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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

The structure and development of play in ferrets and dogs

Gupta, Amita Sen January 1987 (has links)
This thesis development of empirical. ABSTRACT , investigated play in two the ways: structure theoretical and and The theoretical section covers three areas. First, existing literature on animal play was reviewed to identify the basis for confusion in theories of animal play. Second, a discussion of the acquisition of the concept 'play' in humans, and its effect on our understanding of animal play revealed the appropriateness of the correct use of models and analogies in the study of play. Finally, the utility of Markov Chains, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis and the Grammatical Model in studying play, were assessed. In Chapter Six an investigation of "thB . nevelopment \.1\3: "'e.~ of social play and object 'predation'~ s owed no major ontogenetic differences. In both cases, a) there was some evidence for age changes in the composition of play/'predation': b) the majority of observations could be accounted for by a group of five 'dominant' behaviour patterns. Chapter Seven examined the function o~ 1'r~EM~p."en Mouth Play Face (OMPF) as a. play signal. Resurts indicated that the OMPF did not function speci~iCallY as a play signal in young ferrets and puppies. However, the situation was reversed for adult ferrets. There was also evidence that the OMPF was related to arousal in a way not exhibited by other play behaviour patterns. Chap~i~ml~!Sht investiga~~~bf~~ential S~~~hture in social ptay~ OBject 'predation~ an~ aggressi8~.~~esults showed great variability in tne sequences of 'oehaviour in all three contexts. All three behavioural contexts showed little variability in the identity of bout initiators and terminators. The 'grammar' constructed failed to provide a formal description of social play, aggression or object 'predation':' These results suggest that many assumptions made about the structure of play, especially with regard to other behaviours, are invalid. The study of play should proceed in terms of identifying the structural configuration of sequences of social play.
2

Estudo da motivação para manipulação e para brincadeira social em macacos-prego (Sapajus SP.)

Carvalho, Carlos Eugenio de 21 November 2013 (has links)
A Brincadeira e a Manipulação Exploratória ativam o Sistema de Recompensa. Por meio de comportamentos exploratórios, das percepções sensoriais e ações motoras, o animal aprende sobre as propriedades e potencialidades do meio, como anuncia a Teoria da Percepção e Ação. Extrapolamos esse raciocínio para explicar que a aprendizagem acerca do ambiente social dá-se por meio de brincadeiras sociais, que são oportunidades de se explorar, perceber, agir e aprender potencialidades e características sobre outro membro do grupo. Nosso objetivo foi verificar se indivíduos imaturos que manipulam mais são também aqueles que estão mais envolvidos em brincadeiras sociais, por serem mais exploradores em relação a objetos e ao meio social. Nós estudamos dois grupos: um selvagem, na Fazenda Boa Vista (Estado do Piauí, região de Cerrado) em duas estações: um mês de estação seca (11 indivíduos) e um mês de estação chuvosa (12 indivíduos); um grupo semilivre no Parque Ecológico do Tietê, região urbana de São Paulo, capital, por cinco meses (19 indivíduos). Não pudemos estabelecer vínculo direto e universal entre brincadeiras sociais e comportamentos manipulativos, inclusive o de quebra de cocos, em todos os indivíduos. Observamos aumento de brincadeiras sociais e comportamentos manipulativos entre os machos e observamos que machos brincaram mais que fêmeas quando havia maior disponibilidade de alimento. Explorar o meio social gera respostas mais complexas do que explorar o meio físico, portanto, outras habilidades são necessárias para viver em grupo, mas isso não exclui a possibilidade de compartilhamento de motivação para explorar os ambientes físico e social / Play and Exploratory Behaviour activate the Rewarding System. By exploratory behaviour, sensory perceptions and motor actions, the animal learn about properties and affordances of the environment, according to the Perception and Action Theory Extrapolating it, we suggest that social play is a means for learning about the social environment because it generates opportunities to explore, perceive, act and learn potentialities and characteristics from conspecifics. Our aim was to verify if immature individuals who manipulate more objects and food are also individuals that are more involved in social play behaviour, because they are more explorative in relation to objects and social surrounding. We studied two groups: a wild one, in Boa Vista Farm (State of Piauí, Brazilian Savanna area), in two seasons: a month in dry season (11 individuals) and a month in wet season (12 individuals); a semi-free ranging troop in Tietê Ecological Park, urban zone of São Paulo City, by five months (19 individuals). We cannot establish a direct and universal link between Social Play and Manipulation, including nut cracking, for all individuals. We observed an increase in social play and manipulative behaviors in males and we observed that males played more than females when there was greater availability of food. The exploration of the social surrounding generates more complexes responses than the exploration of the physical environment, therefore, other skills are necessary to live in social life, but it does not exclude the possibility of shared motivation to explore the physical and social surroundings
3

Estudo da motivação para manipulação e para brincadeira social em macacos-prego (Sapajus SP.)

