N400 elicitation in semantically incongruent interaction using detailed narrative virtual worlds

Borkowski, Nicholas Anton

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2014

2014-02-14

76

N400 er et begivenhedsrelateret potentiale (ERP)—en kort hjernereaktion målt med elektroencefalografi (EEG)—der bliver tydeligere, når noget ikke passer til sammenhængen (semantisk uoverensstemmelse). Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan narrativ og spillerinteraktion spiller sammen i moderne videospil, og foreslår, at narrativ sammenhæng kan medvirke til at skabe flow, en tilstand hvor udfordring og færdigheder er i balance. Fire scenarier bruges til at belyse forskellige balancer mellem forfatterintention, spilnarrativ og interaktion samt de subjektive oplevelser, der opstår. Ved at betragte interaktion som en del af spillets fortælling spørger vi, om interaktive uoverensstemmelser kan udløse N400, sådan som tidligere forskning har vist for inkongruente ord, billeder, lyd og film. For at teste dette gennemførte vi et forsøg i DADIU-spillet Cantrip: 30 deltagere spillede i et detaljeret virtuelt miljø iført otte EEG-elektroder på hovedbunden. Spillet indeholdt 15 triggere, hver i fire måletilstande, for at måle reaktioner, når styringen uventet blev ændret (en inkongruent begivenhed). En tydelig N400-reaktion blev fundet i én af de gennemsnitlige betingelser, hvilket tyder på, at interaktiv inkongruens i spil under visse betingelser kan fremkalde N400.

The N400 is an event-related potential (ERP)—a brief brain response measured with electroencephalography (EEG)—that becomes larger when people encounter information that does not fit the context (a semantic mismatch). This thesis examines how narrative and player interaction work together in modern video games and proposes that coherent storytelling can help create flow, a state where challenge and skill are balanced. Four scenarios are used to discuss different balances between authorial intent, game narrative, and player interaction, and the subjective experiences that result. Treating interaction as part of a game’s narrative, we ask whether interactive mismatches can elicit the N400, as prior research has shown for incongruent words, images, sounds, and film. To test this, we built an experiment in the DADIU game Cantrip: 30 participants played in a detailed virtual environment while wearing eight scalp EEG electrodes. The game contained 15 trigger points, each presented in four measurement states, to assess responses when the control scheme changed unexpectedly (an incongruent event). A clear N400 response was observed in one of the averaged conditions, indicating that, under some conditions, interactive incongruence in games can evoke the N400.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]

EEG ; Interaction

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Borkowski, Nicholas Anton:

• Narrative Coherence in Games: An analysis of narrative interactive emergence in videogames (2013)