Högskolan i Skövde

The presented research is motivated by the limited ability of current methods to capture the nature of information fusion processes. Fusion processes typically include both humans and technology, hence, there is a need for a new way to analyse such processes. With the aid of distributed cognition, the interaction between decision makers and IF technology can be captured more clearly, and thereby critical bottlenecks can be identified which may require further automation. Application of the tool may advance the research area of information fusion.

Traditionally, the focus of most information fusion research has been on computational aspects, as illustrated by, for example, different versions of the JDL data fusion model. Consequently, the human user has mainly been conceived as a relatively passive recipient of fused information. However, the importance of understanding the active role of human information processing in information fusion is gaining increasing recognition, as also reflected in discussions of a "level 5" in the JDL model. This paper presents a case study of the interaction between human and machine information processing in a maritime surveillance control room. A detailed analysis of cognitive processes and information flows involved in identifying and tracking moving vessels illustrates how machines and human operators collaboratively perform fusion in a highly distributed fashion. The theoretical framework of distributed cognition provides an alternative or complementary way of analysing information fusion systems/processes that more clearly reveals the actual complexities of the interaction between human and machine information processing in practice. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A pre-study of spectators' perspectives on eSports was conducted in collaboration with two Swedish game development companies. The main goal was to identify factors that contribute to qualitative spectator experiences and how they can influence game design. A qualitative approach was chosen to explore spectators' perspectives on eSports through observations and focus-group interviews of 28 participants in total. Results indicate that spectatorship is a complex issue that goes beyond the mere watching of a game. We identified four themes that are important for qualitative spectator experiences: the need for an overview of game events; highlighting and exposing hidden objects and events; viewer- and commentator-friendly game pacing; the importance of professional commentators and casters. Based on the results, we present design guidelines and recommendations for the development of games in eSports.

In this paper we consider learning in the context of computer games, in terms of socio-cultural theories on learning and cognition. We emphasise on the tools involved in players’ learning activities, such as the use of »social tools«, and their role in the learning situation. Integrating (parts of) the computer game area with socio-cultural learning theories can prove beneficial for a more balanced understanding of learning in computer (game) environments. As a step in this direction, this paper discusses a case study of Counter-strike players and their learning from a cognitive science perspective.

This paper discusses affordance with respect to computer games and game play activity. The game environment, with its complex and seemingly multiple affordances, presents a challenge, for players as well as researchers, since it consists of two worlds: the virtual and the real one. For games to be played successfully, affordances of both worlds need to be integrated. However, since Gibson’s The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1986), numerous different opinions on what constitutes an affordance have appeared, most of them deviating from the original Gibsonian conceptualisation. This has lead to confusion and misunderstandings among researchers, and is now also spreading into computer games research. This paper aims to raise awareness of what the affordance concept can, and cannot, explain and of the fact that some of the possible actions perceived by a player in a game also are rooted in socio-cultural conventions and the player’s experience of having a body.

In this paper, we discuss a part of participatory culture that so far has not received much attention in the academic world; it is the writing and reading of game fan fiction. The focus in this paper is on fan fiction, based on three different games that represent three different game genres: Tetris, StarCraft and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The aim is to advance our understanding of how players experience and understand the game environment, and promote further research interest in fan fiction based on computer games. We do this by discussing narrative elements in the above mentioned computer games, and the fan fiction that is based on them.

Traditionally, cognition has been regarded as the outcome of internal cognitive processes manipulating mental representations. More recently, however, it has become clear that cognition cannot be separated from the social and material environment in which people live and act, and that in many cases cognition is distributed among individuals and environmental properties. One important aspect has turned out to be artefacts and their use, and there is growing interest in understanding how tool use affects cognition. However, even with this increased awareness of the role of artefacts, the focus has mainly been on the cognitive processes and representations of individuals, while the social role of artefacts has received less attention. An ethnographically inspired field study, observing a hospital’s children admission unit, was conducted to investigate the way individual and collaborative work are affected by the use of artefacts within a given social context. The results indicate that the use of artefacts is closely coupled to the social environment, that to some degree social interactions are transformed into more indirect, individual processes, and that artefacts are crucial for high-level processes such as memory and coordination.

