Incongruity-Based Adaptive Game Balancing

This multiple-case study addresses the question of how information from the environment is integrated with mental images. Chess players (N = 4) of different skill levels were submitted to a visual imagery task with familiar stimuli (chess positions) and unfamiliar stimuli (boards containing shapes). A position that remained unchanged and a grid in which moves were displayed using a standard chess notation familiar to the participants were visually presented. The participants’ task was to mentally reproduce a sequence of moves from the original position. Retention of updated positions was assessed with a memory task. Eye movements were recorded during the entire experiment. We found that (a) players performed better with familiar than with unfamiliar stimuli; (b) there was a strong correlation between skill level and performance in the familiar, but not the unfamiliar condition; (c) players used the external board as an external memory store; but (d) there was no difference in the extent to which players of different skill levels shifted their attention to the external board. Using control tasks unrelated to chess, we established that the skilled and unskilled players did not differ with respect to general cognitive abilities. These results emphasize the role of long-term memory in expertise and suggest that players use processes that enable them to smoothly combine information from the environment with mental images.

This study aimed to examine the influence of sport skill levels on behavioural and neuroelectric performance in visuospatial attention and memory visuospatial tasks were administered to 54 participants, including 18 elite and 18 amateur table tennis players and 18 nonathletes, while event-related potentials were recorded. In all the visuospatial attention and memory conditions, table tennis players displayed faster reaction times than nonathletes, regardless of skill level, although there was no difference in accuracy between groups. In addition, regardless of task conditions, both player groups had a greater P3 amplitude than nonathletes, and elite players exhibited a greater P3 amplitude than amateurs players. The results of this study indicate that table tennis players, irrespective of their skill level, exhibit enhanced visuospatial capabilities. Notably, athletes at the elite level appear to benefit from an augmented allocation of attentional resources when engaging in visuospatial tasks.

Movement variability and skill level of various throwing techniques

Athletes’ risk decision-making significantly influences competitive performance; however, current research remains controversial regarding how framing effects, competitive state, and time pressure affect risk decisions among athletes of different skill levels. Through two experiments, this study investigated the effects of frame type (positive/negative), competitive state (leading/trailing), and time pressure (high/low) on risk decision-making among tennis players of varying proficiency levels. Both Experiments 1 and 2 recruited 120 tennis players (40 participants each in expert, skilled, and novice groups, with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1). The findings revealed that: (1) The novice group exhibited the highest susceptibility to framing effects, maintaining this characteristic even under high time pressure; (2) the skilled group demonstrated distinctive “transitional characteristics,” showing susceptibility to framing effects without time pressure but shifting toward extremely conservative decisions under high time pressure; (3) the expert group displayed the most stable decision-making patterns, primarily basing decisions on competitive state—adopting conservative strategies when leading and aggressive strategies when trailing, with minimal influence from framing effects and time pressure. The study demonstrates significant differences in risk decision-making characteristics across skill levels: novices possess immature decision-making mechanisms and are readily influenced by emotional and external factors; skilled players are in a developmental phase of decision-making ability, exhibiting notable context dependency; whereas experts demonstrate mature decision-making mechanisms, capable of making stable strategic choices based on competitive state. These findings provide novel theoretical perspectives for understanding the developmental patterns and influencing factors of athletes’ risk decision-making.

This study aims to test the reaction agility and stroke effect of table tennis players, explore the correlation between the reaction agility and stroke effect, and analyze the differences between players of different skill levels. Eighty male table tennis players (40 national first-level and 40 s-level) were recruited to participate in the reaction agility test (Speed Chase, Coordination, Reaction, and lower limb Explosive Force) and random full-court stroke effect test (speed, spin, and placement). There was a positive correlation between athletes' reaction agility and their stroke effect. Among these, the players' Turing Time (left) has a significant correlation with the ball speed (r = 0.291), the Turing Time (left) has a significant correlation with the spin speed(r = 0.864), and the Revering Time has a significant correlation with the placement (r = 0.250). There were significant differences in the Moving Distance, Reversing Time, Turning Time (left), and Turning Time (right) between the first- and second-level players (all p < 0.05). The reaction agility of table tennis players was significantly but weak correlated with their stroke effect. The first-level table tennis players had higher reaction agility and greater stroke effect (placement and spin speed) than the second-level players. The first-level table tennis players also exhibited faster direction-changing speed and greater rotational speed to left and right sides. Reaction agility tests under task-specific movements can better distinguish the differences of players' reaction agility at different skill levels. Enhancing players' moving speed and reversing ability, lateral coordination ability, and lower limb explosive force can help improve table tennis players' stroke effect.

An investigation of the lower limb and trunk movements in the long chest pass for female basketball players of different skill levels

Interpersonal coordination analysis of tennis players from different levels during official matches

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined the ability of badminton players of different skill levels (12 experts and 12 nonexperts) to anticipate the direction of badminton strokes. Participants viewed either film or point-light displays under a range of temporal or spatial occlusion conditions. World-class players were able to consistently pick up useful predictive information from the advance (precontact) kinematics of both the lower body and the racquet when the motion of those features was presented in isolation, whereas recreational players' use of the same information depended on the concurrent presence of linked segments. Participants' information pickup closely matched key biomechanical changes in the movement pattern being viewed, although, contrary to a common-coding view of perception and action (e.g., W. Prinz, 1997), some important differences were evident between the characteristics of the experts' movement prediction and those of expert movement production.

