ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
Effects of game interactivity on perceived emotional challenge, mixed-affect emotional experiences and physiological responses.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Introduction: As game genres have evolved, digital games have introduced a distinct type of user experience known as perceived emotional challenge, emerging from the integration of emotionally compelling narratives and interactive elements. While existing research has explored emotional challenge, the specific role of game interactivity in shaping this experience remains unclear, particularly regarding whether it amplifies subjective perceptions, mixed-affect emotional responses, and multimodal physiological reactions. Methods: A between-subjects experiment was conducted in which 28 participants with prior 3D game experience were allocated into two groups: a GamePlay group ( Results: Interactivity heightened perceived emotional challenge and significantly amplified specific hedonic emotional responses including contentment, joy, and pride, while reducing boredom and disappointment. GamePlay participants also reported stronger impression, role identification, emotional involvement, and challenge dimensions. At the physiological level, the GamePlay group exhibited higher heart rate, reduced beat-to-beat variability, shallower and less stable breathing, and stronger phasic electrodermal responses. A multimodal logistic regression model discriminated between the two conditions with 82.69% accuracy under 10-fold cross-validation, remaining robust after the removal of EMG (81.12%) and combined EMG and EDA features (76.06%). Discussion: These findings confirm that while emotionally compelling narratives alone can elicit perceived emotional challenge, game interactivity acts as a key amplifier, deepening hedonic and mixed-affect emotional experiences and producing a distinct and measurable physiological state. The multimodal physiological biomarkers identified in this study support the use of game-based paradigms for objective emotion assessment and provide empirical grounding for the development of adaptive systems aimed at personalized mental health monitoring and intervention.
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