Technology is a mobile and integral part of many work places, and computers and other information and communication technology have made many users' work life easier, but technology can also contribute to problems in the cognitive work environment and, over time, create technostress. Much previous research on technostress has focused on the use of digital technology and its effects, measured by questionnaires, but in order to further examine how technostress arises in the modern workplace, a wider perspective on interactions between people and technology is needed. This paper applies a distributed cognition perspective to human-technology interaction, investigated through an observational field study. Distributed cognition focuses on the organisation of cognitive systems, and technostress in this perspective becomes an emergent phenomenon within a complex and dynamic socio-technical system. A well-established questionnaire was also used (for a limited sample), to gain a frame of reference for the results from the qualitative part of the study. The implications are that common questionnaire-based approaches very well can and should be complemented with a broader perspective to study causes of technostress. Based on the present study, a redefinition of technostress is also proposed. © 2013 Springer-Verlag London.

Embodied cognition has received increasing interest, as seen in research on the many subjects ranging from sensorimotor processes to cultural aspects (e.g., Clark 2011; Gibbs 2005; Robbins & Aydede 2009/Eds.; Shapiro 2011). There is no one unified conception of the mind, but a general claim is that cognition is grounded in bodily experiences and is distributed across brain, body and environment (e.g., Clark 1997; 2011). Cognition is a complex phenomenon, and as stated by Gibbs (2005: 9), it is “what occurs when the body engages the physical, cultural world and [it] must be studied in terms of the dynamical interactions between people and the environment”. This chapter will discuss embodied interaction, coordination and reasoning in computer gameplay, and the construction of a cooperative two player computer game to accord with the embodied nature of cognition and action. The computer game discussed here, “The search for the gold reserve”, was developed specifically to be installed as an integral part of an adventure tour in a military fortress. The game was constructed so that players’ whole bodies would be engaged in the gameplay, thereby enhancing the gameplay experience. Playing the game is an “embodied practical activity” (O’Connor & Glenberg 2003) comprising a mesh of interrelations between the player’s own body, co-players, the players’ cognitions, game devices and the physical context of game play, virtual environment and socio-cultural aspects. […] The discussion will bring out sensori-motoric, contextual and socio-cultural aspects of embodiment, as embodiment concurrently cuts across the different aspects. Sensori-motoric aspects are mainly discussed in relation to the game’s input/output devices, and the intercoupling between players and the game. Contextual aspects are brought forth by the game environment and the game’s relation to the whole adventure tour, and socio-cultural aspects come to the fore through players cooperative problem solving.

Traditionally cognition has been regarded in terms of internal symbolic representations and computational processes, while the environment largely has been reduced to inputs and outputs. More recent situated cognition approaches emphasise the role of environmental resources in cognition, and today it is well known that artefacts affect, not only the individual, but also social interactions. Despite a growing emphasis on the role of artefacts we still have only a limited understanding of the ways artefacts are used and adapted to support cognitive capabilities. This paper presents initial steps in the development of a framework that can contribute to a more principled understanding of the role of artefacts in social interactions. This focus on artefacts is based on concepts from human-computer interaction and cognitive science: triggers, placeholders, and entry points. Triggers and placeholders concern the way environmental resources affect, and are used in, work processes. Entry points, on the other hand, concern the ways people adapt their environments, with a focus on the properties of artefacts. These concepts complement each other and provide a perspective that integrates agent, environment, activities, and temporal aspects. This part of the framework is illustrated by a case study conducted in a setting where artefacts take a central role in the ongoing work processes.

A number of different coordination concepts have been developed to explain how individual activities are coordinated on a social level, and the variety of concepts shows there is an interest in many domains to find such explanations. Stigmergy being one of them, has come to be increasingly applied on various kinds of human activities. In other domains we find other concepts for explaining how environmental resources contribute to work activities or how people use them to structure their work. This paper discusses different coordination concepts, including stigmergy, articulation work, coordination mechanisms, triggers, placeholders, and entry points. The first three concepts are explicitly concerned with coordination among several agents, while the last three instead concern individual activities, but arguably they can be extended to the social level. They also bring an explicitly cognitive dimension to coordination, which is not as salient in the former concepts. The concepts discussed here do have some similarities, but also important differences. They may not be interchangeable, but they could complement each other, or contribute to further elaboration of existing concepts. The stigmergic sign, e.g., could usefully be developed to recognise qualitative differences in its role as a coordination mechanism.

