Embodied Robot Models for Interdisciplinary Emotion Research

Due to their complex nature, emotions cannot be properly understood from the perspective of a single discipline. In this paper, I discuss how the use of robots as models is beneficial for interdisciplinary emotion research. Addressing this issue through the lens of my own research, I focus on a critical analysis of embodied robots models of different aspects of emotion, relate them to theories in psychology and neuroscience, and provide representative examples. I discuss concrete ways in which embodied robot models can be used to carry out interdisciplinary emotion research, assessing their contributions: as hypothetical models, and as operational models of specific emotional phenomena, of general emotion principles, and of specific emotion ``dimensions''. I conclude by discussing the advantages of using embodied robot models over other models.Peer reviewe

In good company? : Perception of movement synchrony of a non-anthropomorphic robot

Copyright: © 2015 Lehmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Recent technological developments like cheap sensors and the decreasing costs of computational power have brought the possibility of robotic home companions within reach. In order to be accepted it is vital for these robots to be able to participate meaningfully in social interactions with their users and to make them feel comfortable during these interactions. In this study we investigated how people respond to a situation where a companion robot is watching its user. Specifically, we tested the effect of robotic behaviours that are synchronised with the actions of a human. We evaluated the effects of these behaviours on the robot’s likeability and perceived intelligence using an online video survey. The robot used was Care-O-bot®3, a non-anthropomorphic robot with a limited range of expressive motions. We found that even minimal, positively synchronised movements during an object-oriented task were interpreted by participants as engagement and created a positive disposition towards the robot. However, even negatively synchronised movements of the robot led to more positive perceptions of the robot, as compared to a robot that does not move at all. The results emphasise a) the powerful role that robot movements in general can have on participants’ perception of the robot, and b) that synchronisation of body movements can be a powerful means to enhance the positive attitude towards a non-anthropomorphic robot.Peer reviewe

Когнитивни процеси, емоции и интелигентни интерфејси

Студијата презентира истражувања од повеќе научни дисциплини, како вештачка интелигенција, невронауки, психологија, лингвистика и филозофија, кои имаат потенцијал за креирање на интелигентни антропоморфни агенти и интерактивни технологии. Се разгледуваат системите од симболичка и конекционистичка вештачка интелигенција за моделирање на човековите когнитивни процеси, мислење, донесување одлуки, меморија и учење. Се анализираат моделите во вештачка интелигенција и роботика кои користат емоции како механизам за контрола на остварување на целите на роботот, како реакција на одредени ситуации, за одржување на процесот на социјална интеракција и за создавање на поуверливи антропормфни агенти. Презентираните интердисциплинарни методологии и концепти се мотивација за создавање на анимирани агенти кои користат говор, гестови, интонација и други невербални модалитети при конверзација со корисниците во интелигентните интерфејси

A survey of parental self-efficacy experiences: maximising potential through health visiting and universal parenting support

Aims: To examine parental self-efficacy experiences for users of a parenting support programme and consider the pertinence of self-efficacy theory to health visiting (public health nursing) practice. Background: Commonly, successful parenting training programmes are underpinned by social learning principles and aim to strengthen parental self-efficacy. However, research examining programme effectiveness rarely discusses how self-efficacy outcomes are achieved. Design: A descriptive survey was completed as the first part of a realistic evaluation study examining how a UK parenting support programme worked. Method: The first part of the realistic evaluation involved validating outcome measures (the Parenting Self-Agency Measure and Self-Efficacy for Parenting Tasks Index subscales) and administering a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was completed by adults accessing a parenting support programme during a 10-month period (n = 168). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. Women were the main users of the programme, which included informal drop-in groups as well as more formalised health visiting services and parenting training courses. The Parenting Self-Agency Measure results indicated good general parental self-efficacy; however, the task-specific Self-Efficacy for Parenting Tasks Indexes scales suggested that parents were less self-efficacious in disciplining children. Lower self-efficacy scores correlated with high ratings for ‘feeling tired’, ‘receiving negative comments’ and ‘giving-in to a child’s demands’. Conclusions: Study results indicate that the domain general and task-specific measures provide different, but helpful, insights into parental self-efficacy experiences. By identifying factors associated with the levels of general and task-specific parental self-efficacy, health visitors can gain a fuller appreciation of support needs. Relevance to practice: To maximise potential through parenting support, attention should be given to addressing factors associated with poorer self-efficacy experiences, including parental tiredness. Equally, practice should be directed at developing community environments that offer exposure to positive praise and the opportunity to practice new skills without facing criticism

