This article reports a study exploring motivations of Pokémon Game use, individual differences related to personality traits, and game habits. First, it analyzed Pokémon GO motivations through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) by administering online the Pokémon GO Motivational Scale to a group of Italian gamers (N = 560). Successively, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted testing three factorial models of Pokémon Game motivations on a selected random sample (N = 310). Results showed a three-factor model of Pokémon GO Game motivations (i.e. Personal Needs, Social Needs and Recreation), accounting for 68.9% of total variance plus a general higher order factor that best fits the data. Individual differences in Pokémon GO motivations and personality traits have been explored showing that high involved Pokémon GO players are introverted, low agreeableness, and conscientiousness people, driven by personal social and recreational needs. Reciprocal influences on motivational involvement, personality, and game habits were discussed.

In this paper, we will investigate the possible role of fuzzy set theory (FST), and more generally the ensemble of technologies and theoretical approaches known as soft computing, as a methodological bridge between hard sciences and humanities. We will try, building on previous works, to investigate the “family links” between these disciplines and show how FST may be of help in promoting a connection between the “two cultures”. We will discuss Carnap and his paradox of explication, the dilemma between imagination and rigor according to Bateson, the problem of interdisciplinarity, and the consequences of precision and exactness.

We present the results of an experiment designed to investigate the way information is organized and stored in the human brain. In particular, we are using controlled stimuli to reverse engineer the networks of ideas and concepts in order to answer the following questions. (1) Are the networks of ideas and concepts in the human brain invoked by verbal and visual stimuli distinct from each other? The answer appears to be no for the network of ideas and inconclusive for the network of concepts. (2) What is the topology of these networks? Our experimental results show that both are small-world networks, with the network of ideas being random and the network of concepts scale-free.