Carlos Eugenio de Carvalho 21 November 2013 (has links)
A Brincadeira e a Manipulação Exploratória ativam o Sistema de Recompensa. Por meio de comportamentos exploratórios, das percepções sensoriais e ações motoras, o animal aprende sobre as propriedades e potencialidades do meio, como anuncia a Teoria da Percepção e Ação. Extrapolamos esse raciocínio para explicar que a aprendizagem acerca do ambiente social dá-se por meio de brincadeiras sociais, que são oportunidades de se explorar, perceber, agir e aprender potencialidades e características sobre outro membro do grupo. Nosso objetivo foi verificar se indivíduos imaturos que manipulam mais são também aqueles que estão mais envolvidos em brincadeiras sociais, por serem mais exploradores em relação a objetos e ao meio social. Nós estudamos dois grupos: um selvagem, na Fazenda Boa Vista (Estado do Piauí, região de Cerrado) em duas estações: um mês de estação seca (11 indivíduos) e um mês de estação chuvosa (12 indivíduos); um grupo semilivre no Parque Ecológico do Tietê, região urbana de São Paulo, capital, por cinco meses (19 indivíduos). Não pudemos estabelecer vínculo direto e universal entre brincadeiras sociais e comportamentos manipulativos, inclusive o de quebra de cocos, em todos os indivíduos. Observamos aumento de brincadeiras sociais e comportamentos manipulativos entre os machos e observamos que machos brincaram mais que fêmeas quando havia maior disponibilidade de alimento. Explorar o meio social gera respostas mais complexas do que explorar o meio físico, portanto, outras habilidades são necessárias para viver em grupo, mas isso não exclui a possibilidade de compartilhamento de motivação para explorar os ambientes físico e social / Play and Exploratory Behaviour activate the Rewarding System. By exploratory behaviour, sensory perceptions and motor actions, the animal learn about properties and affordances of the environment, according to the Perception and Action Theory Extrapolating it, we suggest that social play is a means for learning about the social environment because it generates opportunities to explore, perceive, act and learn potentialities and characteristics from conspecifics. Our aim was to verify if immature individuals who manipulate more objects and food are also individuals that are more involved in social play behaviour, because they are more explorative in relation to objects and social surrounding. We studied two groups: a wild one, in Boa Vista Farm (State of Piauí, Brazilian Savanna area), in two seasons: a month in dry season (11 individuals) and a month in wet season (12 individuals); a semi-free ranging troop in Tietê Ecological Park, urban zone of São Paulo City, by five months (19 individuals). We cannot establish a direct and universal link between Social Play and Manipulation, including nut cracking, for all individuals. We observed an increase in social play and manipulative behaviors in males and we observed that males played more than females when there was greater availability of food. The exploration of the social surrounding generates more complexes responses than the exploration of the physical environment, therefore, other skills are necessary to live in social life, but it does not exclude the possibility of shared motivation to explore the physical and social surroundings
4

Alone with Company: Studying Individual and Social Players' In-game Behaviors in Adaptive Gamification

Loria, Enrica 13 April 2021 (has links)
Humans procrastinate and avoid performing activities that they deem dull, repetitive, and out of their comfort zone. Gamification was conceived to reverse the situation by turning those activities into fun and entertaining actions exploiting game-like elements. In practice, however, many challenges arise. Gameful environments cannot satisfy every player's preference and motivational need with a one-fits-all strategy. However, meeting players' motivational affordances can provide intrinsic rewards rather than extrinsic (e.g., points and badges). Producing intrinsic rewards is desirable as they are more likely to foster long-term retention than the extrinsic counterpart. Therefore, gamified systems should be designed to learn and understand players' preferences and motivational drivers to generate specific adaptation strategies for each player. Those adaptation strategies govern the procedural generation of personalized game elements - examples are task difficulty, social-play versus solo-play, or aesthetic tools. However, an appropriate personalization requires intelligent and effective player profiling mechanisms. Player profiles can be retrieved through the analysis of telemetry data, and thus in-game behaviors. In this project, we studied players' individual and social behaviors to understand their personalities and identities within the game. Specifically, we analyzed data from an open-world, persuasive, gamified system: Play&Go. Play&Go implements game-like mechanics to instill more ecological transportation habits among its users. The gamified app offers various ways for players to interact with the game and among one another. Despite Play&Go being one of the few examples of gamification implementing more diverse game mechanics than solely points and leaderboards, it still does not reach the complexity of AAA entertainment games. Thus, it limits the applicability of an in-depth analysis of players' behaviors, constrained by the type of available features. Yet, we argue that gameful systems still provide enough information to allow content adaptation. In this work, we study players' in-game activity from different perspectives to explore gamification's potential. Towards this, we analyzed telemetry data to (1) learn from players' activity, (2) extract their profiles, and (3) understand social dynamics in force within the game. Our results show how players' experience in gamified systems is closer to games than expected, especially in social environments. Hence, telemetry data is a precious source of knowledge also in gamification and can help retain information on players' churn, preferences, and social influence. Finally, we propose a modular theoretical framework for adaptive gamification to generate personalized content designed to learn players' preferences iteratively.
5