The game “One Year of Time” is a form of interactive entertainment that engages players in rule-based activities with specific goals. Besides recreation, games also help develop critical thinking, problem-solving, strategic planning, and hand-eye coordination skills. “One Year of Time” is a 2D romance visual novel developed using Unity and programmed in C# for the web platform. Players take on the role of a god named Aion, who is descended to the human world due to a violation of the laws imposed by Zeus and is punished with a one-year time limit to find a partner—or face extinction. Along the way, players meet three main female characters, each with a unique personality. Each choice they make affects their relationships and determines the outcome of the story. Through these decisions and challenges, players explore the meaning of love, human relationships, and the consequences of their actions. Testing of this game was conducted. The game was tested using three methods: black box testing, an alpha test conducted by a supervisor, and a beta test conducted by 33 participants. The test results indicated that "One Year of Time" was considered engaging, easy to understand, and potentially well-received by players. This demonstrates the game's entertainment value and replayability. Therefore, it can be concluded that the game successfully provided a positive gaming experience and has potential for further development.

The popularity of online gaming has grown dramatically, driven in part by streaming and the billion-dollar e-sports industry. Online games regularly update their software to fix bugs, add functionality that improve the game's look and feel, and change the game mechanics to keep the games fun and challenging. An open question, however, is the impact of these changes on player performance and game balance, as well as how players adapt to these sudden changes. To address these questions, we use causal inference to measure the impact of software patches to League of Legends, a popular team-based multiplayer online game. We show that game patches have substantially different impacts on players depending on their skill level and whether they take breaks between games. We find that the gap between good and bad players increases after a patch, despite efforts to make gameplay more equal. Moreover, longer between-game breaks tend to improve player performance after patches. Overall, our results highlight the utility of causal inference, and specifically heterogeneous treatment effect estimation, as a tool to quantify the complex mechanisms of game balance and its interplay with players' performance.

Concussions are common incidences in sports. However, game-specific characteristics such as tactics, field positions, etc. might positively/negatively contribute to the occurrence of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) in various sports such as soccer, volleyball, handball, or basketball. Thus, the intention of this study was to analyze game-specific characteristics of concussive incidents in active players from the perspective of different sportive disciplines. Four sport-specific questionnaires for soccer, handball, volleyball and basketball were established using an online survey tool. A total of 3001 participants completed the questionnaires. 18% of the participants answered that they had experienced a concussion which significantly differed depending on the sport practiced (χ2(3)=56.868, P<0.001; soccer 25%, handball 24%, volleyball 13%, basketball 15%). Whereas handball and soccer players experienced most concussions on the amateur level, volleyball players experienced most on the professional level and basketball players during leisure play (χ2(9)=112.667, P<0.001). Soccer players experienced most concussions by a collision with another player, volleyball players instead experienced most concussions by hits from the ball (χ2(6)=211.260, P<0.001). In soccer, goalkeepers and defensive midfield players showed most concussive incidences (χ2(7)=19.638, P<0.01); in volleyball, the libero position and outside positions showed to be significantly affected from sport-related concussions (χ2(6)=13.617, P<0.05). The present results showed that factors critically contributing to the occurrence of concussions are sport-specific and particularly concern amateurs. This indicates that most concussions in ball games appear in situations, where medical care units are not necessarily present. Preventive measures should therefore especially address amateurs in ball sports.

Subject groups were classified on the basis of behavioral ratings for degree of anxiety exhibited and level of social skill displayed during a simulated dating interaction. Subjects were then asked to view and evaluate their own skill performance and the performance of bogus subjects during the same interaction when presented on videotapes. All subject groups were accurate in rating the performance of bogus subjects during the same interaction when presented on videotapes. All subject groups were accurate in rating the performance of the bogus subjects but the high anxious/high skill subjects underestimated (in comparison to judge's ratings) their own skill while high anxious/low skill subjects accurately assessed their poor performance. Implications of the establishment of two types of heterosexual-socially anxious subjects were drawn for both clinical practice and research.

Part one of this study described the three-dimensional kinematics of male and female top level and junior elite volleyball players during a spike. Different strategies for generating a high impact speed for the hand were observed between the groups. This part focuses on variability in coordination and performance and will use a single-subject approach for the data-analysis. The research question concerns the relationship between coordination variability and skill level. Two hypotheses exist about this relationship: a continuous decrease of variability or a U-shaped relationship when skill level increases. We used different measures of skill level during this study. The discrete measure (top level vs. junior elite) showed no difference in coordination variability. The continuous measures showed both U-shaped and linear relationships with coordination variability when data from all groups were pooled together. No relationships were observed within the groups. Together with the insight gained from the mechanical analysis from part one, knowledge about the coordination variability can be used for guiding the training and learning process of youth elite volleyball players.

This paper emphasizes the importance of empirical research on dictionary users and, in particular, investigates the effect of the so-called "menu" (a list of definitions at the beginning of a polysemous article) on the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' dictionary look-up processes. The menu has been increasingly popular in English learners' dictionaries in Japan, but no empirical evidence has ever shown that it is really effective for reference acts. Two groups of subjects with different levels of reference skills were observed looking up given information in two different types of mini-dictionaries, one &lt;i&gt;with&lt;/i&gt; and the other &lt;i&gt;without&lt;/i&gt; the menu. The results showed that the menu was not so effective for skilled users, but that it helped the less skilled users find the appropriate information.

Analyzing the sophistication of Chinese checkers