A novel integrating virtual reality approach for the assessment of the attachment behavioral system

[EN] Virtual reality (VR) technology represent a novel and powerful tool for behavioural research in psychological assessment. Virtual reality provides simulated experiences able to create the sensation of undergoing real situations. Users become active participants in the virtual environment seeing, hearing, feeling, and actuating as if they were in the real world. Currently, the most psychological VR applications concern the treatment of various mental disorders but not the assessment, that it is mainly based on paper and pencil tests. The observation of behaviors is costly, labor-intensive, and it is hard to create social situations in laboratory settings, even if the observation of actual behaviors could be particularly informative. In this framework, social stressful experiences can activate various behaviours of attachment for a significant person that can help to control and soothe them to promote individual s well-being. Social support seeking, physical proximity, and positive and negative behaviors represent the main attachment behaviors that people can carry out during experiences of distress. We proposed virtual reality as a novel integrating approach to measure real attachment behaviours. The first studies on attachment behavioural system by VR showed the potentiality of this approach. To improve the assessment during the VR experience, we proposed virtual stealth assessment (VSA) as a new method. VSA could represents a valid and novel technique to measure various psychological attributes in real-time during the virtual experience. The possible use of this method in psychology could be to generate a more complete, exhaustive, and accurate individual s psychological evaluation.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness funded project "Advanced Therapeutically Tools for Mental Health" (DPI2016-77396-R).Chicchi-Giglioli, IA.; Pravettoni, G.; Sutil Martin, DL.; Parra Vargas, E.; Alcañiz Raya, ML. (2017). A novel integrating virtual reality approach for the assessment of the attachment behavioral system. Frontiers in Psychology. 8(959). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00959S8959Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1978). The Bowlby-Ainsworth attachment theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1(3), 436-438. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00075828Andersen, S. M., & Thorpe, J. S. (2009). An IF–THEN theory of personality: Significant others and the relational self. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(2), 163-170. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.12.040Bailenson, J. N., Yee, N., Merget, D., & Schroeder, R. (2006). The Effect of Behavioral Realism and Form Realism of Real-Time Avatar Faces on Verbal Disclosure, Nonverbal Disclosure, Emotion Recognition, and Copresence in Dyadic Interaction. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15(4), 359-372. doi:10.1162/pres.15.4.359Baños, R. M., Liaño, V., Botella, C., Alcañiz, M., Guerrero, B., & Rey, B. (2006). Changing Induced Moods Via Virtual Reality. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 7-15. doi:10.1007/11755494_3Beebe, B., Lachmann, F., & Jaffe, J. (1997). Mother—infant interaction structures and presymbolic self‐ and object representations. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 7(2), 133-182. doi:10.1080/10481889709539172Beebe, B., & Lachmann, F. M. (1994). Representation and internalization in infancy: Three principles of salience. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 11(2), 127-165. doi:10.1037/h0079530Biocca, F. (2006). The Cyborg’s Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments [1]. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2), 0-0. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00070.xBohil, C. J., Alicea, B., & Biocca, F. A. (2011). Virtual reality in neuroscience research and therapy. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 12(12), 752-762. doi:10.1038/nrn3122Borrego, A., Latorre, J., Llorens, R., Alcañiz, M., & Noé, E. (2016). Feasibility of a walking virtual reality system for rehabilitation: objective and subjective parameters. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 13(1). doi:10.1186/s12984-016-0174-1Boyd, C. (1997). Does immersion make a virtual environment more usable? CHI ’97 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems looking to the future - CHI ’97. doi:10.1145/1120212.1120416Cárdenas-López, G., & Rosa-Gómez, A. D. la. (2011). Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment with virtual reality exposure for criminal violence: a case study in assault with violence. International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 10(4). doi:10.1515/ijdhd.2011.061Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion Regulation: Influences of Attachment Relationships. