Daniel Johnson

Queensland University of Technology | QUT · School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Introduction: Esports demand peak cognitive performance from esports athletes (e’athletes), yet their sedentary lifestyle raises concerns. This pilot study explores the effects of aerobic exercise on executive function, cerebral haemodynamics, and heart rate variability during gameplay. Methods: Six high-ranking male e’athletes (20.8 ± 2.1 years o...

This paper reports results from a high-fidelity driving simulator study (N=215) about a head-up display (HUD) that conveys a conditional automated vehicle’s dynamic “uncertainty” about the current situation while fallback drivers watch entertaining videos.We compared (between-group) three design interventions: display (a bar visualisation of uncert...

The Dualistic Model of Passion (obsessive and harmonious passion) can explain motivations for videogame play along with associated outcomes, such as the development of social capital; however, existing research exploring passion and social capital in videogaming has been cross-sectional. In the current study we surveyed players of DotA 2 at three t...

Background Attentional bias to pain-related information has been implicated in pain chronicity. To date, research investigating attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in people with chronic pain has found variable success, perhaps because training paradigms are typically repetitive and monotonous, which could negatively affect eng...

BACKGROUND Attentional bias to pain-related information has been implicated in pain chronicity. To date, research investigating attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in people with chronic pain has found variable success, perhaps because training paradigms are typically repetitive and monotonous, which could negatively affect eng...

Linguistic stimuli are commonly used in research to investigate the processing of pain. To provide researchers with a dataset of pain-related and non-pain-related linguistic stimuli, this research investigated 1) the associative strength between pain-related words and the pain construct; 2) the pain-relatedness ratings of pain words; and 3) the var...

There are various benefits of playing multiplayer games, such as enjoyment, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, facilitation of social relationships, and coping and recovery. However, these benefits to online game players are often undermined by the presence of in-game toxicity. Toxicity can be detrimental for game developers when players le...

When facing mental health concerns, men seek help less, confront greater stigma in accessing treatment, and experience more severe consequences. Interventions targeted at men are often grounded in activity and situated in appealing contexts, such as sporting or gaming spaces. In this paper, we question how pinball---a social tangible and digital le...

The esports market has been growing exponentially has been growing exponentially with much interest from industry and academia. Perhaps because of this growth, there is a lack of agreement on what esports actually encompasses. We conducted a systematic review of 461 peer reviewed, full papers that provide a definition of esports. Findings highlight...

This work explores the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess cognitive activity during videogame play, and compare it to cognitive activity during cognitive tasks that assess executive control. To this end, we assessed haemodynamic response to videogame and cognitive tasks in the prefrontal cortex, each manipulated on a spe...

We propose a new research framework by which the nascent discipline of human-AI teaming can be explored within experimental environments in preparation for transferal to real-world contexts. We examine the existing literature and unanswered research questions through the lens of an Agile approach to construct our proposed framework. Our framework a...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous economic and social disruption devastating people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended people engage in enjoyable activities such as videogames, helping them relax during difficult life situations. Using Self-Determination Theory as a lens, this interview study (N = 11)...

Video games can satisfy people's basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This may lead them to develop a passion for the activity, which can be harmonious or obsessive. These different types of passions are associated with different well-being outcomes: harmonious passion (HP) is associated with positive effects such as...

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, reports have shown a significant rise in videogame engagement due to stay-at-home and quarantine restrictions, which has led to further concerns regarding the wellbeing impacts of videogames. Due to the challenges and stressors associated with living in a pandemic, it is even more crucial now to understand how engage...

The present research addresses a gap in the literature concerning the relationship of identity, game play, and toxicity, using longitudinal research. Time spent playing Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2; a competitive online team video game) was modelled at Time 1 (N =473) in relation to identity and perceived toxicity. We then examined the same re...

With ongoing interest in the relationship between videogame and mental health alongside recent focus on gaming's role in coping with stressful life events, we sought to explore the relationship between videogame play and wellbeing among people experiencing their first episode of psychosis. Specifically, we aimed to explore the associations between...

Automated driving seems promising to reduce crashes caused by human error. However, in the transition towards automated driving, a human is still required in some automation levels in some circumstances. Specifically, in conditional automation or SAE Level 3, a human needs to be able to continue the driving task any time the vehicle requests it. Th...