This paper focuses on how past knowledge of tools/artefacts affect their present use. The discussion is based on Wartofsky’s (1979) primary, secondary, and tertiary artefacts, and Engeström’s (1990) subsequent activity theoretical elaboration. While Engeström identifies two different kinds of internal (mental) secondary artefacts, this paper identifies an additional kind of tertiary artefact – ‘where-from’ artefact – that consists of experience based knowledge of the past. The conception of where-from, contributes to understanding, for instance, why people handle objects the way they do. This artefact, identified in a workplace study, also plays an important role in the process of learning through apprenticeship, since what novices are provided, in terms of instructions etc., partly depends on the more knowledgeable person’s past experiences.

This report discusses some issues concerning serious games, that is, (digital) games used for purposes other than mere entertainment. The starting point is the serious games concept itself, and what the actually means. Further, serious games allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world for reasons of safety, cost, time, etc., but they are also claimed to have positive impacts on the players’ development of a number of different skills. Subsequently, some possible positive (and negative) impacts of serious games are discussed. Further, some of the markets such games are used in are considered here, including, military games, government games, educational games, corporate games, and healthcare games. This report also identifies some (mainly academic) actors in the North American and the European serious games market. This report is part of the DISTRICT (Developing Industrial Strategies Through Innovative Cluster and Technologies) project: Serious Games Cluster and Business Network (SER3VG), which is part of the Interreg IIIC Programme.

The purpose of this paper is to promote sustainability as an important research topic within the computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) community. CSCL can play a crucial role in the achievement of sustainability, which is paramount for the well-being of current and future generations. While CSCL brings formal educational settings to mind, computers and cooperative learning should be considered in a wider perspective since learning also takes place in and through people’s everyday practices. This paper considers two on-going research projects outside mainstream CSCL research, to illustrate ways that technology can lead to changed practices for the benefit of increased environmental and social sustainability. The projects concern children’s online practices and social sustainability, and information and communication technology (ICT) and practices in sustainable agriculture, respectively.

In this paper we discuss how cognitive science may contribute to understanding the concepts of situatedness and situated play. While situatedness has become something of a catch-all term, it actually has several different meanings, ranging from “higher” social-cultural forms to “lower” sensori-motoric activities. We also discuss an often overlooked, but crucial aspect of situatedness, which is the use of external resources such as tools and their use. As willbecome apparent, a more thorough understanding of situatedness and tool use are key to understanding computer games and people’s everyday playing activities.

In this chapter we discuss games from an embodiment perspective and illustrate the importance of a particular category of embodied experience where perception, action, and socio-cultural context are closely interrelated. The embodied experiences we have in mind relate to young children’s learning, in particular to understanding the abstract concept of risk awareness. We are interested in how young people can grasp this concept through embodied experiences mediated by a computer game. Online risk is inherently abstract for young children and as such is difficult to grasp due to their level of cognitive maturity. Since the abstract concept is not grounded in experience, it needs to be made concrete through their own hands-on experience. The overarching purpose is to enable young children to make sound decisions when faced with uncomfortable or even threatening situations during online interactions. The experiences we discuss include both game experiences and what we term pre-experiences which may be remembered at a later point in time when faced with real-world events.

This paper describes the development and evaluation of the innovative computer game Hidden in the Park, for 8–10 year old children. It is a mixed media game that includes classic game elements and Augmented Reality technology. It is a non-profit game designed for a playful game experience. But, it is also a serious game intended to raise young childrens’ risk awareness in online interactions, to decrease the risk of becoming the subject of online sexual grooming. The game is intended to evoke thoughts and reflections related to players’ decisions and their consequences. Furthermore, the game is based on research on true online grooming processes, which provides the basis for some central game mechanics. Game evaluations were carried out with 70 children in school settings. The results show that the participants perceived the game as fun and engaging, but that it also raised questions and reactions, as intended. Hidden in the Park will be released during 2019 and it will be available for free download. 

This paper presents a game-based approach for raising young children's online risk awareness, to decrease the risk of becoming the subject of sexual grooming. Hidden in the Park is an adventure game, including a classic game board and a tablet with Augmented Reality-technology. The game mechanics are based on data from true grooming processes. The game's target group is children aged 8-10 years. This paper describes the game development, from a prototype to an approved release version that will be released as a non-profit product during 2019. We describe the creation of the game mechanics, the iterative development process, and game evaluation. 25 pupils in the target group participated, but the ages 7-12 (n=70) were included to evaluate whether the game would suit the intended target group. Results show that the game is fun and engaging but that it also raise questions concerning online activities.

