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Investigating the effects of individual cognitive styles on collaborative gameplay

Sultan Alharthi, George Raptis, Christina Katsini, Igor Dolgov, Lennart Nacke, and Phoebe Toups. 2021. Investigating the effects of individual cognitive styles on collaborative gameplay. In ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 28, 4: 1-49. New York, NY, USA. ACM. doi:10.1145/3445792

DOI BibTeX External URL

@article{Alharthi21,
author = {Alharthi, Sultan A. and Raptis, George E. and Katsini, Christina and Dolgov, Igor and Nacke, Lennart E. and Toups, Z O.},
title = {Investigating the Effects of Individual Cognitive Styles on Collaborative Gameplay},
year = {2021},
issue_date = {August 2021},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
volume = {28},
number = {4},
issn = {1073-0516},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3445792},
doi = {10.1145/3445792},
abstract = {In multiplayer collaborative games, players need to coordinate their actions and synchronize their efforts effectively to succeed as a team; thus, individual differences can impact teamwork and gameplay. This article investigates the effects of cognitive styles on teams engaged in collaborative gaming activities. Fifty-four individuals took part in a mixed-methods user study; they were classified as field-dependent (FD) or independent (FI) based on a field-dependent–independent (FD-I) cognitive-style-elicitation instrument. Three groups of teams were formed, based on the cognitive style of each team member: FD-FD, FD-FI, and FI-FI. We examined collaborative gameplay in terms of team performance, cognitive load, communication, and player experience. The analysis revealed that FD-I cognitive style affected the performance and mental load of teams. We expect the findings to provide useful insights on understanding how cognitive styles influence collaborative gameplay.},
journal = {ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.},
month = {aug},
articleno = {23},
numpages = {49},
keywords = {multiplayer games, teamwork, collaboration, team coordination, gameplay, Cognitive styles, teams}
}

Abstract

In multiplayer collaborative games, players need to coordinate their actions and synchronize their efforts effectively to succeed as a team; thus, individual differences can impact teamwork and gameplay. This article investigates the effects of cognitive styles on teams engaged in collaborative gaming activities. Fifty-four individuals took part in a mixed-methods user study; they were classified as field-dependent (FD) or independent (FI) based on a field-dependent–independent (FD-I) cognitive-style-elicitation instrument. Three groups of teams were formed, based on the cognitive style of each team member: FD-FD, FD-FI, and FI-FI. We examined collaborative gameplay in terms of team performance, cognitive load, communication, and player experience. The analysis revealed that FD-I cognitive style affected the performance and mental load of teams. We expect the findings to provide useful insights on understanding how cognitive styles influence collaborative gameplay.