Background: To date, research has found variable success in using attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in pain samples. Several factors could contribute to these mixed findings, including boredom and low motivation. Indeed, training paradigms are repetitive, which can lead to disengagement and high dropout rates. A potential ap...

BACKGROUND To date, research has found variable success in using attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in pain samples. Several factors could contribute to these mixed findings, including boredom and low motivation. Indeed, training paradigms are repetitive, which can lead to disengagement and high dropout rates. A potential appr...

Bird call libraries are difficult to collect yet vital for bio-acoustics studies. A potential solution is citizen science labelling of calls. However, acoustic annotation techniques are still relatively undeveloped and in parallel, citizen science initiatives struggle with maintaining participant engagement, while increasing efficiency and accuracy...

Although research shows that videogames have a positive impact on the majority of players, concerns remain about the situations in which videogame play becomes disordered and harmful. Drawing on self-determination theory and the dualistic model of passion and based on previous research in non-videogame domains, we sought to explore the extent to wh...

The primary aim of the current study was to explore the extent to which videogame helping behaviour could be explained by need satisfaction and passion. The study extends previous research by looking specifically at in-game helping behaviour which has relevance for a range of wellbeing outcomes as well as reducing in-game toxicity. Survey data was...

Playing digital games can nurture wellbeing by helping players recover from daily stressors, cope with life's challenges, practice emotion regulation, and engage in meaningful social interaction; however, this same leisure activity can also result in problematic gaming (i.e., harmful play at the expense of healthy behaviors), and social isolation t...

Background: There has been a growing interest in the application of gamification (ie, the use of game elements) to computerized cognitive training. The introduction of targeted gamification features to such tasks may increase motivation and engagement as well as improve intervention effects. However, it is possible that game elements can also have...

BACKGROUND There has been a growing interest in the application of gamification (ie, the use of game elements) to computerised cognitive training. The introduction of targeted gamification features to such tasks may increase motivation and engagement as well as improve intervention effects. However, there is also the possibility for game elements t...

Little previous research has examined the in-play decision-making processes of multiplayer video game players related to both prosocial (helping others in general) and altruistic (helping with no expectation of reward) actions. The study used an established decision-making model, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and assessed additional constructs of...

Social robots hold significant promise to help individuals achieve their goals. Most individuals can benefit from a social robot when they interact with it over multiple sessions or a prolonged period. However, this can run well beyond the initial novelty period with a robot, signifying a challenging area for sustainable long-term user interest and...

GameFlow is a widely used model of player enjoyment, with hundreds of applications to designing and evaluating games and game-like experiences since its first publication. Despite its widespread use, there has been limited evaluation of the GameFlow model and previous evaluations have focused on expert reviews from researchers with expertise in pla...

Games User Research (GUR) focuses on measuring, analysing and understanding player experiences to optimise game designs. Hence, GUR experts aim to understand how specific game design choices are experienced by players, and how these lead to specific emotional responses. An instrument, providing such actionable insight into player experience, specif...

Risky driving behaviours is a key contributor to traffic-related injuries and deaths each year. These risky driving behaviours are especially common among young adults and adolescents. This research was designed to help examine precursors to and motivations for a common risky driving behaviour – phone use in the car. A cross-sectional survey of 526...

Formerly titled "How is gamification applied towards improving mental health and well-being?: A systematic review (Preprint)" BACKGROUND: While gamification has received considerable interest from the health community in recent years, research on its application to mental health and well-being (MH&W) interventions is sparse, and usage of gamifica...

Background: There is little research on the application of gamification to mental health and well-being. Furthermore, usage of gamification-related terminology is inconsistent. Current applications of gamification for health and well-being have also been critiqued for adopting a behaviorist approach that relies on positive reinforcement and extrins...

The overall aim of this research was to explore how players interact with narrative in videogames. This paper reports on results from a diary study over a two-week period while playing one narrative-drive game. An analysis of participants' diary entries suggests that those who engaged in directing narrative activities in The Witcher 3 described the...

Background: Men have different mental health needs as compared with women, and women make up the primary audience of most digital mental health interventions. An Australian football-themed (specifically Australian Football League, AFL) app named MindMax incorporating psychoeducation, gamification, mini-games, and social connection was developed in...

BACKGROUND Men have different mental health needs as compared with women, and women make up the primary audience of most digital mental health interventions. An Australian football-themed (specifically Australian Football League, AFL) app named MindMax incorporating psychoeducation, gamification, mini-games, and social connection was developed in a...

