Percorrer por autor "Bala, Paulo"
A mostrar 1 - 10 de 13
Resultados por página
Opções de ordenação
- CBT-Darts: identifying cognitive distortions in an immersive VR gamePublication . Camacho, Élton; Campos, Pedro; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Bala, Paulo; Camacho, ÉltonCognitive Behavioral Therapy is a empirically validated treatment for anxiety and depression. By identifying negative thinking pat terns (cognitive distortions), individuals are able to reevaluate and reframe thinking patterns for better mental health. Building on pre vious research in digital health interventions, we explore the use of games and VR for increasing awareness of cognitive distortions. CBT-Darts is an immersive VR game where players match state ments to cognitive distortions by throwing darts at balloons. By mixing a physical and cognitive task, we hope to create an engaging and fun way to teach how to identify cognitive distortions.
- College tales: pilot study on Large Language Models generated narratives for mental health literacyPublication . Sousa, José Pedro Vieira; Campos, Pedro; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Bala, PauloMental health, while a crucial component of health, has often been neglected and stigmatised. University students, considering their unique situations and stressors, are more vulnerable to experienc ing mental health challenges and being affected by stigma. The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) creates an opportunity to impart knowledge through digital interventions to address stigma, misinformation, and increase Mental Health Literacy in univer sity students. Using a LLM generated prompt game, we conducted a pilot study with 5 mental health professionals. Through semi structured interviews about the prototype and the narrative, we identified several narrative problems, such as missing information or overly simplified concepts. While the prototype has limitations, the participants considered it to have potential to be integrated as a tool for professionals.
- DreamScape: fostering financial cognition through a serious gamePublication . Santos, Ana; Freitas, Constança; Bala, Paulo; Campos, Pedro F.; Dionisio, Mara; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Dionisio, MaraFinancial literacy is critical for economic empowerment, yet access to effective financial education remains uneven. Serious games provide an interactive and accessible approach to financial education, fostering decision-making and cognitive development through im mersive gameplay. In this demonstration, we present DreamScape, a narrative-driven serious game designed to teach financial literacy through interactive storytelling and puzzle-based mini-games. By leveraging narrative immersion and problem-solving mechanics, this online demo illustrates how interactive systems and creative design can foster economic empowerment, contributing to a more financially literate and equitable society.
- DreamScope Catcher: a Touch Sensitive Interface to Catch DreamsPublication . Dionisio, Mara; Bala, Paulo; Trindade, Rui; Nisi, Valentina; Nunes, Nuno JardimDream Scope is the interactive, stand alone, self contained portion of a bigger Art installation named Lucid Peninsula. The goal of the installation is to offer a way for people to experience the future through a physical interactive installation. To achieve this aim we designed and developed the interactive DreamScope device, while the Time’s Up collective designed and built the physical installation. On one side with the DreamViewer binoculars enable participants to see the Lucid Peninsula fictional world and absorb data relating to factors such as air quality, presence of plant and other life forms, etc. On the other side of the installation, the audience will be able to borrow mobile devices (DreamCatchers) and ‘catch’ the dreams of the inhabitants of the peninsula, which are mixed with memories of the world before it was transformed.
- Evaluating Mystiria: insights from a pilot study on intergenerational collaborative gameplay for climate change awarenessPublication . Spínola, Joana; Gonçalves, Lígia; Campos, Pedro; Dionísio, Mara; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Dionisio, Mara; Bala, PauloClimate change education should be an urgent global priority for both adults and children. Usually, the existing interventions focus on one of these groups singularly, instead of engaging intergenera tional audiences. Mystiria harnesses adult-child interactions in a captivating gaming and learning experience that fosters climate change awareness. This paper delves into how Mystiria’s design and gameplay mechanics promote critical thinking and collabo ration while also educating on climate change and sustainability. Through a pretest-posttest pilot study and guided interviews with six adult-child pairs, we unveil the game’s ability to inspire inter generational dialogue, deepen understanding and spark meaningful discussions about the current world’s environmental issues. The findings from our pilot study indicate that collaborative intergener ational gameplay fosters positive learning outcomes, creating an environment for heightened knowledge transfer and awareness of climate change and sustainability. While these results need to be validated with a larger study, they highlight Mystiria’s potential as a model for intergenerational serious games.