Attention cues in apes and their role in social play behavior of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Mayhew, Jessica A. January 2013 (has links)
The research aims of this thesis are to investigate the attention cues available to and used by apes, especially gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), to ascertain the direction of conspecific attention during social interactions with a special reference to social play. Minimal research has been conducted on the role of attention cues - eye gaze, head, and body orientation - to regulate natural social interactions, such as social play, in non-human primates. This thesis begins with an investigation of the "cooperative eye hypothesis", which poses that humans have evolved a unique white sclera adaptation for advertising and detecting gaze direction. Chapter 2 reports the existence of a natural white sclera variation in a proportion of gorilla eyes - contradicting the widely held assumption that white sclera is an exclusively human characteristic - and analyzes the presence of white sclera in relation to other morphological changes in the human eye. The study concludes that the morphological elongation of the eye might be a more important and unique change than the white sclera coloration. Chapter 3 experimentally explores the contribution of white sclera in both great ape and human eye gaze to the perception of gaze direction detection by human observers. This chapter concludes that although white sclera contributes to the accuracy and speed of gaze direction detection (an assumption that this thesis has put to experimental test for the first time), this merely adds to the already efficient gaze cues available in the eye areas of the ape face. Chapter 4 investigates the role of eye gaze, head, and body orientations during gorilla social play behavior, and more specifically, introduces a novel analysis of "vigilance periods" (VPs), in which gorillas may use the interaction between attention cues to gauge the attention and intentions of play partners to successfully navigate play. The final study (Chapter 5) complements Chapter 4 and investigates the role of gorilla postures, behaviors, and movements during changes in attentional cue orientations. This chapter concludes that gorillas often engage in physical rest during VPs but maintain attentional engagement and can assemble and impart socially relevant information based on the behaviors, movements, and attention orientations of their partner. Together, these studies suggest that attention orientation is conveyed and assessed by gorillas through a variety of interacting cues to navigate and modify social play interactions.
6

Behavioral Deficits and Associated Alterations in the Proteome in the Amygdala of Adolescent Rats Exposed to Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol as Juveniles

Mohammed, Afzaal Nadeem 14 December 2018 (has links)
Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is an active component of marijuana. During recent years, the popularity of marijuana in the United States has increased tremendously. Marijuana edibles are a form of marijuana that has become very popular in recent years. These are easily accessible not only to adolescents but also to young children. According to recent statistical data, the consumption of marijuana edibles by children below the age of 5 has increased 600% in the states that have legalized marijuana. This has led to an adverse impact on children’s health as evidenced by a sudden increase in the number of children seeking emergency assistance in hospitals. In the current research, we addressed the issue of possible persistent effects on children’s behavior due to an earlier exposure to THC. Juvenile rats were treated with 10 mg/kg of THC from postnatal day 10 through 16. Once they reached adolescence, these rats were tested using several behavioral paradigms. To evaluate the biological basis for the behavioral deficits observed, brain samples obtained from these rats were subjected to proteomic analysis to determine any altered pathways related to the behavior. Our behavioral data indicated that juvenile exposure to THC has no effect on anxiety-related behavior in adolescents. However, we observed a significant effect of treatment on multiple parameters related to social interactions. Of these, episodes and time of social play were significantly increased in the THC treated rats suggesting alterations in the reward circuit function occurring as a result of developmental THC exposure. In the proteomics, we observed a significant effect on relevant canonical pathways such as the changes in thrombin and opioid signaling. Thrombin signaling in neurons is associated with processes involved in the connection between neurons and opioid signaling is involved in the activation processes of the reward circuit suggesting that juvenile THC exposure alters these processes in adolescence which could have detrimental effects on behavior. Overall, our data suggest that consumption of edibles by juveniles leads to altered behavioral and biochemical outcomes in adolescence. This may be detrimental in terms of the appropriate acquisition of skills necessary for meeting the challenges in future life.
7

