DAPR1 Assessed report

Academic year 2024-25

A. Instructions

The assessed report requires you to address some questions of interest (Q1-Q5) detailed in Section C, considering the background and study aims presented in Section B. Each question of interest relates to a different week of teaching block 4.

Submission instructions

Your group is required to submit a PDF report of maximum 6 pages by 12 noon on Friday the 28th of March 2025. As this is a group-based report, no extensions are allowed.

Every member of the group must have joined the group on LEARN (see group name on the desk in the lab). Otherwise, the grade will be 0 for those not registered.

The report should include the exam numbers of all group members, e.g. “B000001, B000002, B000003, B000004.pdf”. You can find your exam number on your student card, and it starts with the letter B. You must also use the same title for your Turnitin submission title, see below:

In the author part of the PDF file, specify the exam number of everyone within the group (for example: B000001, B000002, B000003, …). The exam number starts with a letter B and can be found on your student card. If your exam number is not within the list of authors, you will receive a 0 grade for the report. 

Only one person is required to submit on behalf of the entire group. To submit, go to the course LEARN page, click “Assessment”, and then click “Submit Assessed report (PDF file only)”. Once you’ve submitted on behalf of your group, let the other group members know by writing a message on the LEARN Group Discussion Space. 

Report requirements

The submitted report should have the following sections: 

  • Introduction: contains a brief introduction to the data, questions being investigated, and variables used.

    • For example: What do the data represent? How many units and variables are there? Which questions are you going to investigate? What are the variables that you are going to use to address the questions of interest, and what is the type of those variables? Are there any impossible/missing values? 

  • Analysis: contains clear descriptions and details of the analyses performed, including assumptions and justifications, as well as your results write-ups. 
    This should include text, tables, and/or figures, and you should ensure you interpret the key statistical results and/or figures presented.

  • Discussion: provides a short summary which answers the questions being investigated with a few take-home messages. It should also include ideas for future work and/or address limitations of the current work. 
  • Appendix A (optional): for additional figures and tables. This does not count towards the page limit and is optional: if all your figures/tables fit in the main part of the report, you can skip this. Any figure or table included here must be referenced in the main part of the report. 
  • Appendix B (compulsory): showing all the R code used. This does not count towards the page limit. Unlike Appendix A, Appendix B is compulsory and must be included in the report. 

With the exclusion of Appendix B, the report should not have any visible R code or R code output. In other words, it should only feature text, plots, and tables. 

The default tables produced by R are not appropriate for a report. You need to use a function such as kbl() or kable() from the kableExtra package to produce report-quality tables.

Peer assessment of contribution

Ensure you rate the contribution of everyone in your group on LEARN using the WebPA tool. This will open on the report due date and close two weeks afterwards. Announcements will be sent on both occasions. 

  • You must rate the contribution of each person in your group on a scale from 0 to 5. 
  • If you do not contribute any peer-adjustment marks, the other group members’ marks will have more influence. 
  • You can find a visual illustration of how peer assessment of contribution works at this website. Please note that this is for demonstration purpose only. 

Lab attendance 

The report is based on group work during the labs. You must go to the labs to work with the members of your table group. 

If you attend none of the labs during the five weeks that will lead to the creation of the assessed report, you will receive a grade of 0. 

Grading criteria 

Your report will be indicatively assessed based on four key areas: Introduction, Analysis, Discussion, and Appendices. The Introduction (15%) should provide clear context, define variables, and outline the research questions, addressing any missing or impossible values. The Analysis (60%) will be evaluated on the correct application of statistical methods, assumption checks, APA-compliant reporting, and interpretation of results for each of the five questions of interest. The Discussion (15%) should summarise findings, interpret their implications for the company’s questions of interest, and highlight limitations and suggestions for future work. Finally, the Appendix (10%) will be assessed on the usage and quality of additional figures/tables (if needed) and the completeness, structure, and clarity of R code provided. 

The grading of each section will also consider your accuracy, clarity, and insightfulness, so ensure your report is organised, concise, and aligned with the study’s objectives. 

Policy on AI use 

Academic integrity is an underlying principle of research and academic practice. All submitted work is expected to be your own. AI tools (e.g., ELM) should not be used for assessments on DAPR1. Using AI would constitute academic misconduct.

B. Study background and aims 

ACME, a European gaming company, wants to investigate how its customers’ playing habits relate to aggressive behaviour. The company specialises in the development of two violent video games (VVGs), VVG1 and VVG2, and offers them on two platforms: personal computer (PC) and virtual reality (VR). 

ACME selected 120 customers who play both VVG1 and VVG2 to join a study. Over the course of a week, they tracked the participants’ playing hours for each game and the total hours spent on both. Additionally, participants reported whether they were habitual or non-habitual video game players. Participants also filled out the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), a self-reported aggression questionnaire with scores theoretically ranging between 29 and 145. 

The company aims to better understand its customers’ gaming behaviours and preferences. This includes comparing their habits to the broader gaming population, examining the impact of gaming platforms on aggression, and exploring patterns in engagement and aggression across their two games. These insights will guide future game development and platform strategies.

The following link, https://uoepsy.github.io/data/dapr1_2425_ar_data.csv, gives you access to data on the following variables:

  • ppt: unique participant identifier 
  • status (habitual/non-habitual): indicates whether the participant is a habitual or non-habitual player of video games 
  • bpaq: score on the BPAQ self-reported aggression questionnaire 
  • playing_platform: computer (PC) or virtual reality (VR) 
  • n_game1: weekly hours spent playing VVG1 
  • n_game2: weekly hours spent playing VVG2 
  • n_total = n_game1 + n_game2 

Your task is to analyse the data, answer the questions of interest, and interpret the results in relation to the company’s concerns.

C. Tasks 

Significance level

Throughout the entire report, use a 5% significance level (i.e., α = .05) and the p-value method for hypothesis testing.

Expectations

For each question of interest detailed below:

  • Present appropriate visualisations and descriptive statistics of the relevant variables in APA format. 
  • Perform the appropriate statistical test and report the results in APA format, including all key information. 
  • Comment on effect size and determine whether the results are practically significant (i.e., important). 
  • Follow up a significant result with a confidence interval (CI) and interpret it in the context of the study. Please note that you are not expected to report a CI for Q4 as the R function for that test doesn’t return a CI.
  • Interpret your results in the context of the study and explain their meaning and implication for the company. 
  • Check whether the assumptions underlying the statistical test are met and address any assumption checks in your write-ups. 

Questions of interest 

  • Q1: Is the average weekly playing time of the company’s customers different from the general population of video game players? Previous research suggests that the generic player of any type of video games plays on average 8 hours per week. 
  • Q2: Do aggression scores differ between people who play on different platforms? 
  • Q3: Do participants play one of the company’s games more than the other? 
  • Q4: Is there an association between being a habitual player and playing platform? 
  • Q5: Is there an association between total hours played and aggression scores?