We are starting a new research project, and will be looking into a lot of different ways to observe and assess properties of play and playful learning. Part of this will feed into equipping and advising an all new physical labfor studying play and playful products.
Coming from a game studies background, I have a lot of experience when it comes to experiments and observations with gaming, but less when we are talking about play in a broader sense.
I am asking a very open question at this point, as we are still trying to hone in on as many interesting approaches as possible. We are committed to covering (but not exclusively):
- Qualitative observations and schemes
- Quantitative measures, including instruments and experimental setups
- Physiological measures and other ways of collecting data from/with technologies - from brain based approaches to mobile sensors and native data
- And of course approaches that transcend and combine the above.
Any and all inspiration will be welcomed - including words of warning and insights into failed approaches. What we are mainly looking for is tools and methods, as well as the theories behind them.
Play is related to optimal psychology. More than just distractions or recreation it usually is fulfilling when it has features of what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow. When that state is achieved, there is full immersion and a state of abandonment, which gives participants a sense of fulfillnent, the essence of true happiness. And where there is happiness, most other obstacles and barriers are easily surmountable. While flow is largely connected to the individual, there is an emergent understanding that links it to authentic social interactions. So what makes a particular episode of game play more memorable might be attributed to:
Aside from performances or play within the strictures of rules and norms, there is the idea of "coming into ones own" This is largely related to the literature on creativity and having a childlike approach to design and problems.
https://socialcapital.wordpress.com/category/daniel-kahneman/
https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en
https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play?language=en
https://www.ted.com/talks/don_norman_on_design_and_emotion?language=en
Hi Andreas, if you are looking for all kind of approaches, you may be interested in a book by Carolyn Kenny, related to music therapy: Music & Life in the Field of Play. An Anthology (2006), Barcelona Publishers, also available as e-book. Moreover, Thomas Clifton (1983:) Music as Heard. A study in applied phenomenology, Yale University Press, chapter six: The Play Element, pp. 205-271. And perhaps a PhD thesis by Jina Kim (2006), comparing music therapy and play therapy with autistic children, available online: http://vbn.aau.dk/files/66948224/jinah_kim.pdf
There is a line of research by Sandra Russ, http://psychology.case.edu/faculty/russ_pubs.html that is good. I also especially like the MacArthur Story Stem Battery as a means to analyze play themes. There are many, many other thematic coding systems out there, but the MSSB has a better research background than others. I use a similar system in my own research, adapted specifically for my purposes in working with children with anxiety. It is a coding system that is used as a part of a manualized play therapy that I have developed for anxious children. I only have pilot data so far, but the pilots are promising and I'm working on preparing for a larger scale RCT. In any case, my system and/or the MSSB could be of some use to you.
I am not aware of any quantitative measures of play processes. Some people count themes, which is sort of quantitative, but also requires a major qualitative component. I don't think there are any validated, widely used instruments though.
Regarding physiological measures, there is a new video game that I am actually submitting a grant application for now that uses biofeedback (heart rate variability) to interact with the game (in this case, the game gets harder as your heartrate increases). The game is called Nevermind, www.nevermindgame.com. The website was down when I tried it yesterday, but hopefully will be back up soon. In any case, I'm planning to use the biofeedback piece as a means to investigate whether physiological control can be used to improve or otherwise change play processes, among other projects. You may be interested in similar types of physiological measures.
In any case, it looks like we have a lot of research overlap, so if you would be interested in discussing more ideas, let me know. There are relatively few labs here in the US at least that do this work, so I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Hi Andreas, I am interested in the interaction between play and emotions myself. The current focus is gamification rather than "real" games, but still the attached paper might provide a few hints.
We used facial recognition to get a more objective view on a person's emotions than the usual questionnaire can provide. However, I feel that this is just a starting point. Multiple sensors are required to consolidate this kind of physiological research. I also got the impression that current systems (like the SHORE-kit for facial recognition we used) have been developed for lab conditions and are often difficult to use in the field.
Maybe we can work together on this topic. I'll soon start a new project on measuring emotions in the context of (gamified) learning processes.
Conference Paper The Effect of Gamification on Emotions-The Potential of Faci...
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