This was the question that my HCI 522 Quantitative Methods team was trying to figure out.
We developed a Qualtrics survey that yielded 115 responses, and then we performed various statistical tests and analyses.
My contributions to this project include:
- Performing a one-way ANOVA on the tendency to turn off video game audio and its effect on age
- The effect of the frequency of turning off video game audio on age was found to be statistically significant (F(6, 101) = 52.9, p < 0.01, η2 = 0.369)
- Organizing, coordinating, and leading team meetings
- Formulating the procedure and study design
- Proofreading and writing the report
This was an excellent team to work with! Thank you to everyone who was in Group A (Jessica Carey, Torie Harmon, Neil O’Mara, Jennifer Soh, and Marrisa Yang)!
We received great feedback from the professor (Dr. Mary Fornoff) as well:
If we were to do this project over again, I would suggest that we develop survey questions that will gather more continuous variables (e.g., “How many different types of games do you typically play in a week?”). This would give us more variable types to analyze, especially since most of our quantitative data was ordinal or nominal.
The answer to the question “Can the engagement of video game users be influenced by adding a soundtrack?” is, in short, yes.
Based on the data collected and the data analyses, the presence of a soundtrack (or
sound effects) significantly impacts the user’s motivation to continue playing a game. But
it should also be noted that this variable impacted the duration (hours per day) of
gameplay, as opposed to the frequency (days per week) of gameplay.
You can read more about our findings by viewing the final report below.
Roselynn Conrady 