Games in cultural evolution a theoretical exercise and ...
Transcript of Games in cultural evolution a theoretical exercise and ...
games cognition
29 MAJ 2012
Games in cultural evolution
-a theoretical exercise and discourse analysis
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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MINDlab @ CENTRE OF FUNCTIONALLY INTEGRATIVE NEUROSCIENCE
AARHUS UNIVERSITY
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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› Applied games
› Memory models
› Attraction and engagement
Co-founder:
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
”Kingdom’s Survival”
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
”The Chosen”
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
On my mind today…
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- The parasite-idea
- Games in cultural evolution
- The evo-discourse on games
-The future of games as
psychological laboratories
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
The paraside idea
› Emerging from one or more ”proper domains” › Often posited as universal and evolved
› Effectively transmitted and/or frequently emerging in cultural evolution › Immediate adaptivity insufficient to explain transmission
› May achieve more stable optimum forms in mind or practice
› Can be(come) adaptive
› Individual fitness
› Cultural evolution
› Biological evolution 6
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
The host-parasite relationship
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Why games? Why now?
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Casual gaming
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Applied games and gamification
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
› Addiction
› Violence
› Priorities
› Cognitive changes
› Moral/religious decrees - vestiges of gambling-fear
The menace-discourse
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Games as near-universal › 1959 Database survey*: 82/100 cultures › Games of chance › Games of physical skill › Strategy games
› Race games
› War games
› Games of position
› Mancala games
› Calculation games
› #borderline cases like combat-sports, lawn games, riddling, divination, guessing games, varieties of children’s play etc. *Cross-cultural survey files, exctract in Roberts et al., 1959
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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Ashtapada (race game with
dice), India, 200 AD
Shaturanga
(chesslike 4-player
wargame with dice)
India, 400 AD
Senet (race game – oldest
archaological find),
Egypt, 3500 BC,
Mehen Egypt, 3000 BC,
Figurative chess pieces (walrus tusk, popular exports)
Scandinavia 12-13th Century AD
Royal Game of Ur Mesopotamia,
2560 BC
Shatranj (predecessor to chess –
v. Sanskrit Shaturanga)
Persia, 600 AD
Dice?, Backgammon Burnt City, Iran, 3000 BC
Pachisi (ludolike race game
In Mahabharatha epic),
India, 500 BC
Go Mentioned in Zhouhan
China, 400 BC
Liubo China, 400 BC
Tablut (Lapp Tafl-variant, discovered in
1732 by Swedish travellers. Likely
a chess-family off-shoot)
Burmese chess
Siamese chess
Sho-gi Quite changed
Chinese chess
Mancala 6-700 AD,
often claimed to be
much older
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
A cultural evolution view?
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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…
… (1912, 42)
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Proper domain 1: Play
› Neural correlates well known – even in decorticated rats!
› Levels of advancement in rodents
› Fairness and turn-taking
› Deprivation has multiple decremental effects
› Immediate and deleyed benefits › training,
› Emotional fine-tuning
› social assessment/manipulations
› Behavior for its own sake
› Development through life (e.g. G. H. Mead)
› Development through culture (e.g. E. B. Tylor, J. Huizinga)
› Benefit and curse in # cultural incarnations 17
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Proper domain 2: Motivated activity 2 dimensions of collative variables in (western) games
› Competence [PROCESS] intrinsic motivation
› Autonomy [CONTENT] [FRAMING] immersion › Relatedness [VEHICLE] [FEEDBACK] etc. sustained
engagement 18
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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The past-midway-conclusion: Games and religion have some culturally adaptive elements in common Religion is more puzzling, if games are intrinsically motivating and pleasant, and easily map on to evolved play behaviors.
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
The evo-discourse in games
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
The ”multiple yummy causes” evolution-discourse in games
› ”We are playing with powerful forces here – some of the oldest and most primal
circuitry in our brains. We have a responsibility to consider what behaviors we’re
encouraging, who benefits if we’re succesful and what’s at stake if our games
create adverse results.” (2011)
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› Why targets work…
Targets seem to activate a primal desire within us … The presence of anything that stands out is enough to trigger that impulse … Concentration and commitment to an objective are quite beneficial traits for a hunter gatherer. … A sales targent isn’t a buffalo, but it puts food on the table. (2011: 114)
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Why xxx works… (Dignan 2011)
› Competition: ”survival of the fittest” ”any chance to prove ourselves as skilled should be taken”
› Chance: ”Our learning circuitry…”
› Time pressure: neurotransmitters (the science isn’t clear cut)
› Scarcity ”as hunter gatherers we innately understand the value of building up a collection”
› Novelty: ”our brains prioritize and reward novelty” (monism/homunculus)
› Social pressure: ”survival is more likely” ”brain has evolved to interact”
› Currency: ”In a culture of specialized trades a system of exchange becomes a requirement”
› Renewal (e.g. lives): ”A basic principle of life”
› Data ”our natural learning mechanism…”
› Progress ”[in evo] it’s advantageous to be addicted to progress - we never rest on our laurels.”