Accurate measurement of the player experience in videogames is key to understanding the impacts of videogame play, designing and developing engaging videogames, and effectively applying game design principles in other fields. A large number of player experience questionnaires are available, but in most cases empirical validation of the scales is li...

Mobile health (mHealth) apps have significantly increased in use and popularity in recent years. However, the initial experience of users with these apps is poorly understood. MindMax is an mHealth wellbeing app, designed and championed by the Australian Football League Players Association (AFLPA), which aims to harness the high levels of engagemen...

Gamification and games have been used and studied in a variety of applications related with health and wellbe-ing. Nevertheless, there are very few studies aimed at designing games (whether serious games or recreational games) or gameful applications for improving wellbeing or flourishing – the pursuit of a happy and meaningful life, rather than th...

Identifying player motivations such as curiosity could help game designers analyze player profiles and substantially improve game design. However, research on player profiling focuses on generalized personality traits, not specific aspects of motivation. This study examines how player behaviour indicates constructs of curiosity-related motivation....

Many online videogames make use of characters controlled by both humans (avatar) and computers (agent) to facilitate game play. However, the level of agency a teammate shows potentially produces differing levels of social presence during play, which in turn may impact on the player experience. To better understand these effects, two experimental st...

The present study tests a recently proposed model in which social video game play supports wellbeing by contributing to a harmonious type of engagement with the game. Players (N = 2030) of the online-only multiplayer first-person shooter game, Destiny, reported the frequency they played with real-life friends, online-only friends and strangers, the...

Gamification has been repeatedly framed as an emerging multidisciplinary research field. However, it is unclear how multidisciplinary the field actually is. To answer this question, this paper presents initial results of a broader scoping review of gamification research published between 2010 and 2016. Close to 2,000 peer-reviewed English-language...

The free-to-play mobile game Pokémon GO’s (PGO) use of real-world mapping encourages play in public spaces, opening up the possibility of greater engagement with other players, local communities, and surrounds. This study conducted a series of interviews (N = 15) and collected online social forum reports of gameplay (N = 880), in order to determine...

While video games are becoming increasingly social, little is known regarding whether games might also facilitate social support. In tandem, while both genders experience similar overall rates of mental illness [1], men seek and use health services less often than women [2]. A series of interviews (N=15) were held with male social video game player...

People who play video games do so in a range of social contexts: alone, with people they know and don't know, in cooperative and competitive settings. However, little is known about what people enjoy or dislike about these contexts of play, or how to best design games to support player preferences. Using open-ended responses from an online survey (...

Video game play is a popular entertainment choice, yet we have a limited understanding of the potential wellbeing benefits associated with recreational play. An online survey (final sample, n = 297) addresses this by investigating how the player experience related to wellbeing. The impact of amount of play, game genre, mode of play (social or solit...

Video game play is becoming an increasingly social experience, yet we have little understanding of how social and solitary modes of play differ in terms of the player experience or interact with player wellbeing. An online survey (n = 446) collected data on players' current mode of play, their game play experience, social capital gained from game p...

Most of the time games make us happy, but sometimes they are frustrating or make us feel sad. They allow us to experience pleasure, success and joy, but they can also yield feelings of frustration, failure, or sorrow from darker themes. In games, we can experience the full range of emotions -- both positive and negative. While a positive experience...

This study sought to examine how measures of player experience used in videogame research relate to Metacritic Professional and User scores. In total, 573 participants completed an online survey, where they responded the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) and the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) in relation to their current favourite...

Videogame control interfaces continue to evolve beyond their traditional roots, with devices encouraging more natural forms of interaction growing in number and pervasiveness. Yet little is known about their true potential for intuitive use. This paper proposes methods to leverage existing intuitive interaction theory for games research, specifical...

This paper presents research findings and design strategies that illustrate how digital technology can be applied as a tool for hybrid placemaking in ways that would not be possible in purely digital or physical spaces. Digital technology has revolutionised the way people learn and gather new information. This trend has challenged the role of the l...

Videogames are an increasingly popular entertainment choice, yet we have a limited understanding of their potential wellbeing benefits. The current research used an online survey (N = 429) to investigate how gameplay choices and the psychological experience of gameplay impact on player wellbeing. Specifically, a hierarchical multiple regression was...

