Matching Items (151)
Description
The gameplay experience can be understood as an interaction between player and game design characteristics. A greater understanding of these characteristics can be gained through empirical means. Subsequently, an enhanced knowledge of these characteristics should enable the creation of games that effectively generate desirable experiences for players. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between gameplay enjoyment and the individual characteristics of gaming goal orientations, game usage, and gender. A total of 301 participants were surveyed and the data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This led to an expanded Gameplay Enjoyment Model (GEM) with 41 game features, an overarching Enjoyment factor, and 9 specific components, including Challenge, Companionship, Discovery, Fantasy, Fidelity, Identity, Multiplayer, Recognition, and Strategy. Furthermore, the 3x2 educational goal orientation framework was successfully applied to a gaming context. The resulting 3x2 Gaming Goal Orientations (GGO) model consists of 18 statements that describe players' motivations for gaming, which are distributed across the six dimensions of Task-Approach, Task-Avoidance, Self-Approach, Self-Avoidance, Other-Approach, and Other-Avoidance. Lastly, players' individual characteristics were used to predict gameplay enjoyment, which resulted in the formation of the GEM-Individual Characteristics (GEM-IC) model. In GEM-IC, the six GGO dimensions were the strongest predictors. Meanwhile, game usage variables like multiplayer, genre, and platform preference, were minimal to moderate predictors. Although commonly appearing in games research, gender and game time commitment variables failed to predict enjoyment. The results of this study enable important work to be conducted involving game experiences and player characteristics. After several empirical iterations, GEM is considered suitable to employ as a research and design tool. In addition, GGO should be useful to researchers interested in how player motivations relate to gameplay experiences. Moreover, GEM-IC points to several variables that may prove useful in future research. Accordingly, it is posited that researchers will derive more meaningful insights on games and players by investigating detailed, context-specific characteristics as compared to general, demographic ones. Ultimately, it is believed that GEM, GGO, and GEM-IC will be useful tools for researchers and designers who seek to create effective gameplay experiences that meet the needs of players.
ContributorsQuick, John (Author) / Atkinson, Robert (Thesis advisor) / McNamara, Danielle (Committee member) / Nelson, Brian (Committee member) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Temporal data are increasingly prevalent and important in analytics. Time series (TS) data are chronological sequences of observations and an important class of temporal data. Fields such as medicine, finance, learning science and multimedia naturally generate TS data. Each series provide a high-dimensional data vector that challenges the learning of the relevant patterns This dissertation proposes TS representations and methods for supervised TS analysis. The approaches combine new representations that handle translations and dilations of patterns with bag-of-features strategies and tree-based ensemble learning. This provides flexibility in handling time-warped patterns in a computationally efficient way. The ensemble learners provide a classification framework that can handle high-dimensional feature spaces, multiple classes and interaction between features. The proposed representations are useful for classification and interpretation of the TS data of varying complexity. The first contribution handles the problem of time warping with a feature-based approach. An interval selection and local feature extraction strategy is proposed to learn a bag-of-features representation. This is distinctly different from common similarity-based time warping. This allows for additional features (such as pattern location) to be easily integrated into the models. The learners have the capability to account for the temporal information through the recursive partitioning method. The second contribution focuses on the comprehensibility of the models. A new representation is integrated with local feature importance measures from tree-based ensembles, to diagnose and interpret time intervals that are important to the model. Multivariate time series (MTS) are especially challenging because the input consists of a collection of TS and both features within TS and interactions between TS can be important to models. Another contribution uses a different representation to produce computationally efficient strategies that learn a symbolic representation for MTS. Relationships between the multiple TS, nominal and missing values are handled with tree-based learners. Applications such as speech recognition, medical diagnosis and gesture recognition are used to illustrate the methods. Experimental results show that the TS representations and methods provide better results than competitive methods on a comprehensive collection of benchmark datasets. Moreover, the proposed approaches naturally provide solutions to similarity analysis, predictive pattern discovery and feature selection.
