Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games

Ruth Dalton; Jan Wiener; Demet Yesiltepe; Amanda Adams; Nick Dalton; Hugo Spiers; Michael Hornberger

doi:10.31219/osf.io/5hm2z

Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games

Ruth Dalton, Jan Wiener, Demet Yesiltepe, Amanda Adams, Nick Dalton, Hugo Spiers, Michael Hornberger

Research output: Working paper › Preprint

Abstract

Sea Hero Quest was a multi-platform, citizen science game designed to advance our understanding of spatial navigation. People playing the game contributed data to further our knowledge of an early symptom of dementia – spatial disorientation. Sea Hero Quest’s community of users left 88,694 reviews/comments on the Apple and Android App Stores. This study analysed a sub-sample of these to investigate motivations for participation. Thematic analysis of ~20,000 comments revealed a clear understanding of links between navigational performance and dementia and the purpose for the data collected by the scientists. Two surprising outcomes, concerning motivations for participation, were the abnormal volume of comments/reviews left and the content of them: not typical game-reviews, but often a highly emotive sharing of personal experiences of dementia — family members who have/had the disease. We conclude that such emotive reviewing produced an unanticipated, secondary, wave of awareness-raising.

Original language	English
Publisher	Center for Open Science
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/5hm2z
Publication status	Submitted - 9 Feb 2023

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title = "Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games",

abstract = "Sea Hero Quest was a multi-platform, citizen science game designed to advance our understanding of spatial navigation. People playing the game contributed data to further our knowledge of an early symptom of dementia – spatial disorientation. Sea Hero Quest{\textquoteright}s community of users left 88,694 reviews/comments on the Apple and Android App Stores. This study analysed a sub-sample of these to investigate motivations for participation. Thematic analysis of ~20,000 comments revealed a clear understanding of links between navigational performance and dementia and the purpose for the data collected by the scientists. Two surprising outcomes, concerning motivations for participation, were the abnormal volume of comments/reviews left and the content of them: not typical game-reviews, but often a highly emotive sharing of personal experiences of dementia — family members who have/had the disease. We conclude that such emotive reviewing produced an unanticipated, secondary, wave of awareness-raising.",

keywords = "Citizen science game, crowdsourcing, public engagement, public understanding of science, social media, user study",

author = "Ruth Dalton and Jan Wiener and Demet Yesiltepe and Amanda Adams and Nick Dalton and Hugo Spiers and Michael Hornberger",

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T1 - Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games

AU - Dalton, Ruth

AU - Wiener, Jan

AU - Yesiltepe, Demet

AU - Adams, Amanda

AU - Dalton, Nick

AU - Spiers, Hugo

AU - Hornberger, Michael

PY - 2023/2/9

Y1 - 2023/2/9

N2 - Sea Hero Quest was a multi-platform, citizen science game designed to advance our understanding of spatial navigation. People playing the game contributed data to further our knowledge of an early symptom of dementia – spatial disorientation. Sea Hero Quest’s community of users left 88,694 reviews/comments on the Apple and Android App Stores. This study analysed a sub-sample of these to investigate motivations for participation. Thematic analysis of ~20,000 comments revealed a clear understanding of links between navigational performance and dementia and the purpose for the data collected by the scientists. Two surprising outcomes, concerning motivations for participation, were the abnormal volume of comments/reviews left and the content of them: not typical game-reviews, but often a highly emotive sharing of personal experiences of dementia — family members who have/had the disease. We conclude that such emotive reviewing produced an unanticipated, secondary, wave of awareness-raising.

AB - Sea Hero Quest was a multi-platform, citizen science game designed to advance our understanding of spatial navigation. People playing the game contributed data to further our knowledge of an early symptom of dementia – spatial disorientation. Sea Hero Quest’s community of users left 88,694 reviews/comments on the Apple and Android App Stores. This study analysed a sub-sample of these to investigate motivations for participation. Thematic analysis of ~20,000 comments revealed a clear understanding of links between navigational performance and dementia and the purpose for the data collected by the scientists. Two surprising outcomes, concerning motivations for participation, were the abnormal volume of comments/reviews left and the content of them: not typical game-reviews, but often a highly emotive sharing of personal experiences of dementia — family members who have/had the disease. We conclude that such emotive reviewing produced an unanticipated, secondary, wave of awareness-raising.

KW - Citizen science game

KW - crowdsourcing

KW - public engagement

KW - public understanding of science

KW - social media

KW - user study

U2 - 10.31219/osf.io/5hm2z

DO - 10.31219/osf.io/5hm2z

M3 - Preprint

BT - Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games

PB - Center for Open Science

ER -

Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games

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