› Points: ”have a magical effect on the brain”
› Sensation ”arouse our brains – releasing adrenaline and other neurotransmitters”
› Recognition ”our brains release dopamine and endorphins, signalling reward”
› Status: ”Part of our wiring as tribal animals…”
(Puzzles, Levels, Teamwork, Forced decisions other arguments fitting Dignan’s model)
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
an example:
evolved for
the movies?
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Finishing up…
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
The new scientifically correct consumer-culture
› The supremacy of the body
› Master and slave to your brain
› ”You are your brain”
› Consuming neuroculture › Psychopharma
› Self-help
› Brain-training
› Get your SPECT horoscope here!
› User-friendly EEG
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Games as psychological and cultural laboratories
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Memes today…
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
[YOUR THOUGHTS HERE]
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
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Does the parasite argument work convincingly outside critical anti-fuctionalist discourse? easy argument for anything? good argument for universal cultural complexes in general? Better for games than the ”multiple-yummy-cause” evolutionary discourse?
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Critically applied neuroscience
› We’re still learning about the brain – the ”third brain”
› A lot of myths are going around
› There’s good work to be done and stories to be told
› If we don’t, somebody else will!
[A critical discipline has] additional entailments and layers of meaning as well. It
involves a relational, historical worldview and metaphysics that questions a number
of common sense understandings. [It envisions research as]a long struggle to
illuminate [its area], challenge commonplace theories and their political
implications, and change theoretical practice in the preocess” (Lave 2011: 10)
› The ”hybrid”-stance
› Information both ways
› Looking for answers and questions in both the labs and
practice-arenas
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Foregone conclusions If the parasite argument for games… 1.) …doesn’t work Routes of critique of CSR
Unique features of religon
2.) …works convincingly easy argument for anything
good argument for universal cultural complexes in general
3.) Too many differeneces in the domains?
4.) Discoursive processes at play as well
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Magic gordian knots for fun and profit…?
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Anecdotal overlaps
› Cheater detection / rules (and chance)
as priviledged cog. domain
› Difficult to see clear dividing line
games/play superstition/religion
› May be adaptive, but did not come into
existence/take hold for that reason(?)
› Can be exploited, but seems to appear
and self-configure almost by itself
› Memory, death, supernatural, etc. Very
differnet
› Activity-memes – very contagious with
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Memes today…
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
› Rammesætte (frame) folks forventninger, etablere et (delt) fokus
› Strukturere folks handlinger, oplevelser, og informationstilgang
› Motivere fremdrift med valg, udfordringer, målstreger, overraskelser, mm.
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› Praksis: Systermer af aktivitet i menneskers
arbejde, livsverden og udviking - f.eks. social
udveksling, konflikt, læring, møder, med-
skabelse, leg, etc…
Derfor: Den praksis/aktivitet man adresserer, er nødt til at
informere eller passe til spildesignet
Hvad jeg synes spil gør godt…
APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Så hvordan passer spil ind i bevægelse?
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Sensorer kvantificerer biologi og adfærd
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Motivation: Self-determination theory Player Experience Need Satisfaction (PENS)
› Competence
› Autonomy
› Relatedness
› Belønninger = feedback
› Vedholdenhed øget CAR
Intrinsic motivation
Sustained engagement
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Find balancen
› Og tænk det ind i folks liv, når der er tale om casual games!
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Game-design or packaging?
Exogenous game-content Endogenous game-content
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APPLIED GAMES
Frames, structure, motivation
ANDREAS LIEBEROTH
DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
Kan indfange nogle borderline cases
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frequent
flyer miles
Freedom fighter
(LA, 2011)
Traffic
Conway’s
game of life
some open
ended sims
leaderboards