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2/3), 228. doi:10.2307/1166148Overall, N. C., Simpson, J. A., & Struthers, H. (2013). Buffering attachment-related avoidance: Softening emotional and behavioral defenses during conflict discussions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(5), 854-871. doi:10.1037/a0031798Collins, N. L., Ford, M. B., Guichard, A. C., & Allard, L. M. (2006). Working Models of Attachment and Attribution Processes in Intimate Relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(2), 201-219. doi:10.1177/0146167205280907Cummings, J. J., & Bailenson, J. N. (2015). How Immersive Is Enough? A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Immersive Technology on User Presence. Media Psychology, 19(2), 272-309. doi:10.1080/15213269.2015.1015740Dakanalis, A., Gaudio, S., Serino, S., Clerici, M., Carrà, G., & Riva, G. (2016). Body-image distortion in anorexia nervosa. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 2(1). doi:10.1038/nrdp.2016.26Fusaro, M., Tieri, G., & Aglioti, S. M. (2016). Seeing pain and pleasure on self and others: behavioral and psychophysiological reactivity in immersive virtual reality. Journal of Neurophysiology, 116(6), 2656-2662. doi:10.1152/jn.00489.2016Gorini, A., Griez, E., Petrova, A., & Riva, G. (2010). Assessment of the emotional responses produced by exposure to real food, virtual food and photographs of food in patients affected by eating disorders. Annals of General Psychiatry, 9(1). doi:10.1186/1744-859x-9-30Gunnar, M. R., Brodersen, L., Nachmias, M., Buss, K., & Rigatuso, J. (1996). Stress reactivity and attachment security. Developmental Psychobiology, 29(3), 191-204. doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199604)29:33.0.co;2-mHamilton, C. E. (2000). Continuity and Discontinuity of Attachment from Infancy through Adolescence. Child Development, 71(3), 690-694. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00177Heeter, C. (2000). Interactivity in the Context of Designed Experiences. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 1(1), 3-14. doi:10.1080/15252019.2000.10722040Kane, H. S., McCall, C., Collins, N. L., & Blascovich, J. (2012). Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 37-44. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.001Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (2006). At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2), 0-0. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00072.xLoomis, J. M., Blascovich, J. J., & Beall, A. C. (1999). Immersive virtual environment technology as a basic research tool in psychology. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31(4), 557-564. doi:10.3758/bf03200735Main, M. (1990). Cross-Cultural Studies of Attachment Organization: Recent Studies, Changing Methodologies, and the Concept of Conditional Strategies. Human Development, 33(1), 48-61. doi:10.1159/000276502Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1/2), 66. doi:10.2307/3333827Maunder, R. G., Lancee, W. J., Hunter, J. J., Greenberg, G. R., & Steinhart, H. A. (2005). Attachment Insecurity Moderates the Relationship Between Disease Activity and Depressive Symptoms in Ulcerative Colitis. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 11(10), 919-926. doi:10.1097/01.mib.0000179468.78876.2dMaunder, R. G., Lancee, W. J., Nolan, R. P., Hunter, J. J., & Tannenbaum, D. W. (2006). The relationship of attachment insecurity to subjective stress and autonomic function during standardized acute stress in healthy adults. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60(3), 283-290. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.08.013Meyerbröker, K., & Emmelkamp, P. M. G. (2010). Virtual reality exposure therapy in anxiety disorders: a systematic review of process-and-outcome studies. Depression and Anxiety, 27(10), 933-944. doi:10.1002/da.20734Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2005). Attachment theory and emotions in close relationships: Exploring the attachment-related dynamics of emotional reactions to relational events. Personal Relationships, 12(2), 149-168. doi:10.1111/j.1350-4126.2005.00108.xMikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Pereg, D. (2003). Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 77-102. doi:10.1023/a:1024515519160Parsons, T. D. (2015). Virtual Reality for Enhanced Ecological Validity and Experimental Control in the Clinical, Affective and Social Neurosciences. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00660Persky, S., & Blascovich, J. (2008). Immersive Virtual Video Game Play and Presence: Influences on Aggressive Feelings and Behavior. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 17(1), 57-72. doi:10.1162/pres.17.1.57Ravitz, P., Maunder, R., Hunter, J., Sthankiya, B., & Lancee, W. (2010). Adult attachment measures: A 25-year review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69(4), 419-432. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.08.006Riva, G., Bacchetta, M., Baruffi, M., & Molinari, E. (2001). Virtual Reality–Based Multidimensional Therapy for the Treatment of Body Image Disturbances in Obesity: A Controlled Study. