Abstract
Multiple age-related changes in older adults affect their ability to use digital entertainment. These changes interact with one another and present special challenges for older people to overcome. Cognitive declines with age have been shown to be a deterrent to older adults’ acceptance and perception of video games, leading to poor performance and decreased enjoyment. The problem is further exacerbated by the increasingly complex interfaces for controls and displays, increasing the urgency for research on silver gaming.Video games have been shown to improve mental health and even slow down the onset of neural diseases in older adults. Nevertheless, older adults can only benefit from games if they start to accept game devices and utilizing the appropriate cognitive load level in player–video game interaction is the first step to attracting them. Most gaming studies have so far been limited to investigating the cognitive benefits of video games for older adults and providing guidelines and recommendations for interface design only for general players. The cognitive abilities of older gamers and the allocation of their reduced cognitive resources when interacting with games by, for example, using different devices and touchscreen controls have been ignored. Therefore, the present research aimed to investigate the acceptance of older adults on video games in light of the age-related decline of cognitive abilities and how older adults are cognitively affected by player–video game interaction in silver gaming. This dissertation, comprising quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods, focuses on improving the usage, acceptance and interaction of video games by older adults from the cognitive load perspective.
Recently, video games have been developed to provide the older population with enjoyment and to foster improvement in their cognitive functions. However, whether game devices are easy to use and video games are useful in enhancing older adults’ cognition remains controversial. Study 1, therefore, examined and evaluated the effects of game types and devices in video game training on the cognition of older adults using the meta-analysis technique. Results revealed that a mouse/keyboard was superior to other devices in perceptual-motor function. The effect size for perceptual-motor function decreased when the video game training device changed from a mouse/keyboard to a driving simulator and motion controller. Furthermore, older adults with a longer training session in cognitive training game tasks and conventional games had a relatively larger overall cognition improvement than other video game types. These findings implied that game device and game type are critical factors influencing the mental effort of older gamers; however, how cognitive demand is associated with these factors in silver gaming environments remains unknown.
To fill in the research gap, study 2 aimed to examine the attitudes and behaviours of older adults towards the cognitive demands and problems experienced in game environments. Interviews were conducted online with 60 seniors to investigate the potential cognitive load sources in video game design using constructs from the technology acceptance model and cognitive load theory (CLT). Grounded theory was adopted to analyse the theme of the data and develop a game acceptance model for seniors (GAMS). Results showed that linkages between video game adoption and perceived ease and usefulness of play were mediated through intrinsic, extraneous and germane cognitive loads as proposed in CLT. Surprisingly, human–video game interaction is the most powerful predictor of older adults’ game acceptance. Older adults with more prior knowledge may interact with video games using less memory capacity. Furthermore, games without a goal required more effort from older players, and game competitions required strategic decisions with attendant cognitive and affective effects. These cognitive load effects on older players identified in GAMS provide new insights into the player–video game interaction in silver gaming.
Player–video game interaction appears to affect older adults from gaming. However, no knowledge about the cognitive demands associated with the interaction, such as the relationship between an older adult’s input and responses from a game, was available in the literature. Therefore, study 3 was conducted to address the issue by investigating how the mental effort of older adults was influenced by the cognitive demand of the relationship between an input and an element (I/E relation) in games. This study comprised empirical experiments in two parts. The first examined the I/E relation in games with button presses. Forty-eight older adults participated in three casual video games and were instructed to perform lateral and rotational displacement game tasks at one of three I/E relations (low, medium and high). The mental effort of older adults was assessed with a subjective rating scale (i.e., NASA task load index) and two objective measurement methods (i.e., game performance and electroencephalogram). Results showed significant differences between I/E relations in the NASA task load index and electroencephalograph. The theta–alpha ratio showed a U-shaped relationship in the lateral displacement game task and an inverted U-shaped relationship in rotational displacement game tasks with increasing I/E values. Motor preparation types (initiation, continuation and inhibition) were also found to require different amounts of cognitive resources from older adults in games. However, video games in this study were manipulated with button presses only. Whether I/E relations have different impacts on the mental effort of older adults when they play games using other touch gestures, such as dragging and rotating, remains to be explored.
Therefore, the second part of study 3 aimed to investigate and compare the effects of touch gestures on the mental effort of older adults amongst different I/E relations. Unlike the first part, 54 older adults participated in the casual video games with one of three touch gestures (dragging, tapping and rotating) and one of three I/E relations (low, medium and high). The electroencephalogram results showed that dragging was more cognitively demanding with medium I/E relations than with low and high I/E relations in games. Surprisingly, compared with rotating and dragging, using tapping gestures in video games was found to reduce the mental effort of older adults I n interacting with games. Thus, they can focus more on the game task itself. These findings provide practical implications and recommendations for developing a cognitive-friendly game environment for older adults.
Overall, the findings of this dissertation can provide useful information to game developers, ergonomists and human factors engineers to establish guidelines for developing older adult-friendly video games and add new insights to gerontechnology research. Improved human–video game interaction in silver gaming can promote activity and involvement with technology, resulting in the elderly being independent for longer. The findings can have very significant beneficial impacts on society and the economy.
| Date of Award | 24 Oct 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Hoi Shou Alan CHAN (Supervisor) |