This PhD project uses a novel video game paradigm for collecting behavioural, neuroimaging and other bio-signal data from participants playing a dynamic video game in teams. Each participant gets an iPad and works with their teammates to achieve a higher score than the opposing team. The paradigm itself is built on a scalable, cross-platform, open-source software stack that has been developed for the purpose of real-time multi-modal data acquisition in research environments. Studies will be conducted with participants in various group sizes and will comprise part of a PhD thesis as well as multiple publications in journals.

At its core, the paradigm aims to bridge a gap between a pure lab experiment and a naturalistic study. By using a real-time video game, it is possible to see how individuals respond to both the actions of their teammates and the actions of the competing team. This dynamic social interaction can be seen in real life activities such as team sports, where there are considerations for both teammates and opposition. The research will make use of the EEG Hyperscanning lab to simultaneously collect data from all participants in a group to investigate neural markers of group identity. Due to the experiment aiming to be more naturalistic, it will generate a rich dataset of behavioural and bio-signal data which has potential for use in research on topics such as decision making, game strategy, turn-taking and role emergence. The paradigm, platform and data will be published along with source code and applications and has application in a broad range of fields including joint action, psychology and cognitive science.