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 4(4), 511-526. doi:10.1089/109493101750527079Riva, G., Gutiérrez-Maldonado, J., & Wiederhold, B. K. (2016). Virtual Worlds versus Real Body: Virtual Reality Meets Eating and Weight Disorders. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(2), 63-66. doi:10.1089/cyber.2016.29025.griRothbaum, B. O., Hodges, L. F., Ready, D., Graap, K., & Alarcon, R. D. (2001). Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Vietnam Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62(8), 617-622. doi:10.4088/jcp.v62n0808Sanchez-Vives, M. V., & Slater, M. (2005). From presence to consciousness through virtual reality. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(4), 332-339. doi:10.1038/nrn1651Sandstrom, N. J., Kaufman, J., & A. Huettel, S. (1998). Males and females use different distal cues in a virtual environment navigation task. Cognitive Brain Research, 6(4), 351-360. doi:10.1016/s0926-6410(98)00002-0Saribay, S. A., & Andersen, S. M. (2007). Are Past Relationships at the Heart of Attachment Dynamics? What Love Has to Do With It. Psychological Inquiry, 18(3), 183-191. doi:10.1080/10478400701512786Schmidt, S., Nachtigall, C., Wuethrich-Martone, O., & Strauss, B. (2002). Attachment and coping with chronic disease. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53(3), 763-773. doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(02)00335-5Schmidt, S., Petersen, C., & Bullinger, M. (2003). Coping with chronic disease from the perspective of children and adolescents - a conceptual framework and its implications for participation. Child: Care, Health and Development, 29(1), 63-75. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2214.2003.00309.xSchönbrodt, F. D., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2011). Virtual social environments as a tool for psychological assessment: Dynamics of interaction with a virtual spouse. Psychological Assessment, 23(1), 7-17. doi:10.1037/a0021049Schönbrodt, F. D., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2012). Attachment Dynamics in a Virtual World. Journal of Personality, 80(2), 429-463. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00736.xCardona, J. F., Kargieman, L., Sinay, V., Gershanik, O., Gelormini, C., Amoruso, L., … Ibáñez, A. (2014). How embodied is action language? Neurological evidence from motor diseases. Cognition, 131(2), 311-322. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.02.001Shute, V. J. (2009). Simply Assessment. International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(2), 1-11. doi:10.1162/ijlm.2009.0014Shute, V. J., & Ke, F. (2012). Games, Learning, and Assessment. Assessment in Game-Based Learning, 43-58. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3546-4_4Shute, V. J., Ventura, M., & Kim, Y. J. (2013). Assessment and Learning of Qualitative Physics in Newton’s Playground. The Journal of Educational Research, 106(6), 423-430. doi:10.1080/00220671.2013.832970Skalski, P., & Tamborini, R. (2007). The Role of Social Presence in Interactive Agent-Based Persuasion. Media Psychology, 10(3), 385-413. doi:10.1080/15213260701533102Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3549-3557. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0138Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment & Human Development, 7(4), 349-367. doi:10.1080/14616730500365928Sundar, S. S., Xu, Q., & Bellur, S. (2010). Designing interactivity in media interfaces. Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ’10. doi:10.1145/1753326.1753666Symons, D. K., Adams, S., & Smith, K. H. (2016). Adult attachment style and caregiver attitudes after raising a virtual child. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33(8), 1054-1069. doi:10.1177/0265407515616710Tarr, M. J., & Warren, W. H. (2002). Virtual reality in behavioral neuroscience and beyond. Nature Neuroscience, 5(S11), 1089-1092. doi:10.1038/nn948Tronick, E. Z., & Gianino, A. F. (1986). The transmission of maternal disturbance to the infant. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1986(34), 5-11. doi:10.1002/cd.23219863403Waters, E., Weinfield, N. S., & Hamilton, C. E. (2000). The Stability of Attachment Security from Infancy to Adolescence and Early Adulthood: General Discussion. Child Development, 71(3), 703-706. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00179Weinfield, N. S., Whaley, G. J., & Egeland, B. (2004). Continuity, discontinuity, and coherence in attachment from infancy to late adolescence: Sequelae of organization and disorganization. Attachment & Human Development, 6(1), 73-97. doi:10.1080/14616730310001659566Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625-636. doi:10.3758/bf03196322Wrzesien, M., Alcañiz, M., Botella, C., Burkhardt, J.-M., Lopez, J. B., & Ortega, A. R. (2014). A Pilot Evaluation of a Therapeutic Game Applied to Small Animal Phobia Treatment. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10-20. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11623-5_2Yee, N., & Bailenson, J. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior. Human Communication Research, 33(3), 271-290. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00299.

