IMPULSE!

SUBJECTS

There were 300 subjects that were used and were recruited from a university, 150 males and 150 females. The criteria to be a part of the study were that the subjects that were chosen they had to be students that were enrolled in classes to receive credit. The people who were excluded were individuals who were not in college or were under 18 or over the age of 25. No staff members of the university could partake in the study. The conditions were that the experimental group would play the game. The control group would have to perform cognitive tasks such as answering a telephone to see how they function. The subjects were assigned to the conditions by taking a survey to see where they can be placed. If they took drugs before they were placed in the control group and if they didn’t take any drugs they were in the experimental group. The subject demographics were between the ages of 18-25 years old, various races, and ethnicity.

APPARATUS

The materials used was a survey with pen and paper. This was used to establish who belonged in what group for the study. The only materials used for the experimental group which was a game that those subjects would play would entail an application via cellphone or laptop depending on the subject’s preference.

A telephone for the control group to measure cognitive tasks. Responses are measured by the choices the subjects make for the experimental group. For the party scene they either go dancing, drinking or they take the drugs. Each decision the subject makes affects the character they are playing as because they are consequences that can either be good or bad depending on what they choose. The control group’s responses were measured by their perception on if they heard the phone, if they decided to answer the phone or not, if they lifted the phone up would be part of their motor skills, how they were speaking on the phone if what they were saying was intelligible or not, and lastly how they reacted to the caller.

PROCEDURES

The conditions that were created for those who were playing a game had to endure situations such as a scene in a club where people will be shown dancing drinking and using drugs to have a good time. The player will be approached and asked if they want to try the drug to have a good time. Another situation would be while hanging out with a friend, the friend pulls out some drugs for him and his buddies to use and the subject will be one of the buddies who will either say if they want to join in because the others are doing so.

The control group a phone could ring a few times and when they got to it no one could be on the other end. They would have to answer the phone various times to see how they managed while on the phone. Or the phone could ring like two times and then stop and start up again. The consequences of the player’s actions. The decisions the players made effects their character either negatively or positively. Their character come end up becoming a drug addict with nothing in life or they could go onto having a healthy lifestyle with friend and family. A check was made if their cognitive skills were appropriate under the right categories. The categories would consist of perception, decision taking, motor skill, language skills and their social skills.

RESULTS

Data was collected of the subjects who played the video game. There was a normal distribution curve. For the 150 subjects that played the game had a standard deviation of 85.4 and a mean of 134.8. For those who did not play the video game the control group with a 150 subjects had a standard deviation of 81.4 and a mean of 146.3.

TUTORIAL

For the fourth tutorial it’s the prospector solitaire game. For creating this tutorial you had to download another pack from the book’s website which has the updated code as well. The pack includes the cards for the solitaire part of the game which includes all the suits and face cards. I found it to be challenging of course its longer there are more pages of instructions to follow. The code is more in depth but overall I thought it was fun to create.