Growing Together: An Analysis of Measurement Transparency Across 15 Years of Player Motivation Questionnaires

TY - JOUR

T1 - Growing Together

T2 - An Analysis of Measurement Transparency Across 15 Years of Player Motivation Questionnaires

AU - Hughes, Nathan

AU - Flockton, Josephine

AU - Cairns, Paul Antony

N1 - © 2022 The Author(s).

PY - 2023/1/1

Y1 - 2023/1/1

N2 - There are many questionnaires to assess player motivation, originatingfrom a diverse range of disciplines. Each discipline differs in their usage andreporting of questionnaires, but there has been no attempt to synthesise orstandardise their application. No standard approach leads to a lack of transparency in usage reporting, which affects the ability of the field to synthesise.This has made it unclear whether player motivation research is a unifiedcommunity, or a collection of individuals with a similar goal. Therefore, thecurrent work assesses the transparency of reporting practices of player motivationquestionnaires published within the last 15 years. 18 questionnaireswere identified via a scoping review, then papers citing these questionnaireswere analysed for their transparency of reporting practices (n=238); first viaa content analysis of justifications for use, then followed by an analysis oftransparency against eight criteria created for this work. Overall, reportingtransparency is lacking, driven by little priority for presenting items alongsidetext. Many papers use questionnaires because they are theory-based orhave measured specific variables in previous works, but explicit justificationis rare. The work concludes with a transparency checklist based on the eightcriteria used, which authors can use to standardise the field and allow formore cohesive research synthesis.

AB - There are many questionnaires to assess player motivation, originatingfrom a diverse range of disciplines. Each discipline differs in their usage andreporting of questionnaires, but there has been no attempt to synthesise orstandardise their application. No standard approach leads to a lack of transparency in usage reporting, which affects the ability of the field to synthesise.This has made it unclear whether player motivation research is a unifiedcommunity, or a collection of individuals with a similar goal. Therefore, thecurrent work assesses the transparency of reporting practices of player motivationquestionnaires published within the last 15 years. 18 questionnaireswere identified via a scoping review, then papers citing these questionnaireswere analysed for their transparency of reporting practices (n=238); first viaa content analysis of justifications for use, then followed by an analysis oftransparency against eight criteria created for this work. Overall, reportingtransparency is lacking, driven by little priority for presenting items alongsidetext. Many papers use questionnaires because they are theory-based orhave measured specific variables in previous works, but explicit justificationis rare. The work concludes with a transparency checklist based on the eightcriteria used, which authors can use to standardise the field and allow formore cohesive research synthesis.

KW - Questionnaires

KW - Player Traits

KW - Motivations

KW - Content analysis

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102940

DO - 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102940

M3 - Article

SN - 1071-5819

VL - 169

JO - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

JF - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

M1 - 102940

ER -