title: Meta-T: TetrisⓇ as an experimental paradigm for cognitive skills research.
abstract: Studies of human performance in complex tasks using video games are an attractive prospect, but many existing games lack a comprehensive way to modify the game and track performance beyond basic levels of analysis. Meta-T provides experimenters a tool to study behavior in a dynamic task environment with time-stressed decision-making and strong perceptual-motor elements, offering a host of experimental manipulations with a robust and detailed logging system for all user events, system events, and screen objects. Its experimenter-friendly interface provides control over detailed parameters of the task environment without need for programming expertise. Support for eye-tracking and computational cognitive modeling extend the paradigm's scope.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA. john.k.lindstedt@gmail.com.
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lindstedt
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Wayne D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012107:Research Design; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Behavioral methods; Cognitive skills; Cognitive tasks; Experiment design; Eye tracking methods; Games; Levels of analysis; Log files; Tetris