Gains Through Gaming Lab

Anne is a human factors psychologist with a background in training research and cognitive aging. She is specifically interested in the special issues that arise in the training and education of older adults. Her past projects include older adult instruction on blood glucose meters, optimal individualized feedback based on learner resources and task complexity, attentional changes related to aging, and input device choice/interface design for aging populations. She has demonstrated that, with proper interface design and input devices, older adult variability can be controlled and age-related differences in performance reduced.

Additional information about Anne's non-video game research can be found at her LACE lab website. Anne also maintains the Human Factors Blog with Dr. Richard Pak.

Jason Allaire is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at NCSU. His primary area of research is in the field of cognitive aging with particular interests in everyday cognition, mild cognitive impairment, intraindividual variability, health disparities, and cognitive interventions. Additional information about his non-video game research can be found at the Cognition in Context Lab page.

Jason began playing video games as a young child. However, he didn’t start playing seriously until he was trying to finish his dissertation when he began playing EverQuest. After a number of year playing EQ, he moved onto World of Warcraft and has played WoW off and on since release.

Maribeth Gandy Coleman is a computer scientist whose research focuses on augmented reality, human computer interaction, accessible computer interfaces for persons with disabilities, and new forms of interactive media. She has developed computer-based experiences for entertainment and informal education in a variety of forms including augmented reality, virtual reality, and mobile computing. She also teaches the “Video Game Design” course in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She is experienced with a variety of game development tools and engines for both desktop PC and mobile device development (e.g., Gamebryo, Yake, C4, XNA), as well as with the process of designing, prototyping, evaluating, and implementing games. She has also worked on a variety of alternative interfaces such as tangible interfaces and gesture recognition. Her augmented reality research includes the exploration of how to rapidly prototype mixed reality experiences. She is currently developing presence metrics for measuring engagement in AR environments using qualitative (questionnaire) and quantitative (physiological measures) data (NSF grant #0534315).

For the past six years she has worked in the fields of disability and accessibility as a project director in the Wireless RERC (through the Shepard Center in Atlanta and Georgia Tech) and has generated guidelines for the universal design and user centered design process with disabled populations.

Laura is pursuing her PhD in Human Factors at NCSU. She is interested in the field of human-computer interaction, especially the areas of performance enhancement and training within a virtual environment.

Taryn is a third-year graduate student in the Life Span Development program at NCSU. She is interested in using games to improve real-world outcomes such as medication adherence.

Mary is an NCSU Human Factors doctoral student pursuing research to improve human learning through technology.