Metrics of the Mindscape: Engagement

Being engaged, focused, in the zone or attentive, this is the mental state we all strive for. When you are in the zone, you learn more efficiently, time flies by and our data show that engagement is generally correlated with experience satisfaction.

We consider engagement to be a cognitive metric, since it is associated with how the brain processes information. We compute the level of engagement from brain activity.

We first noticed patterns in the engagement metric during our video game studies. Early on, we were conducting extensive and necessary tests by playing Fortnite, Apex Legends and PUBG. Engagement is such a consistent metric that very rapidly we started observing patterns such that:

• engagement was at its lowest in between games, when the player waits in the lobby (Figure 1, A);
• engagement has a tendency to rise steadily over the course of a game;
• scoping with a sniper rifle (visual attention) produced some of the highest points of engagement (Figure 1, B).

Over time, engagement became our go to metric, to get an idea of the dynamics of an experience. High engagement usually means that everything is good, the participant is enjoying its time. This is confirmed by our repeated observation that average engagement is correlated with experience appreciation and satisfaction. We even notice that engagement tends to slowly increase over time for highly interesting experiences, although it can also plateau at a high level and remain stable.

A: Engagement is practically null, when waiting in the lobby. B: Engagement is maximal, when scoping. Considering that engagement is correlated with satisfaction, waiting time should be reduced to the minimum.

Decrease in engagement is our key to detect where the experience can be improved, but not all decreases are synonym of a bad experience.

Decrease can be triggered by what we call an emotional relief. When this happens, the participant disengages momentarily from the experience, to live and express an emotion. Depending on the context, the emotion expressed and how quickly it re-engages with the experience, this disengagement might not be a problem at all. One analogy we use is that of stand-up comedy. Comics will build up a story (engagement) up to a punch line (emotion). Once the punch line is delivered, the comic needs to wait a few seconds before proceedings to the next joke. He could try to move on immediately, but that would be a very bad comedic timing as while the audience is laughing, it is also disconnected from the experience.

A repeated experience, associated with a decrease in appreciation will also result in decreased engagement, as people get jaded.

This study took place over the course of three weeks, during which the participants were exposed to the same audiovisual content for 6 times in total. We notice a decrease in engagement when comparing the average of week 1 vs. week 3.

With the Nucleus-Hermès, which allows for freely behaving data collection, we begin to notice new patterns. Engagement tends to be low, when the participant is talking, but higher when he is listening. While an increase during listening is hardly a surprise, finding that engagement is lower during speech production is a little unexpected, since communicating verbally require cognition. Time should help us determine if this observation is anecdotic or if more evidences support this hypothesis.

It is this is kind of observation is what motivates us to pursue our work and study the Mindscape.