This paper addresses the relation between an agent and its environment, and more specifically, how subjects perceive object/artefacts/tools and their (possible) use. Four different conceptions of the relation between subject and object are compared here: functional tone (von Uexküll), equipment (Heidegger), affordance (Gibson), and entry point (Kirsh). even as these concepts have developed within different disciplines (theoretical biology, philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science) and in very different historical contexts, they are used more or less interchangeably in much of the literature, and typically conflated under the label of ‘affordance’. However, at closer inspection, they turn out to have not only similarities, but also substantial differences, which are identified and discussed here. Given that the relation between subjects and their objects is crucial to understanding human cognition and interaction with tools and technology, as well as robots’ interaction with their environment, we argue that these differences deserve some more attention than they have received so far.

While online social networking sites and other digital media provide a means for positive online experiences, they are also being misused for offences like online sexual grooming. Attempts have been made to analyse and model online grooming in order to understand this kind of predator behaviour (e.g., O’Connell, 2004; Williams et al., 2013). This research, and the resulting models of the grooming process, is however, invariably based on material where adult decoys (e.g., researchers, law enforcement officers, adults trained to entrap offenders) pose as children in the interaction with potential offenders. We argue that such material, i.e., decoy-offender chat logs, does not reflect real grooming processes; Decoys have an underlying agenda to make prosecutable cases against offenders, which entails decoys resorting to manipulation tactics otherwise typical for offender behaviour. In all essence, this often leads to a dialogue with two adults using grooming tactics on each other, and the resulting models do not capture the patterns of child-offender dialogues.

Contrary to previous research, we have analysed real-world child-offender chat logs from closed forums. Our data set, selected dialogues (ca. 500 pages) from a corpus of ca. 12 000 A4-pages was thematically analysed and categorised using NVivo 10 software. The coding was done by both authors for inter-rater reliability. Where coding differed, the authors explored the categorisation until agreement was reached (cf., Whittle et al., 2013). The material was also compared to decoy-offender chat logs (ca. 100 pages, publically available on perverted-justice.com).

The analysis of the different data sets reveal quite different pictures of the grooming process. While previous models describe the grooming process as sequential (O’Connell, 2004) or thematic (Williams et al., 2013), our findings suggest a far more complex behavioural pattern – significantly diverse dialogue patterns with different tactics emerge, depending on whether the respondent is a decoy or a child, and their respective responses. The (preliminary) results show differences in both dialogue and process structure. Dialogues with decoys commonly show what can best be described as “artificial compliance”, presumably due to their underlying agenda of generating prosecutable cases. Furthermore, decoys tease out personal information from the offenders, and also share “personal” information about themselves, even when not asked for it.

Child-offender dialogues instead show patterns of reluctance or objections to offender requests for personal information, suggestions of sexual nature, etc. Another offender tactic is threats to obtain compliance, which was not found in any of the analysed decoy-offender dialogues. Other deviations include differences in dialogue length, number of dialogue turns, and complexity, with regard to changes in topics and offender tactics. Further research is necessary for a more thorough understanding of online grooming, and new models are needed that reflect real-world grooming processes. This includes offender behaviours, reasoning, decisions, and tactics used in grooming. Further, such knowledge is of outmost importance for risk awareness measures for young people so they can better cope with online challenges and risks, and make sensible judgements and decisions in online interactions.

Developing children's games that concern sensitive subjects such as online sexual grooming obviously poses a number of challenges. Such challenges include, for instance, the sensitivity of the topic itself, the ethics surrounding the subject matter, and the need to bypass inappropriate language while also creating a game that children will want to play. This paper describes a computer game development project in which a game for 8-10-year-old children was created with the purpose to raise young peoples' risk awareness in online interactions such as multi-user gaming and social networking. The game's mechanics are based on our extensive studies of naturalistic online dialogues derived from closed-forum dialogues between children and later-convicted perpetrators. The perpetrators' tactics and strategies were transferred into game events but in a non-sexual and non-violent format. The game, Hidden in the Zoo, combines a classic board game, a computer game, and augmented reality technology. The traditional game board can be viewed on a tablet that transfers the basic picture on the board into an exciting 3D world. The game's setting is a zoo. To play, each player hides a treasure and is then given a set of clues to the location of the player's own hiding place. The players need to be mindful of the clues to the hiding place so that other players cannot find their treasure. Beyond this basic game premise, the game also contains messages, similar to online chats or text messages, through which players can choose whether or not to reveal a clue, bearing in mind that revealing a clue may or may not be a good idea in the long run. The game is now a fully playable prototype, and initial results show that the game serves as a tool for generating discussions about possible actions and consequences within the game but also in real life. Hence, the game provides a means to empower young children through raised risk awareness.

