Many-step two-person games with a fixed sequence of moves under aggregated information on partner’s choice

A many-step two-person game is studied with a fixed sequence of moves under aggregated information on every move at the decision making instant and on the choice of player 2 at the current move. Player 1, knowing this information at every step i, first chooses a strategy x_i(·) = (x₁(·),...,x_n(·)), i = , and informs it for n moves to player 2 at the beginning of the game. His maximal guaranteed result and the corresponding optimal (-optimal) strategy are determined. Such games under complete (nonaggregated) information are formulated and a compact expression for the strategy of player 1 is derived.Translated from Avtomatika i Telemekhanika, No. 2, 2005, pp. 108–114.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Aliev, Kononenko.This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 99-01-00791.     

Influence of head-up displays’ characteristics on user experience in video games

Head-up displays (HUD) are important parts of visual interfaces of virtual environments such as video games. However, few studies have investigated their role in player–video game interactions. Two experiments were designed to investigate the influence of HUDs on player experience according to player expertise and game genre. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking and interviews to understand how and to what extent players use and experience HUDs in two types of commercial games: first-person shooter and real-time strategy games. Results showed that displaying a permanent HUD within the visual interface may improve the understanding of this environment by players. They also revealed that two HUD characteristics, namely composition and spatial organization, have particular influence on player experience. These critical characteristics were manipulated in experiment 2 to study more precisely the influence of HUD design choices on player experience. Results showed that manipulation of design of these HUD characteristics influences player experience in different ways according to player expertise and game genre. For games with HUDs that are perceived as very useful, the higher player expertise is, the more player experience is influenced. Recommendations for video game design based on these results are proposed.     

Foundations of information technology based on Bunge’s systemist philosophy of reality

Software and Systems Modeling - General ontology is a prominent theoretical foundation for information technology analysis, design, and development. Ontology is a branch of philosophy which studies...     

The impact of an employee’s psychological contract breach on compliance with information security policies: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Cognition, Technology & Work - Despite the rapid rise in social engineering attacks, not all employees are as compliant with information security policies (ISPs) to the extent that...     

Leonardo’s choice: the ethics of artists working with genetic technologies

Working with current methodologies of art, biology, and genetic technologies, the stated aims of artists working in this area include attempts both to critique the implications and outcomes of genetic technologies and to forge a new art practice involved in creating living beings using those technologies. It is this last ambition, the development of a new art practice involved in creating living beings, that this essay will particularly take to task by questioning the ethics of that goal and the uses of biotechnology in reaching it.

Design and evaluation of user’s physical experience in an Ambient Interactive Storybook and full body interaction games

The paper presents the design and evaluation of an original Ambient Interactive Storybook (AIS) for children, including its platform, the background story, and 10 full body interactive games. The evaluation, which focused on the user’s physical experience and elements important to the designer, has been methodologically derived from the Kroflič’s and Laban’s framework Body, Space, Time and Relationship, and additionally supported by sport science measurements. An experiment with 8 participants playing 10 games for 20 min was conducted and recorded to a digital video. Participants’ physical experience was evaluated through the analysis of postures, the quality of the movement, the body parts used in the interaction, the playing area, the direction of movement, direction of gaze, tempo, dynamics and the quantity of motion (QoM). Results of the experiment are discussed in relation and with implications for game design. Conclusions are drawn with the summary of main findings, to better understand the mechanisms and principles involved the design of user’s physical activity in full body interactive games for children. The theoretical work of Laban and Kroflič proved to be useful for interaction and games design in the transition from desktop to full body interactive games.     

