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This thesis addresses computer game play activities from the perspective of embodied and situated cognition. From such a perspective, game play can be divided into the physical handling of the game and the players' understanding of it. Game play can also be described in terms of three different levels of situatedness "high-level" situatedness, the contextual "here and now", and "low-level" situatedness. Moreover, theoretical and empirical implications of such a perspective have been explored more in detail in two case studies. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2008:17.</p>

Embodied agents are agents acting in the physical world, such as persons, robots, unmanned air or ground vehicles and so on. These types of agents are subject to spatio-temporal constraints, which do not exist for agents acting in a virtual environment. The movement of embodied agents is limited by obstacles and maximum velocity, while their communication is limited by the transmission range of their wireless devices. This dissertation presents contributions to the techniques of coalition formation and teamwork coordination for embodied agents. We considered embodied agents in three different settings, each of them representative of a class of practical applications. First, we study coalition formation in the one dimensional world of vehicles driving on a highway. We assume that vehicles can communicate over short distances and carry agents which can advise the driver on convoy formation decisions. We introduce techniques which allow vehicles to influence the speed of the convoys, and show that this yields convoys which have a higher utility for the participating vehicles. Second, we address the problem of coalition formation in the two dimensional world. The application we consider is a disaster response scenario. The agents are forming coalitions through a multi-issue negotiation with spatio-temporal components where the coalitions maintain a set of commitments towards participating agents. Finally, we discuss a scenario where embodied agents form coalitions to optimally address dynamic, non-deterministic, spatio-temporal tasks. The application we consider is firefighters acting in a disaster struck city.

The last major work of fiction completed in Henry James’ career as an author, The Golden Bowl sits apart in the context of his oeuvre. In the novel, narrated action has migrated away from the description of exterior events toward a style of indirection, implication, and a focus on the inner workings of its characters. The essay argues that The Golden Bowl stages a suspended affect that denies narrative closure in a strategy on James’s part to emphasize the versatility of the novel form. By contextualizing this phenomenon alongside contemporaneous and more modern theories of emotion, the essay contends that the suspended affect staged in the novel results from negative emotions owing to ambiguous social relationships as well as characters’ difficulties in translating and verbalizing embodied emotions that are ultimately irretrievable.

In the pursuit of planning for inclusive public space, this thesis addresses feelings of unsafety as a hindering aspect of equal access. The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of embodied knowledge within urban planning for understanding feelings of safety in public space. Due to the complexity of socio-spatial relations, I suggest a feminist approach to knowledge creation. The study is based on semi-structured interviews including a visual elicitation with urban planners in Sweden (n=16). My findings show that planners’ conceptualisations of safety relate to an overall focus on social sustainability and a problematic relationship between safety and crime prevention. While multiple methods are being used to understand feelings of safety, such as site audits and citizen dialogues, embodied methods are not (actively) used. There is therefore a need to recognise our bodies as helpful tools for understanding feelings of safety. Furthermore, who we are affects the way we perceive our surroundings as well as our feelings. Thus, urban planning practitioners need to (continue to) be reflexive about their positionalities, as well as to include experiences and perspectives of peoples’ situated, embodied knowledge to create inclusive public space for all.

A positive relationship between physical motion and learning is widely acknowledged. However, few studies have investigated the potential effects of combining physical movement with second language learning. This review examines ten studies that combine physical activity with learning English as a second language (ESL), specifically focusing on vocabulary acquisition and learner motivation. Aspects of combining English with Physical education (PE) in a cross-curricular manner are also explored to investigate its applicability to the Swedish middle school context. Results indicate that classroom-based physical activity positively affects vocabulary learning and motivation among learners across a wide age span, both in Europe and across the world. Moreover, combining ESL with PE seems to improve learners´ motivation and language proficiency, without hindering the attainment of PE-related goals. Nonetheless, some findings provide varying results, indicating that supportive actions - such as pre-teaching vocabulary - may be needed. In conclusion, a physically oriented learning approach seems to work well in the context of curricular requirements in Sweden since cross-curricular tasks, daily physical activity, and efforts to encourage foreign language learning are described as necessary. Despite promising claims, further investigation in the area of physical language learning is still required.

This study focuses on the translation of metaphors with a special focus on embodied metaphors. It is based on Newmark’s (1981:84−91) translation strategies and uses chapter 15, “Currents and Tides”, from Tristan Gooley’s nature book How to Read Water, Clues &amp; Patterns from Puddles to the Sea (2016) as corpus for metaphor translation analysis. Through a prescriptive and descriptive approach to translation analysis, this study aims to investigate how metaphors are translated from the source language English to the target language Swedish.              The findings of the study indicate that the most common translation strategy is to reproduce the metaphor in the target text, followed by either a) finding an acceptable equivalent, or b) conversion from a metaphor to sense in the target language. This suggests that the level of embodied reading is lower in the target text than in the source text. However, because of the limited range of this study, no firm conclusions can be made.

The belief that intentions are hidden away in the minds of individuals has been circulating for many years. Theories of indirect perception, such as the Theory of Mind, have since been developed to help explain this phenomenon. Conversely, research in the field of human kinematics and event perception have also given rise to theories of direct perception. The purpose of the study was to determine if intentionality can be directly perceived rather than requiring inferential processes. Prior research regarding kinematics of cooperative and competitive movements have pointed toward direct perception, demonstrating participants can accurately judge a movement as cooperative or competitive by simply observing point-light displays of the isolated arm movements. Considering competitive movements are often performed faster than cooperative movements, speed was perturbed for the purpose of this study to determine if participants are relying on cues or if they can indeed perceive a unique kinematic pattern that corresponds to intentionality. Judging the clips correctly despite perturbation would suggest perception is direct. Additionally, we hypothesized judgments accuracy would be higher in the presence of two actors pointing to the use of interpersonal affordances. Twenty-eight participants from the University of Central Florida were asked to judge 40 clips presented in random order including: normal or perturbed competitive actions with one or two actors; normal or perturbed cooperative actions with one or two actors. Percent correct and reaction time data were analyzed on SPSS using a repeated measures ANOVA. Results rejected the hypothesis that social perception is direct and supported indirect perception, indicating participants relied on cues to make judgments, and provided potential support for the interpersonal affordance hypothesis.

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