- Exploring the impact of transmedia storytelling on financial literacy: a pilot evaluation with young adultsPublication . Freitas, Constança; Santos, Ana; Campos, Pedro F.; Bala, Paulo; Dionisio, Mara; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Bala, Paulo; Dionisio, MaraFinancial literacy is an essential skill for all young adults. However, conventional education practices may not always effectively mo tivate young adults to learn about finances. The combination of different forms of narrative and visuals in transmedia storytelling provides an engaging solution to this problem. Our approach con sisted of a web-based game, a board game, and a social media page. The web game has a stronger storytelling aspect where users need to find the characters on a map according to their financial strug gles; the social media page goes hand in hand with the web game because it gives further clues to find the characters; and the board game focuses more on the financial concepts and the collabora tive aspect of the game. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of our design approach. Our findings highlight the transformative potential of transmedia storytelling to create innovative financial learning experiences.
- Financial DreamScape: puzzle narrative games for financial educationPublication . Santos, Ana; Freitas, Constança; Bala, Paulo; Campos, Pedro; Dionisio, Mara; Bala, Paulo; Campos, Pedro; Dionisio, MaraFinancial literacy is essential for personal and national economic well-being, demanding attention in today’s dynamic society. How ever, a concerning trend persists where individuals may lack basic fnancial knowledge; this is common even among individuals with a high level of education. This gap is especially concerning for young adults, as it prevents them from making informed decisions, managing fnances efectively, and securing a stable future. This paper presents the development and pilot evaluation of a serious puzzle game prototype to enhance fnancial literacy among young adults. The pilot evaluation (N=7) explores various game mechan ics to deliver engaging fnancial education. Initial fndings indicate promising potential for serious puzzle games in facilitating fnancial literacy. The research aims to contribute insights into pedagogi cal strategies and game design enhancements, fostering informed decision-making and economic stability among young adults.
- FitFest: designing a narrative-driven exergame to engage active seniors in physical activityPublication . Freitas, Eva; Noronha, Hildegardo; França, Cíntia; Gouveia, Élvio; Bala, Paulo; Campos, Pedro; Dionísio, Mara; França, Cíntia; Gouveia, Elvio Rúbio; Gouveia, Elvio Rúbio; Gouveia, Élvio Rúbio; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Dionisio, MaraExergaming is a modern approach frequently used to promote physical activity at all ages while playing digital games. Given that physical health deteriorates with age, that older people tend to live sedentary lifestyles and that they get tired faster due to lack of physical stimulation, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise routine is important to avoid unintentional injuries. Taking into account interviews and a focus group with seniors and fitness professionals, this paper reports on the design and development of an exergame for seniors to complement their weekly exercise classes. Fit Fest is an exergame for seniors that leverages narra tive and sociocultural connections to create an engaging exercise experience.
- Lucid Peninsula: DreamScope: An Interactive Physical InstallationPublication . Dionisio, Mara; Bala, Paulo; Trindade, Rui; Nisi, Valentina; Hanna, JulianIn this paper we present Lucid Peninsula, an interactive installation designed to immerse participants in a dreamlike, post-apocalyptic story world. The goal of the installation is to offer a way for people to experience the future through a physical interactive installation. To achieve this aim we designed and developed the interactive DreamScope device, while the Time’s Up collective designed and built the physical installation. On one side with the Dreamviewer binoculars users will be able to see the world outside and absorb data relating to factors such as air quality, presence of plant and other life forms, etc. On the other side of the installation, the audience will be able to borrow mobile devices (Dreamcatchers) and venture into the actual landscape of the city, in order to ‘catch’ the dreams of the inhabitants of the peninsula, which are mixed with memories of the world before it was transformed.
- Meta-evaluating the effects of social preferences on NPC-evaluators in an energy community gamePublication . Isaza-Giraldo, Andrés; Bala, Paulo; Jiskrová, Anna; Sachser, Luiz; Campos, Pedro; Pereira, Lucas; Bala, Paulo; Pereira Campos, Pedro Filipe; Campos, Pedro; Pereira, LucasEnergy Communities (EC) are emerging frameworks where citizens collectively share renewable energy. Levering knowledge about this topic is challenging for how varied these types of com munities might be and how many actors are involved in decision taking. We are developing En-join, a game in which the player has to solve open-ended challenges that are mediated and evaluated by conversational agents that represent members of a EC. We im plemented and prompted an LLM (Phi-4) to perform role-playing and evaluation simultaneously. We tested prompt variants indicat ing personality and behavior and meta-evaluated the evaluation performance using six predefined answers across three levels. Our results suggest that indicating social preferences noticeably affects the evaluation behavior. We contribute to the field of games and serious games by showing how LLMs can be used as conversational characters and evaluator agents simultaneously, and suggest that role-playing might be affecting evaluation behavior in any LLM implementations.