ContributorsBaydogan, Mustafa Gokce (Author) / Runger, George C. (Thesis advisor) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Gel, Esma (Committee member) / Pan, Rong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Since the early 1990's, researchers have been looking at intersections between education and music. After a highly popular study correlating listening to Mozart to temporary increases in spatial reasoning, many other researchers tried to find a link between different musical genres and learning outcomes. Using three musical treatments (Pop, classical, silence), this study had subjects (N=34) complete a reading-based task whereupon they were tested on their comprehension. Using a suite of sensors, data was collected to analyze the participants' emotions and affect while they read from an educational psychology textbook. The present study has two major focuses: They detail whether (1) changes in musical condition affect learning outcomes and (2) whether changes in musical condition affect emotional outcomes. The popular conception that listening to classical music makes you smarter was proven false long ago, but there may actually be some merit to using music to assist one in studying. While there were no significant changes in test scores depending on musical condition; frustration levels were significantly lower for those who listened to classical instead of pop music.
ContributorsPaley, Benjamin Henry (Author) / Atkinson, Robert (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project is a collection of four arrangements from Gustav Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn for French horn and marimba, with accompanying commentary. French horn and marimba is a beautiful combination that suffers from a lack of repertoire. These arrangements, composed by Kyle Nelson, are a step toward remedying that problem, while exploring the wide range of musical styles for which this combination is suited. The four songs that have been transcribed here are Urlicht, Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen, Der Tamboursg’sell, and Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt. Together, they provide a sampling of the many poems Mahler put to music in the late 1800’s for voice and piano. The sampling ranges from the very well-known (such as those featured in Mahler’s symphonies, like Urlicht) to one of the few lighthearted arrangements (Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt’s scherzo trio style) found in Mahler’s two original collections of lieder. The final product is performable as a duet with a talented horn and marimba duo, but in some circumstances it may be beneficial to divide the marimba part by stem direction and play as a trio on horn and two marimbas. The marimba part is best suited for four mallets on a 5-octave marimba.
ContributorsMartin, Stephanie Lorraine (Author) / Ericson, John (Thesis director) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Investment real estate is unique among similar financial instruments by nature of each property's internal complexities and interaction with the external economy. Where a majority of tradable assets are static goods within a dynamic market, real estate investments are dynamic goods within a dynamic market. Furthermore, investment real estate, particularly commercial properties, not only interacts with the surrounding economy, it reflects it. Alive with tenancy, each and every commercial investment property provides a microeconomic view of businesses that make up the local economy. Management of commercial investment real estate captures this economic snapshot in a unique abundance of untapped statistical data. While analysis of such data is undeniably valuable, the efforts involved with this process are time consuming. Given this unutilized potential our team has develop proprietary software to analyze this data and communicate the results automatically though and easy to use interface. We have worked with a local real estate property management and ownership firm, Reliance Management, to develop this system through the use of their current, historical, and future data. Our team has also built a relationship with the executives of Reliance Management to review functionality and pertinence of the system we have dubbed, Reliance Dashboard.
ContributorsBurton, Daryl (Co-author) / Workman, Jack (Co-author) / LePine, Marcie (Thesis director) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Hydrogen has the potential to be a highly efficient fuel source. Its current production via steam reformation of natural gas, however, consumes a large amount of energy and gives off carbon dioxide. A newer method has since surfaced: using a microorganism's metabolism to drive hydrogen production. In this study, the conditions for maximum hydrogen production in Heliobacterium modesticaldum were identified and assessed. The cells were grown under varying conditions and their headspaces were sampled using a gas chromatogram to measure the amount of accumulated hydrogen during each condition. Two cell batches were grown under nitrogen-fixing conditions (-NH4+), while the other two cell batches were grown under non-nitrogen-fixing conditions (+NH4+). The headspaces were then exchanged with either nitrogen (N2) or argon (Ar2). It was found that the condition for which the most hydrogen was produced was when the cells were grown under nitrogen-fixing conditions and the headspace was exchanged with argon. These results suggest that most of Heliobacteria modesticaldum's hydrogen production is due to nitrogenase activity rather than hydrogenase activity. Further research is recommended to quantify the roles of nitrogenase, [NiFe] hydrogenase, and [FeFe] hydrogenase.
