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Updated: May 23, 2025

Combining Computer Game-Based Behavioural Experiments With High-Density EEG and Infrared Gaze Tracking
Published on: December 16, 2010
Multiplayer videogames to analyze behavior during ecological interactions
Pierre-Olivier Montiglio1, Maxime Fraser Franco1, Francesca Santostefano2
1Department of Biological Sciences, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Abstract:
Behavior shapes population and community dynamics through feedbacks with habitat configuration and interaction networks. Work on this interplay includes longitudinal surveys, experiments, and models. Multiplayer online video games foster real-time interactions among lots of players in virtual spaces. Data from these games could complement theoretical and empirical work, but research on them is only emerging now. We highlight how these games allow us to track individual movement, decisions, interactions, and performance in a tractable environment. We use our work on the game Dead by Daylight as an example to show that social and predator-prey interactions can generate complex ecoevolutionary dynamics favoring an array of behavioral traits we often study in nature. These games can foster progress in ecoevolutionary and behavioral research.
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