The Effect of Emotional Landmarks on Navigation

Navigation is an essential activity that dictates which environments individuals choose to travel through. Effective navigation occurs when individuals reach their destination point efficiently and without harm. Previous research dictates that landmarks are one of the most popular ways in which individuals maintain orientation and remember a route. The goal of the current study was to investigate how emotional landmarks (landmarks that hold either a positive or negative connotation) effect navigational decision-making. Based on individuals’ tendencies to choose low risk options, it was hypothesized that participants would use the positive landmarks more effectively (i.e. participants would travel in the direction of the positive landmarks, allowing them to reach the destination point faster). Sixty participants completed a virtual reality maze. Throughout the maze were either positively or negatively rated pictures. Each participant completed four trials of the same maze, and had a minute and a half to find the destination point during each trial. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and a Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) afterwards. Contrary to my hypothesis, neither females nor males utilized positive landmarks more effectively and efficiently in the virtual reality environment. Instead, females preferred negative landmarks, and performed better in the virtual reality maze when exposed to these landmarks

Emotional Dimorphism in Pedagogy: Assessing Gender Response to Active Methodologies

This study investigated the interplay between gender, emotions, and active methodologies in education. It was found that women had a higher average of affective responses before activities (2.874 compared to 2.607 in men). Subsequently, men experienced an increase in their affect average, while it remained stable for women. The analysis showed an increase in positive emotions such as "Interested" and "Excited" across both genders. The Wilcoxon tests indicated significant differences in specific emotions before and after the activities. The Mann-Whitney Test revealed significant gender differences in emotional responses. The hypothesis analysis demonstrated notable gender-based differences in affective changes, particularly more pronounced in women. This underscores the importance of considering gender-specific emotional differences in teaching. From a pedagogical perspective, the findings highlight the necessity of tailoring teaching to these emotional differences and emphasize the effectiveness of active methodologies and critical pedagogy in enhancing engagement and participation. Educator training in gender emotional differences is crucial, along with ongoing reflection on teaching practices to effectively meet students' emotional needs and prioritize their emotional well-being and mental health

Quality, Quantity and Type of Child Care : Effects on Child Development in the USA

ABC transport systems account for most import of necessary nutrients in bacteria. The periplasmic binding component (or an equivalent membrane-anchored protein) is critical to recognizing the cognate ligand and directing it to the appropriate membrane permease. Here we report X-ray structures of D-xylose-binding protein from Escherichia coli in ligand-free open, ligand-bound open and ligand-bound closed forms, at 2.15, 2.2, and 2.2-Å resolution, respectively. The ligand-bound open form is the first such structure to be reported at high resolution; the combination of the three different forms from the same protein furthermore gives unprecedented detail concerning the conformational changes involved in binding protein function. As is typical for the structural family, the protein has two similar globular domains, which are connected by a three-stranded hinge region. The open liganded structure shows that xylose binds first to the C-terminal domain, with only very small conformational changes resulting. After a 34° closing motion, additional interactions are formed with the N-terminal domain; changes in this domain are larger, and serve to make the structure more ordered near the ligand. An analysis of the interactions suggests why xylose is the preferred ligand. Further, a comparison with the most closely related proteins in the structural family shows that the conformational changes are distinct in each type of binding protein, which may have implications for how the individual proteins act in concert with their respective membrane permeases

Landscapes of Affective Interaction: Young Children's Enactive Engagement with Body Metaphors

Empirical research into embodied meaning making suggests specific sensorimotor experiences can support children’s understanding of abstract science ideas. This view is aligned with enactive and grounded cognition perspectives, both centred in the view that our ability to conceptualise emerges from our experiences of interaction with our environment. While much of this research has focused on understanding action and action processes in individual children or children in pairs, less attention has been paid to affective dimensions of young children’s group interaction, and how this relates to meaning making with body metaphors. Indeed, Gallagher describes how no action exists in a vacuum, but rather revolves around a complex web of affective-pragmatic features comprising a ‘Landscape of Interaction’ (2020, p.42). This research project addresses gaps in research in understanding young children’s affective engagement from an enactivist cognition perspective. It takes a Design-Based Research approach with an iterative design orientation to examine young children’s interaction with multisensory body-based metaphors through an embodied participation framework. A series of empirical studies with young children, aged 2-7 years, comprising of experiential workshops, build iteratively upon each other. A novel theoretically informed method, Affective Imagination in Motion, is developed involving several purpose-built multisensory body metaphors prompts to enable access to dimensions of young children’s affective engagement. This research makes theoretical and methodological contributions. It extends the theoretical notion of ‘affect’ from enactive and grounded cognition perspectives through identifying key interactive processes in young children’s engagement with multisensory action metaphors. In addition, the novel method offers a contribution as a way of ‘looking’ at affect within a group situation from affective-pragmatic and social embodiment perspectives. Finally, the research contributes to embodied learning design frameworks offering a guideline for designers wishing to inform their work from enactive cognition perspective