games were introduced), and showed its effect on biomarkers of stress, namely cortisol, electrodermal activity (EDA), and heart rate (HR) during play. Furthermore, we showed that physiological variations explained differences in SA of the games benefits related to mental health and cognitive stimulation, but not related to the perception of game difficulty. Finally, we showed that interactions between physiological and SA factors were more sensitive predictors of the desire to replay than physiology or SA alone. Our findings show that AGPHA provides a suitable framework for investigating complex interindividual variations in physiological and perceptual experience of different games.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is part of an empirical investigation of Finding Better Games for Older Adults supported by the seed funding from Concordia University’s Office of Research and PERFORM Centre. We thank the following research assistants who were involved in data collection, Mahsa Mirgholami, Kate Li and Anna Smirnova. Logistic support from McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (mcin-cnim.ca), the Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT) network (http://actproject.ca/), and Technoculture, Arts and Games (TAG) Centre (tag.hexagram.ca) is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Atousa Assadi & Najmeh Khalili-Mahani

  2. engAGE Centre for Studies in Aging, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Sasha Elbaz & Najmeh Khalili-Mahani

  3. PERFORM Centre, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Najmeh Khalili-Mahani

Authors
  1. Atousa Assadi
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  2. Sasha Elbaz
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  3. Najmeh Khalili-Mahani
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Correspondence to Najmeh Khalili-Mahani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Qin Gao

  2. Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Jia Zhou

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Assadi, A., Elbaz, S., Khalili-Mahani, N. (2021). The Belief in Health Benefits of Digital Play Modulates Physiological Responses to Games: A Repeated-Measures Quantitative Study of Game Stress in Older Adults Playing Different Game Genres. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Supporting Everyday Life Activities. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12787. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78111-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78111-8_1

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