Evaluating Electroencephalography Engagement Indices During Video Game Play

Given the growing popularity of video gaming and off-the shelf electroencephalographic (EEG) devices like the Emotiv, there is a growing need for methods of measuring gamer experience in real-time. Engagement indices developed to monitor human engagement have yet to be implemented with the Emotiv. In this study, we compared three different engagement indices during various video game modalities using the Emotiv device. EEG data was collected from 30 participants during video game play of Super Meat Boy. Two EEG indices (frontal theta and the ratio of beta to alpha+theta) showed a significant difference in engagement level among the different gaming modalities with the increasingly difficult cognitive demand. Our findings suggest that the Emotive EEG can be to measure a player’s varying levels of engagement as they play a video game.