Tohidul Islam

Professor von Uhl

English 21007

March 19, 2019

Lab Report Analysis

            Technological advances in the video game industry have made modern day gaming devices capable of performing tasks that were deemed impossible a decade ago. From tracking hand and body movements to simulating a virtual world where anything is possible, the hardware used for gaming today is unlike anything that existed in the past. This raises the question of whether such technology can also be applied for purposes other than gaming. The researchers in the lab reports: “The effects of video game therapy on balance and attention in chronic ambulatory traumatic brain injury” by Sofia Straudi, “Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Exercises in Stroke Rehabilitation” by Gustavo Saposnik, and “Study on response time measurement of distracted driving by virtual reality driving simulator” by Junghwan Sung try to determine if modern day gaming consoles can be used for therapy and assessment. An analysis of these three reports makes evident that two authors excel in the way in which they present the material. Particularly, Junghwan Sung and Sofia Straudi effectively employ the logical organization of information along with limited jargon and simple visuals to create a report that is suited to a wider audience than the report by Saposnik.

While all three lab reports incorporate and begin with an abstract, the reports by Sung and Straudi were more effective in formatting their abstracts than the report by Saposnik. In their abstracts, Sung and Straudi brief the reader on why the report is being written and what the authors hope to find in their research. Both authors clearly label their abstracts and surround them with a colorful border which makes the abstract easy to locate for anyone who wants to know the purpose of the report. Sung’s abstract is composed of a background and a keywords section while Straudi further simplifies the abstract by breaking up the information into five categories which are background, methods, results, conclusions, and keywords; this allows the reader to easily comprehend the purpose and outcome of the report. Compared to the abstracts of Sung and Straudi, Saposnik fails to create an audience friendly structure. The abstract by Saposnik lacks any labeling or indentation and is clumped together at the beginning of the report in a small font, therefore creating a structure that is hard to locate and read. Amongst the three reports, only Sung presents, in his abstract, the drawbacks of the current methods of response time and risk assessment which are “the risk of actual vehicle driving and deterioration of immersion due to simulated driving” (Junghwan, 2019). This not only bolsters the report’s purpose, but also helps the reader understand the importance of the experiment.

The reports all provide detailed background information in the sections after the abstract, but only Sung’s paper incorporates data collected from outside of their experiment along with statistics on distracted driving. This is done so that the experiment that is performed will have a control group in which to compare results to. Sung’s strategic placement of this prior data early in the report helps the audience to better understand the topic by letting them know what to expect from the results. While lacking in any outside experimental data, Straudi and Saposnik both clearly explain the target group that their experiments are geared towards by giving statistics such as “attention deficits are TBI sequelae that affect 39-62% of TBI survivors” (Straudi, 2017) and “up to 85% of stroke survivors immediately experience hemiparesis” (Saposnik, 2010). Straudi further builds upon this background information by including the authors of previous VR rehabilitation experiments which allows the reader to research their experiments if they wish to learn more about traumatic brain injury rehabilitation.

The authors of each lab report were able to clearly present the results of their experiment at the end of the report. Saposnik excelled at structuring his results due to his organized division of information; he divided the outcomes of the experiment into five sections which were primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, statistical analysis, study organization and data management, and discussion. This organization of the results highlights the important outcomes of the experiment while also making it easy to locate and read for the audience. Unlike Saposnik, the reports by Sung and Straudi did not categorize the results into various sections. Instead, the report by Straudi only breaks the results and analysis of the results into two categories which were discussion and conclusion. Sung further simplifies this by combining discussion and conclusion into one paragraph which makes it difficult to locate the major outtakes from the experiment.

All three reports make use of various terminologies, some of which are not known by the average reader. This use of undefined jargon can be seen throughout Saposnik’s report such as the line “functional recovery correlates most closely with reorganization in ipsilesional peri-infarct and related contralateral cortical areas” (Saposnik, 2010) where the author fails to explain what exactly the “ipsilesional peri-infarct” is or what purpose it serves, therefore leaving the audience to figure out the definition on their own. Straudi, while also using field related vocabulary, limits her use of jargon to a few times per page. The report by Sung is the only one that defines the terminology of their topic, distracted driving, by presenting a table that categorizes different types of distractions, defines each category, and presents several examples of distractions within that category. Therefore, providing the audience with a detailed breakdown of all information they need to know before proceeding with the research report.

The use of visual aid is evident in all three lab reports; however, only Sung incorporates photographs of the tests that were performed as well as the gear that was used to conduct the experiment in his report. The use of these pictures provides readers with a clear understanding of the processes undergone during the experiment. Furthermore, only the reports by Sung and Straudi incorporate various graphs to organize the data that is collected throughout the experiment. Saposnik’s report does not employ any graphs, instead he presents his data through charts and tables which is visually unappealing and difficult to read due to its small print.

The lab reports by Sung and Straudi offer a more organized structure with less jargon and more visual aids than the report by Saposnik, thus making Sung’s and Straudi’s lab reports suited to a larger variety of people. While each of the three lab reports performed experiments for different scientific fields, they all shared the same purpose which was to determine whether current video gaming devices could be used for rehabilitation or assessment. The results of these reports will hopefully help to encourage the use of video gaming devices for scientific purposes in the future.

*Cover page and header removed due to formatting issues*

Bibliography

Junghwan Sung2, anitooni@gmail. co., Seongsoo Park1, kawaiipss@crossdesignlab. co.,                  Hyowon Jeong1, jhw0908@crossdesignlab. co., &Sunwoo Kim1, artbysung@ssu. ac. k.              (2019). Study on response time measurement of distracted driving by virtual reality                driving simulator. International Journal of Advanced Computer Research, 9(40), 37–45.                  https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.19101/IJACR.MUL16002

Saposnik, G., Mamdani, M., Bayley, M., Thorpe, K. E., Hall, J., Cohen, L. G., & Teasell, R. (2010).          Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Exercises in Stroke Rehabilitation (EVREST): Rationale,                Design, and Protocol of a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial Assessing the Wii Gaming                  System. International Journal of Stroke, 5(1), 47 – 51. https://doi-org.ccny-                                    proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2009.00404.x

Straudi, S., Severini, G., Sabbagh Charabati, A., Pavarelli, C., Gamberini, G., Scotti, A., &                    Basaglia, N. (2017). The effects of video game therapy on balance and attention in                    chronic ambulatory traumatic brain injury: an exploratory study. BMC Neurology, 17(1),          86. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1186/s12883-017-0871-9