Successful inclusive product design requires knowledge about the capabilities, needs and aspirations of potential users and should cater for the different scenarios in which people will use products, systems and services. This should include: the individual at home; in the workplace; for businesses, and for products in these contexts. It needs to r...

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually require the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational settings. While modern process modelling technologies are starting to provide a number of features to support remote collaboration, they lack support for visual cues that are pr...

Modelling business processes for analysis or redesign usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders. These stakeholders may be spread across locations or even companies, making co-located collaboration costly and difficult to organize. Modern process modelling technologies support remote collaboration but lack support for visual cues used...

In this paper we report some initial findings from our investigations into the Australian Government's Longitudinal Study of Australian Children dataset. It is revealed that the majority of Australian children are exceeding the government's Screen Time recommendations and that most of their screen time is spent as TV viewing, as opposed to video ga...

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration remains limited. This paper investigates the application of...

Studies dedicated to understanding the relationship between gaming and mental health, have traditionally focused on the effects of depression, anxiety, obsessive usage, aggression, obesity, and faltering 'real life' relationships. The complexity of game genre and personality aside, this review aims to define a space for a positive relationship betw...

A key issue in the field of inclusive design is the ability to provide designers with an understanding of people's range of capabilities. Since it is not feasible to assess product interactions with a large sample, this paper assesses a range of proxy measures of design-relevant capabilities. It describes a study that was conducted to identify whic...

Most current attitude research focuses on range of non-social attitudinal targets, including health-related and consumer outcomes. In this paper, a program of research that considers the relations among intergroup attitudes, group norms, and behavior will be described. The first study examined the effect of ingroup norms relating to multiculturalis...

We report the results of a short programme of mindfulness training administered to adolescent boys in a classroom setting. Intervention and control groups (N = 155) were compared on measures of mindfulness, resilience and psychological well-being. Although the overall differences between the two groups failed to reach significance, we found that wi...

Understanding users' capabilities, needs and expectations is key to the domain of Inclusive Design. Much of the work in the field could be informed and further strengthened by clear, valid and representative data covering the full range of people's capabilities. This article reviews existing data sets and identifies the challenges inherent in measu...

This study extends previous media equation research by empirically testing the mindlessness explanation of media equation behaviour. The current study explored the potential moderating effect of mood on media equation behaviour. Specifically, the study assessed whether participants’ tendency to stereotype when interacting with a computer varied as...

In order to develop more inclusive products and services, designers need a means of assessing the inclusivity of existing products and new concepts. Following previous research on the development of scales for inclusive design at University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre (EDC) [1], this paper presents the latest version of the exclusion au...

Developing the social identity theory of leadership (e.g., [Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184–200]), an experiment (N = 257) tested the hypothesis that as group members identify more strongly with their group (salience) their evaluations of leadership effectiveness become mo...

The current paper applies media equation research to video game de-sign. The paper presents a review of the existing media equation research, de-scribes a specific study conducted by the authors, discusses how the findings of the study can be used to inform future game design, and explores how other media equation findings might be incorporated int...

Subjective intergroup beliefs and authoritarianism were assessed in a field study (N=255) of White Australians' anti-Asian stereotyping and prejudice. A social identity analysis of intergroup prejudice was adopted, such that perceptions of the intergroup structure (instability, permeability, legitimacy and higher ingroup status) were proposed as pr...

This paper reports the results of two player-centered studies aimed at investigating these issues from the player's perspective. The first study, a focus group, supports some of the issues identified by game developers; consistency, intuitiveness and freedom of expression, and identifies new issues; immersion and physics. The second study, a questi...

Game developers and researchers aim to model human behaviour in order to create more engaging, entertaining and satisfying artificial characters for computer games. It is a popular belief that intelligent behaviour is the key to creating better game AI. However, as yet there is no empirical evidence to support this theory or to indicate whether oth...

Computer game controllers that require the user to interact using physical movements (other than finger movements) are becoming increasingly popular. The present study sought to explore the factors and context which impact upon preferences for particular physically controlled game peripherals. A comprehensive user study was undertaken and both qual...

Observations of students in the first year of a new degree program showed many unexpected behaviours with regard to the use of several computermediated communication methods. A detailed survey of communication behaviour within the degree was undertaken, assessing how much, and for what purposes, students used the available methods of communication,...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in the success or failure of computer games. The paper explores the use of AI in games focusing on difficulties faced by game developers and techniques that have proven useful. An argument is presented for the value of collaboration between the game and academic AI communities