4,664 research outputs found
Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author
The question motivating this review paper is, how can
computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn-
ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to
link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory,
and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional
question driving research in interactive narrative is, âhow can an in-
teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while
maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?â This question
derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that,
as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency.
Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip-
ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based
on Brechtâs Epic Theatre and Boalâs Theatre of the Oppressed are
reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the
conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question
that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional
question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in-
teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity
Film (cinema) perception
Book synopsis:
Film (cinema) perception refers to the sensory and cognitive processes employed when viewing scenes, events, and narratives presented in edited moving images. Dynamic visual media such as film and television have increasingly become an integral part of our everyday lives. Understanding how our perceptual system deals with the differences between these mediated visual experiences and the real world helps us understand how perception works in both situations. This entry focuses on three of the many differences between film and reality: Film creates the illusion of motion through the rapid presentation of still images. Film creates the illusion of continuity across a cut. Film represents scenes and events across edited sequences of shots filmed at different places and times. Although this list is not exhaustive, these three differences are critical for understanding how we perceive film. This entry provides a brief overview of these differences and current theories about how they ..
Extending AToCC: a reply
The intention of my paper, The Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity (AToCC; this volume) was to bring together disparate lines of research on cinematic continuity and make an intentionally provocative first stab at theorising a cognitive foundation for the continuity editing conventions that pervade film. If our understanding of film cognition is to progress, clear hypotheses need to be proposed that can be empirically tested and theoretically challenged. To this end, the high quality and variety of the six responses that constitute the rest of this volume are hugely encouraging. My only regret is that I will not be able to deal with each of their insightful comments in the space permitted
Audiovisual correspondences in Sergei Eisensteinâs Alexander Nevsky: a case study in viewer attention
Cognitive film theory is an approach to analyzing film that bridges the traditionally segregated disciplines of film theory, philosophy and the psychological and neurosciences. Considerable work has already been presented from the perspective of film theory that utilizes existing empirical evidence of psychological phenomenon to inform our understanding of film viewers and the form of film itself. But can empirical psychology also provide ways to directly test the insights generated by the theoretical study of film? In this chapter I will present a case study in which eye-tracking is used to validate Russian film director Sergei Eisensteinâs intuitions about viewer attention during a sequence from Alexander Nevsky (1938
Read, watch, listen: a commentary on eye tracking and moving images
Eye tracking is a research tool that has great potential for advancing our understanding of how we watch movies. Questions such as how differences in the movie influences where we look and how individual differences between viewers alters what we see can be operationalised and empirically tested using a variety of eye tracking measures. This special issue collects together an inspiring interdisciplinary range of opinions on what eye tracking can (and cannot) bring to film and television studies and practice. In this article I will reflect on each of these contributions with specific focus on three aspects: how subtitling and digital effects can reinvigorate visual attention, how audio can guide and alter our visual experience of film, and how methodological, theoretical and statistical considerations are paramount when trying to derive conclusions from eyetracking data
Stability radius and internal versus external stability in Banach spaces: an evolution semigroup approach
In this paper the theory of evolution semigroups is developed and used to
provide a framework to study the stability of general linear control systems.
These include time-varying systems modeled with unbounded state-space operators
acting on Banach spaces. This approach allows one to apply the classical theory
of strongly continuous semigroups to time-varying systems. In particular, the
complex stability radius may be expressed explicitly in terms of the generator
of a (evolution) semigroup. Examples are given to show that classical formulas
for the stability radius of an autonomous Hilbert-space system fail in more
general settings. Upper and lower bounds on the stability radius are provided
for these general systems. In addition, it is shown that the theory of
evolution semigroups allows for a straightforward operator-theoretic analysis
of internal stability as determined by classical frequency-domain and
input-output operators, even for nonautonomous Banach-space systemsComment: Also at http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen/preprint
GraFIX: a semiautomatic approach for parsing low- and high-quality eye-tracking data
Fixation durations (FD) have been used widely as a measurement of information processing and attention. However, issues like data quality can seriously influence the accuracy of the fixation detection methods and, thus, affect the validity of our results (Holmqvist, Nyström, & Mulvey, 2012). This is crucial when studying special populations such as infants, where common issues with testing (e.g., high degree of movement, unreliable eye detection, low spatial precision) result in highly variable data quality and render existing FD detection approaches highly time consuming (hand-coding) or imprecise (automatic detection). To address this problem, we present GraFIX, a novel semiautomatic method consisting of a two-step process in which eye-tracking data is initially parsed by using velocity-based algorithms whose input parameters are adapted by the user and then manipulated using the graphical interface, allowing accurate and rapid adjustments of the algorithmsâ outcome. The present algorithms (1) smooth the raw data, (2) interpolate missing data points, and (3) apply a number of criteria to automatically evaluate and remove artifactual fixations. The input parameters (e.g., velocity threshold, interpolation latency) can be easily manually adapted to fit each participant. Furthermore, the present application includes visualization tools that facilitate the manual coding of fixations. We assessed this method by performing an intercoder reliability analysis in two groups of infants presenting low- and high-quality data and compared it with previous methods. Results revealed that our two-step approach with adaptable FD detection criteria gives rise to more reliable and stable measures in low- and high-quality data
WIRIS OM tools: a semantic formula editor
With the increasing reliance on computers for the automatic processing
of information a new method is needed for editing mathematical formulae.
We are used to WYSIWYG editors that produce beautiful presentations of
formulae and store the typesetting primitives rather than the meaning of the
formulas. However, new services such as database searching or calculation
web-services work best if they have access to the semantic information behind
a formula. This can only be done with a new generation of formula editors.
In this paper we present WIRIS OM Tools [17], a semantic oriented formula
editor which addresses these concerns. It is based on the OpenMath language
and a suitable transformation process between OpenMath and MathML ex-
pressions. Additionally, this approach adds new features for the users such
as error, type and syntax checking. The editor is currently being used in the
LeActiveMath and WebALT projects
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