Fang-g Lin

The Effects of User Involvement in Online Games, Game-Playing Time and Display Duration on Working Memory

College students spending too much time on online games every week tend to suffer from worsened learning ability, concentration problems, poor academic performance, and decreased interactions with other people. This studys author conducted a questionnaire-based survey to examine how many hours college students from central Taiwan spend on online games per week, in order to find out their average daily involvement in such games. Using proportionate stratified sampling, the survey respondents were selected to examine the weekly involvement in online games among college students from central Taiwan, who were divided into low-, medium- and high-involvement groups in a cluster analysis. Results of the survey were tested using a self-developed evaluation system based on working memory and response time. Totally 36 college students, or 12 students from each of the low-, medium- and high-involvement groups, were randomly selected from the population to test how involvement in online games, game-playing time and display duration affected their working memory. Findings from this study include: I. The low, medium and high levels of online game involvements are defined as an average 1.34 hours, 4.84 hours and 10.27 hours spent on online games every day. 30.9% of the survey respondents said they spent more than 4 hours on online games, which suggests that online games may be the reason why college students stay up all night so often. II. This testing discovers that the levels of involvement in video gaming (p<0.05), display duration (p<0.05), and the interaction of the two factors will all have an impact on visual working memory (p<0.05).

Leisure Activities for the Elderly–The Influence of Visual Working Memory on Mahjong and Its Video Game Version

Mahjong is not only a traditional game for recreation but an important leisure activity for elderly people in Chinese society. In this study, 8 elderly people of age 65 in average are selected as testees, their visual senses are sufficiently capable to continuously play mahjong for more than 1 hour. In addition, the testees all have more than one year of experience in playing mahjong. Also, a self-developed working memory inspection system is used to detect the influences of the working memory corrective ratio of version for elderly people under 350 Lux, the mahjong play duration as the variable. The study also may serve as a reference in designing environmental illumination and the duration for elderly people while playing mahjong.

Measuring the Influences of Footwear Shape and Area on the Coefficient of Friction by English XL

This study explores the influences of different footwear shapes and areas on COF by conducting a four factors experiment including five footwear areas, two footwear shapes, two floors with different roughness, and three floor contaminating conditions and the COFs were measured by English XL. The results demonstrate that the footwear area, footwear shape, floor roughness, and floor contamination condition all affect COF significantly. The COFs of square footwear treads are significantly higher than the cofs of round footwear treads. The relationships between shoe sole area and COF were affected by floor roughness dramatically. The relationships between different shoe sole area and COFs did not show any rules. The lower the floor roughness the lower the COFs with the larger shoe sole area under water and detergent contamination conditions.

Application of Actigraphy on Shift Workers for Sleep Quality

The subjects of this study are based on 36 manufacturing operators working on a shift system, there are respectively 12 operators in the day shift, middle shift and night shift being examined. The study uses actigraphy to measure the quality of sleep of the employees under different shift schedules. The results of the study are as follows. On the measurement aspect of quality of sleep on each respective shift, the sleep latency on the night shift is relatively longer as compared to those in the day shift (p < 0.05). The instances of sleep barriers on the night shift are relatively more as compared to those in the day shift (p < 0.05). The total sleep time on the night shift is relatively longer as compared to those in the day shift (p < 0.05). The study discovered that sleep latency is the longest for the middle shift, and differs with the conclusion of past literature stating that employees working in the night shift needed a relatively longer time to fall asleep. The total sleep time for employees working in the night shift is the shortest.

The Slip-Resistance Effect of Tread Grooves and Floor Roughness on Different Liquid Thickness

The coefficient of friction between shoe sole and floor is the most critical environment factor influencing slipping risks. When the shoes tread on the surface covered by liquid, the slip resistant of floors are reduced by the squeeze-film effect and the risks of falling are increased. The prior researches discussed mostly the relationship between floor roughness and COF, the discussions of the impact of liquid thickness on COF are relatively rare. This study measured the slip resistance effect of tread groove and floor roughness under different liquid thickness by adopting Brungraber Mark II slipmeter. The results showed that the tread groove, floor roughness and liquid thickness are all factors influencing the COF.The COF of non-tread groove footwear decreases significantly while the liquid thickness larger than 1mm or the floor roughness Ra less than 2μm.

Bedroom Temperature and Sleeping Quality

Poor sleeping quality will affect the concentration, reaction and memory ability, and decrease the cognitive abilities such as memory, learning, the ability of expressing complex language, and the capability to make decision firmly. There are some possible causes such as concern about wakefulness, temporary, anxiety or depression, sleep apnea, other illnesses, illuminant, noises and other stimulants etc. Experts agree the temperature of sleeping area and how comfortable people feels in it affect how well and how long they snooze. Many researchers suggest body temperature has connection with the amount of deep sleep an individual gets during the night. However, most of the studies discussed temperature and sleeping quality are conducted in American or European area, however, the situation at tropical area (such as Taiwan) has not been discussed. Therefore, this study set up an experiment performed by Actigraphy to explore the relationships between sleeping quality and bedroom temperature in Taiwan.

The Influence of Shift Workers Sleeping Quality upon Job Performance

In the past few decades shift workers are highly needed to meet the demands of globalization and the 24-hour society worldwide. There are about 20% of labors doing shift jobs in America and European. In Taiwan, there are almost 35.5% of labors work shift jobs. Shift and night shift workers usually sleep 15-20% less than the regular workers, and, the sleeping quality during the day time is not as good as during the night. This study discusses the relationships between sleeping quality and job performance of shift workers on various shifting working hours by reviewing the previous literatures and researches. On the other hand, the study further compares the two methods of measuring sleeping quality and discusses the advantages and weakness of different testing methods. The results could provide more useful references to researchers who are interesting in the issues of sleeping quality and shift works while choosing instrument of testing sleeping quality.