ContributorsMcmahon, Savanah Dior (Author) / Redding, Kevin (Thesis director) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
E-Strings Academy (www.estringsacademy.wordpress.com) is a resource website intended for the beginning violinist, violist, cellist, and bassist. The mission of the website is to extend musical learning opportunities to students outside of the physical string classroom and to engage first-year string students in musical activities at home that supplement the instruction they receive in a school setting. The current website features five different areas for students to explore: lesson videos, tunes, listening activities, games, and resources. In each area, students have the opportunity to learn and reinforce musical concepts and skill sets that they will need in order to be successful in music, both in their first year of playing and beyond. I created E-Strings Academy with the intention that I use it with my own string students in my future teaching career. It is a flexible website that I will continue to revise, adapt, and enhance to best serve the needs of my students and enrich their musical learning outside of the classroom.
ContributorsCook, Christa Marie (Author) / Schmidt, Margaret (Thesis director) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Jamaican folk music is categorized into three large genres, which may be broken down into smaller more specific subgenres. Work and Social Music (which includes Work Songs, Mento Music, and Social Music), Recreational Music, and Ritual and Ceremonial Music. Rastafarianism, although it is a manifestation of ritual music, is given its own section due to the large amount of information available on the subject. Included here are historical analysis of the genres, as well as musical examples. Eight folk songs are included, and four drum patterns. This paper is intended as a resource for music educators, and therefore each song includes a Quick Reference Page, which lists solfege, rhythmic motives, genre of song, and if applicable drum rhythms which may be used to accompany the song. In addition, each song includes specific information regarding appropriate performance practice and suggestions for use in the classroom.
ContributorsVillarreal, Alicia Raquel (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis director) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Deconvolution of noisy data is an ill-posed problem, and requires some form of regularization to stabilize its solution. Tikhonov regularization is the most common method used, but it depends on the choice of a regularization parameter λ which must generally be estimated using one of several common methods. These methods can be computationally intensive, so I consider their behavior when only a portion of the sampled data is used. I show that the results of these methods converge as the sampling resolution increases, and use this to suggest a method of downsampling to estimate λ. I then present numerical results showing that this method can be feasible, and propose future avenues of inquiry.
ContributorsHansen, Jakob Kristian (Author) / Renaut, Rosemary (Thesis director) / Cochran, Douglas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
"French Vanilla" is a collection of written narratives drawn from lived experiences which serve as the vehicle storytelling that I use to examine larger themes related to the intersections of race and gender. Themes include: binaries, legitimacy, intersectionality, biracial identity development (border identity construction), whiteness, shame, and crisis. While the narratives are situated within theoretical discourse, the narratives present a representation of the lived experience. These pieces engage members of my family as well as a number of figures, including Rachel Dolezal, President Barack Obama, Alicia Keys, and a stranger on a tram in an airport. My relationship with these people present the grounds for an interrogation of identity. This project asks the question: How does one negotiate biracial identity with herself and others through narrative performance? It engages theories, such as critical race theory, black feminist theory, and standpoint theory, which informed my understanding of the discourse of race and contextualized my commentary on race. These theories present a framework within which to situate my understanding and analysis of race through lived experience. Narrative performance, the formal methodology for this work, provides a structure for the performance itself: the ultimate end product. Note: This work of creative scholarship is rooted in collaboration between three female artist-scholars: Carly Bates, Raji Ganesan, and Allyson Yoder. Working from a common intersectional, feminist framework, we served as artistic co-directors of each other's solo pieces and co-producers of Negotiations, in which we share these pieces in relationship to each other. Thus, Negotiations is not a showcase of three individual works, but rather a conversation among three voices. As collaborators, we have been uncompromising in the pursuit of our own unique inquiries and voices, and each of our works of creative scholarship stand alone. However, we believe that all of the parts are best understood in relationship to each other and to the whole. For this reason, we have chosen to cross-reference our thesis documents: French Vanilla: An Exploration of Biracial Identity Through Narrative Performance by Carly Bates; Deep roots, shared fruits: Emergent creative process and the ecology of solo performance through "Dress in Something Plain and Dark" by Allyson Yoder; and Bhairavi: A Performance-Investigation of Belonging and Dis-Belonging in Diaspora Communities by Raji Ganesan.
ContributorsBates, Carly Christopher (Author) / Davis, Olga Idriss (Thesis director) / de la Garza, Sarah Amira (Committee member) / Dove-Viebahn, Aviva (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05