ABSTRACT
This paper presents the result of an empirical study of 32 adult dyads (i.e. groups of two people) engaged in pretend play. Our analysis indicates that participatory sense-making plays a key role in the success of pretend play sessions. We use the cognitive science theory of enaction as a theoretical lens to analyze the empirical data given its robust conceptual framework for describing participatory sense-making. We present here five enactive characteristics of pretend play that appear to be necessary and sufficient for the emergence and maintenance of successful pretend play -- mental preparation, meaning building, narrative enaction, narrative deepening, and flow maintenance. This enactive formalization is used to propose a computational model of pretend play that can be used to design an agent capable of playing in real time with human users.
- Bartneck, C. and Forlizzi, J.A design-centred framework for social human-robot interaction. Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2004. ROMAN 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshop on, (2004), 591--594.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Baumer, A. and Magerko, B.Narrative development in improvisational theatre. In Interactive Storytelling. Springer, 2009, 140--151. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bello, P.Pretense and cognitive architecture. Advances in Cognitive Systems 2, (2012), 43--58.Google Scholar
- Beyls, P.Interaction and Self-organisation in a Society of Musical Agents. Proceedings of ECAL 2007 Workshop on Music and Artificial Life (MusicAL 2007), (2007).Google Scholar
- Boden, M.A.The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1990. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brown, S.L.Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. Penguin, 2009.Google Scholar
- Caillois, R.Man, play, and games. University of Illinois Press, 2001.Google Scholar
- Colton, S., López de Mantaras, R., and Stock, O.Computational Creativity: Coming of Age. .Google Scholar
- Csikszentmihalyi, M.Flow. Springer, 2014.Google Scholar
- Davis, N., Do, E.Y.-L., Gupta, P., and Gupta, S.Computing harmony with PerLogicArt: perceptual logic inspired collaborative art. Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Creativity and cognition, 2011, 185--194. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Davis, N., Popova, Y., Sysoev, I., Hsiao, C.-P., Zhang, D., and Magerko, B.Building Artistic Computer Colleagues with an Enactive Model of Creativity. International Conference on Computational Creativity, AAAI (2014).Google Scholar
- Eigenfeldt, A. and Pasquier, P.Negotiated content: generative soundscape composition by autonomous musical agents in coming together: freesound. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computational Creativity, Mexico City, (2011), 27--32.Google Scholar
- Fuchs, T. and de Jaegher, H.Enactive intersubjectivity: Participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8, 4 (2009), 465--486.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Glaser, B.G., Strauss, A.L., and Strutzel, E.The discovery of grounded theory; strategies for qualitative research. Nursing Research 17, 4 (1968), 364.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Huizinga, J.Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture. Routledge, 1950.Google Scholar
- Jacob, M., Coisne, G., Gupta, A., Sysoev, I., Verma, G.G., and Magerko, B.Viewpoints AI. AIIDE, (2013).Google Scholar
- Magerko, B., Manzoul, W., Riedl, M., et al.An Empirical Study of Cognition and Theatrical Improvisation. Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition, ACM (2009), 117--126. Google ScholarDigital Library
- McCormack, J.Eden: An Evolutionary Sonic Ecosystem. In J. Kelemen and P. Sosík, eds., Advances in Artificial Life SE - 13. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2001, 133--142. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Morgenthaler, S.K.The meanings in play with objects. Play from birth to twelve and beyond: contexts, perspectives, and meanings, (1998), 359--367.Google Scholar
- Nichols, S. and Stich, S.P.Mindreading: An integrated account of pretence, self-awareness, and understanding other minds. Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 2003.Google ScholarCross Ref
- O'Neill, B., Piplica, A., Fuller, D., and Magerko, B.A Knowledge-Based Framework for the Collaborative Improvisation of Scene Introductions. In M. Si, D. Thue, E. André, J. Lester, J. Tanenbaum and V. Zammitto, eds., Interactive Storytelling SE - 10. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011, 85--96. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pellegrini, A.D. and Smith, P.K.Physical Activity Play: The Nature and Function of a Neglected Aspect of Play. Child Development 69, 3 (1998), 577--598.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Popova, Y.B.Narrativity and enaction: the social nature of literary narrative understanding. Frontiers in psychology 5, (2014), 895.Google Scholar
- Power, T.G.Play and exploration in children and animals. Psychology Press, 1999.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rosch, E.Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 104, 1975, 192--233.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sawyer, R.K.Pretend play as improvisation: Conversation in the preschool classroom. Psychology Press, 1997.Google Scholar
- Sawyer, R.K.Improvised dialogues: Emergence and creativity in conversation. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003.Google Scholar
- Stewart, J.R., Gapenne, O., and Di Paolo, E.A.Enaction: Toward a new paradigm for cognitive science. MIT Press, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sutton-Smith, B.The role of toys in the instigation of playful creativity. Creativity Research Journal 5, 1 (1992), 3--11.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Vernon, D.Artificial Cognitive Systems. MIT Press, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wiggins, G. a.A preliminary framework for description, analysis and comparison of creative systems. Knowledge-Based Systems 19, 7 (2006), 449--458. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zook, A., Magerko, B., and Riedl, M.Formally Modeling Pretend Object Play. Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition, ACM (2011), 147--156. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- An Enactive Characterization of Pretend Play
Recommendations
Facilitating Pretend Play in Autistic Children: Results from an Augmented Reality App Evaluation
ASSETS '18: Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and AccessibilityAutistic children find pretend play difficult. Previous work suggests Augmented Reality (AR) has potential in eliciting pretend play in children with autism. This paper presents the evaluation of an Augmented Reality app to help autistic children engage ...
Supporting pretend and narrative play over videochat
IDC '11: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and ChildrenRemote play over videochat may increase opportunities for social interaction for children who are geographically separated from their preferred playmate or who live beyond walking-distance from their friends. We investigated how currently available ...
Can we augment reality with "mental images" to elicit pretend play?: a usability study
CHI EA '13: CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsPretend play is a symbolic activity in one's childhood which develops critical competences such as mental representation, linguistic expression and social knowledge. However, children with autism spectrum condition (ASC) are often found lacking in ...
Comments