This paper describes the use of the WOz method in the development of a prototype for a multi-player mixed reality game for children. It is an adventure game with hidden treasures, clues to hiding places, and information that should not be revealed. The game design, however, includes deceptive elements aimed at luring players to give up information. The game’s underlying intent is to raise children’s online risk awareness. The WOz was used in the early developmental stage to evaluate and explore the game concept, and to find a way to synchronise and integrate different in-game processes. We describe four central game mechanics for which the wizarding proved to be highly useful. We also discuss some ethical aspects related to the method a such as well as to the game design. In sum, we found the WOz method as such to be very useful for game design and development.

Swedish municipalities are stimulated to conduct emergency management exercises in addition to developing crisis plans. These exercises tend to be grounded in an instrumental philosophy. There is too much focus on doing the exercise and too little attention for the implementation of lessons learned afterwards. A common experience is that the same 'mistakes' are discovered again and again in yearly exercises. Furthermore there is a paradoxical balance between empowering the organization in its learning process (positive feedback) and revealing the failures (negative feedback). In this paper we reflect on the learning process in a Swedish municipality in 2006 where two emergency management exercises were held and where a minor and a major crisis occured during the year. We argue that the longitudinal learning process should be the focus in stead of ad hoc exercises. In addition we develop some requirements for emergency management training from a 'passion for failures' perspective.

While much of the games research field for the last two decades has focused on digital games, this article draws attention to the benefits of combining analogue and digital game components to cater for a serious but fun game experience. In this case, the game design provides a set of game rules for players, where the goal is to win by finding another player’s hidden treasure. But, the game also includes deceptive characters, initially unknown to the players, whose goal is to lure the players to reveal information, which will make a player lose the game. Hence, the players and the unknown characters are involved in opposite but intertwined activities. To describe the differing activities we use the activity system model foundin Activity Theory. The theoretical conceptualisation, the game design and the play situation create what we term a zone of experience where young players can experience the consequences of sharing too much information. The game design mimics real world online interactions, but under safe off-line conditions. The zone of experience also creates the foundation for an ensuing activity that fits well within the concept of the zone of proximal development: A follow-up conversation under adult guidance of game experiences aimed at raising children’s online risk awareness.

This paper describes the development of a computer game for enhanced visitor experiences of an adventure tour, in which the game is integrated. The game project was run 2011-2013 and included the development of an arcade style two player cooperative computer game, game controls, graphics, sound and music. The adventure tour takes place in an old military fortress where visitors participate in searching for gold that has been stolen. The tour starts with a 3D movie that provides the plot and introduces hero and villain characters. The story is then carried forth by a game master who brings the visitors on a tour along the fortress’ vaults, during which they also play the computer game. The adventure tour is structured by a semi-fictional framing story that interweaves history, physical environment, and hero and villain characters. To withhold interdependency in the overall design of the adventure tour and the game, Caillois’s (1958/2001) taxonomy for games was chosen as a basis, combined with narrative key elements carried across the adventure tour. The game was also designed to accord with the embodied nature of human activity, allowing players to engage their whole bodies in the gameplay. Initial game evaluation results indicate the game contributes to an enhanced visitor experience of the adventure tour.

Many researchers in embodied cognitive science and artificial intelligence, and evolutionary robotics in particular, emphasize the interaction of brain, body and environment as crucial to the emergence of intelligent, adaptive behaviour. Accordingly, the interaction between agent and environment, as well as the co-adaptation of artificial brains and bodies, has been the focus of much research in evolutionary robotics. Hence, there are plenty of studies of robotic agents/species adapting to a given environment. Many animals, on the other hand, in particular humans, to some extent can choose to adapt the environment to their own needs instead of adapting (only) themselves. That alternative has been studied relatively little in robot experiments. This paper, therefore, presents some simple initial simulation experiments, in a delayed response task setting, that illustrate how the evolution of environment adaptation can serve to provide cognitive scaffolding that reduces the requirements for individual agents. Furthermore, theoretical implications, open questions and future research directions for evolutionary robotics are discussed.