An observer’s information dynamics: Acquisition of information and the origin of the cognitive dynamics

Conventional information science considers an information process, but traditionally uses the probability measure for random states and Shannon’s entropy as the uncertainty function of these states.This paper presents a new approach, based on an integral information measure of the random process.An entropy functional (EF) on the trajectories of the process accumulates and encodes the process’ inner connections between the information states.The application of a variation principle (VP) to the EF determines the process’ information path functional (IPF), whose extremal trajectories describe the informational dynamics of this process.Information dynamics with the VP invariant relations evaluate the information content of a random process, expose its information code and reveal a conserved (hidden) information, produced at an acquisition of the process information.By introducing both objective and subjective information observers, we consider the observers information cognitive dynamics and neurodynamics, based on the EF–IPF approach.The universal nature of information process’ dynamics and regularities, discovered in the information observers, have many applications not only in cognitive and intelligent systems, but also in different biological, social and economic systems.     

Comments on ‘General characterization of decentralized fixed modes in terms of transmission zeros’

This note briefly discusses the results of a recent paper by Wang et al. (1987) on the characterization of decentralized fixed modes. It is concluded that these results have already been obtained by Tarokh (1985).     

Name-Your-Own-Price seller’s information revelation strategy with the presence of list-price channel

This study examines the Name-Your-Own-Price (NYOP) retailer’s information revelation strategy when competing with list-price channel. We propose an integrated economic framework focusing on the comparison of expected consumer surplus from bidding at NYOP auction and guaranteed consumer surplus from buying at a list price. We then conduct an empirical study to examine the effects of seller-supplied price information on NYOP bidding outcome (especially on expected winning probability and the number of bidders). The results of our study strongly indicate the effects of seller-supplied information on expected winning probability (as well as the expected consumer surplus) in a NYOP auction. We also illustrate the strategic implications of seller-supplied price information via a revenue simulation for the NYOP seller. Our results suggest that NYOP seller may increase his expected revenue by (1) provide only the upper bound of its threshold price when list price is high (low expected consumer surplus from buying at list price); (2) provide only the lower bound of its threshold price when list price is low (high expected consumer surplus from buying at list price); (3) provide both the upper and lower bound of its threshold price when consumer surplus of buying at list price is unknown.     

Simple procedures of choice in multicriteria problems without precise information about the alternatives’ values

The additive model of multiattribute value theory is widely used in multicriteria choice problems. But often it is not easy to obtain precise values for the scaling weights or the alternatives’ value in each function. Several decision rules which require weaker information, such as ordinal information, have been proposed to select an alternative under these circumstances. We propose new decision rules and test them using Monte-Carlo simulation, considering that there is ordinal information both on the scaling weights and on the alternatives’ values. Results show the new rules constitute a good approximation. We provide guidelines about how to use these rules in a context of selecting a subset of the most promising alternatives, considering the contradictory objectives of keeping a low number of alternatives yet not excluding the best one.     

“All the world’s a stage” — Legal and cultural reflections on the surveillance of online games

One of the more unusual revelations of the Snowden leaks was the discovery that UK and US security services had also targeted popular online gaming platforms for surveillance activity. While the British press had a field day coming up with creative headlines about “undercover Orcs”, public reaction was muted. Anger about “wasting taxpayer’s money” more than privacy concerns dominated the debate. But can we really dismiss surveillance of gaming as “not quite serious”? Using insights from psychology, anthropology and cultural studies, we argue that on the contrary, surveillance of people at play can be seen as a paradigmatic illustration of the dangers of the surveillance society, and give us insights in the values privacy law ought to protect.     

Form one students’ engagement with computer games and its effect on their academic achievement in a Malaysian secondary school

The main purpose of the study was to address the association between computer games and students’ academic achievement. The exceptional growth in numbers of children playing computer games, the uneasiness and incomplete understanding foundation when starting the discussion on computer games have stimulated this study to be conducted. From a survey conducted on 236 form one students in one of the Malaysian secondary school, 75.8 percent were gamers. Playing computer games seemed to be more stereotypically boy’s activity with 91.3 percent of the boys engaged in computer games compared to 54.1 percent among the girls. They spent an average of 8.47 hours per week playing computer games. Parents and teachers’ concern about computer games was not something that went unwarranted as an overall result was predicting computer games as having negative associations with students’ academic achievement. However, in-depth analyses by combinations of classes done step by step indicated that the initial results could be overruled by students from the last class, whom need extra attentions. As a conclusion, the findings in this study suggest some interesting yet ultimately weak associations between playing computer games and students’ academic achievement. Nevertheless, caution is warranted in making any generalization as looking at the population as a whole will be different from its components. The generalizability of this study’s findings is limited by the nature of the sample. Even so, blaming computer games for the students’ bad academic performance in school is unjustified as there are many more other factors to look into before finding computer games as the scapegoat.     

Cyberbullying impacts on victims’ satisfaction with information and communication technologies: The role of Perceived Cyberbullying Severity

This study aims to understand how individuals’ perceptions of the severity of cyberbullying they endure affects their experience with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) medium through which cyberbullying occurs. To this end, it proposes a theoretical model based on Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping and Expectation-Confirmation Theory. A survey-based study involving 115 cyberbullying victims is employed to empirically validate the proposed model. Results indicate that victims’ perceptions of the severity of a cyberbullying episode negatively impact their satisfaction with ICT. Implications of these results for academics and practitioners are discussed and directions for future research are outlined.     

Group identification as a mediator of the effect of players’ anonymity on cheating in online games

This study aims to add to the discussion about the applicability of the classical deindividuation theory and social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) in explaining online behaviours. It explores the effect of anonymity in facilitating social influence of group identity in online game cheating. A nationally representative survey was conducted face to face. Results from the survey administered in Singapore confirm predictions derived from the SIDE and challenge the classical deindividuation theory. Specifically, it was concluded that the frequency of gaming with online strangers (anonymous gaming) significantly predicted the frequency of cheating in online games. The effect of anonymity on game cheating was found to be significantly mediated by the group identification with online gaming communities/groups. Gender differences were found. Male gamers cheated more frequently than female gamers. Female gamers are more likely to cheat as a consequence of group identification than male gamers. Implications and future research are discussed.     

Changing information retrieval behaviours: an empirical investigation of users’ cognitive processes in the choice of location-based services

The introduction of smartphones and the accompanying profusion of mobile data services have had a profound effect on individuals’ lives. One of the most influential service categories is location-based services (LBS). Based on insights from behavioural decision-making, a conceptual framework is developed to analyse individuals’ decisions to use LBS, focusing on the cognitive processes involved in the decision-making. Our research is based on two studies. First, we investigate the use of LBS through semi-structured interviews of smartphone users. Second, we explore daily LBS use through a study based on diaries. The findings highlight that the decision to use LBS can be described by either a comparative mode based on the value of LBS in relation to other available options, or an intuitive mode in which past experiences trigger the use of heuristics. These modes in turn have positive influences on the continuance of LBS use and indicate changes in individuals’ information retrieval behaviours in everyday life. In particular, the distinct value dimension of LBS in specific contexts of use changes individuals’ behaviours towards accessing location-related information.     

Postoptimal analysis of bicriteria boolean problems of selecting investment projects with Wald’s and Savage’s criteria

Lower and upper feasible bounds on the stability radius of the Pareto-optimal portfolio in the bicriteria Boolean investment problem with the Wald maximin efficiency criterion and the Savage minimax risk criterion are obtained in the case when the Chebyshev metric is defined in the space of varying parameters.     

Children’s Application of Theory of Mind in Reasoning and Language

Many social situations require a mental model of the knowledge, beliefs, goals, and intentions of others: a Theory of Mind (ToM). If a person can reason about other people’s beliefs about his own beliefs or intentions, he is demonstrating second-order ToM reasoning. A standard task to test second-order ToM reasoning is the second-order false belief task. A different approach to investigating ToM reasoning is through its application in a strategic game. Another task that is believed to involve the application of second-order ToM is the comprehension of sentences that the hearer can only understand by considering the speaker’s alternatives. In this study we tested 40 children between 8 and 10 years old and 27 adult controls on (adaptations of) the three tasks mentioned above: the false belief task, a strategic game, and a sentence comprehension task. The results show interesting differences between adults and children, between the three tasks, and between this study and previous research.