Embodied Core Mechanics : Designing for movement-based co-located play

Márquez Segura, Elena January 2016 (has links)
Movement-based interactive systems for play came into the spotlight over a decade ago, and were met with enthusiasm by the general public as well as the Human-Computer Interaction research community. Yet a decade of research and practice has not fully addressed the challenge of designing for the moving body and play. This thesis argues that often, the role of the technology to sustain the play activity, and to drive the design process, has been over-emphasized, and has resulted in limited design possibilities. This thesis explores an alternative design approach to address the problem through combining the design of the technology with designing aspects of the social and spatial context where the play activity takes place. The work is grounded in an embodied perspective of experience, action, and design. Methodologically, it belongs to the Research through Design tradition (RtD). A core concept and a characterization of design practices are presented as key contributions. The concept of embodied core mechanics is introduced to frame desirable and repeatable movement-based play actions, paying attention to the way these are supported by design resources including rules, physical and digital artifacts, and the physical and spatial arrangement of players and artifacts. The concept was developed during the two main design cases: the Oriboo case, targeting dance games for children, and the PhySeEar case, targeting rehabilitative therapy for the elderly. It was further substantiated in subsequent external design collaborations. To support the design process, this thesis presents embodied sketching: a set of ideation design practices that leverage the embodied experience and enable designers to scrutinize the desired embodied experience early in the design process. Three forms of embodied sketching are presented: embodied sketching for bodystorming, co-designing with users, and sensitizing designers. Through reframing the design task as one of designing and studying embodied core mechanics, this thesis establishes an alternative approach to design for movement-based play in which significant aspects of the embodied play experience, lead, drive, and shape the design process and the design of the technology.
8

Exploring social play in a shared hybrid space enabled by handheld augmented reality

Xu, Yan 14 November 2012 (has links)
Reality-based interfaces bring new design opportunities to social games. These novel game interfaces, exemplified by Wii, Kinect, and Smart phones, leverage players' existing physics, bodily, environmental, and social skills. Moreover, they enable a shared hybrid physical-digital space in which the players' co-presence can be enhanced by their physical and digital co-location. However, many digital social games occupy players' attention with the digital display and content, reducing their attention spent on one another and limiting the synchronization of actions and emotions among players. How do we design technologies that do not interfere with social play but enhance and innovate it? In this thesis work, I focus on one particular kind of reality-based interfaces, Handheld Augmented Reality (HAR), to extend players' interaction from the small mobile devices to the shared hybrid space around a computationally trackable surface. This thesis explores how to encourage social play with HAR interfaces, which brings in challenges of designing with the affordances and constraints of the HAR interface, understanding the complicated phenomenon of social play, and integrating these understandings in multiplayer HAR game design. Adopting Research-through Design as the overarching research method, I collaborate with multiple teams, design and study three multiplayer HAR game prototypes. I present four main contributions. First, this work yields design artifacts and examples of social games with HAR interfaces. I communicate to the game design and Augmented Reality communities through these prototypes, including BragFish, ARt of Defense, and NerdHerder. Second, I provide empirical findings on social play in a shared hybrid space. Through lab-based user studies, observation, video analysis, interviews, and surveys, I collect and analyze interpersonal play behaviors and emotions in the shared hybrid space enabled by the HAR interface. Third, I adopt and adapt sociological theories to the domain of social games. I generate a list of theory-based design guidelines for co-located social games, especially HAR games. I prove its usefulness through the user study on an HAR game that embodies a subset of these design guidelines. Fourth, this thesis work is a case study that bridges Human Computer Interaction knowledge and methods with game design practices. It shows the outcome and benefits of multidisciplinary research, calling for more effort in integrating reality-based interfaces, as playful and experimental design materials, into different phases of game design process.
9

Hyperactive Behavior and Participation in Social Play in a Swedish Preschool Context : A Cross-Sectional Study

Pozneanscaia, Cristina January 2020 (has links)
The present thesis sought to compare participation in social types of play of children with and without hyperactivity in a Swedish preschool context. Based upon observational design of cross-sectional type, this study was built on a secondary analysis of data collected within two previous research projects that were merged into one dataset. A total of 583 children (n = 298 boys) aged 16 to 72 months (M = 52.55, SD = 11.01) were initially included in the sample. Preschool teachers rated children’s behavior difficulties on a hyperactivity scale using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Structured observations of children’s attendance, engagement, verbal interaction, proximity and location during associative and cooperative interaction were conducted across day-long visits by three trained researchers using Children Observation in Pre- school (COP) tool. Conditional probability looping syntaxes were created and Independent sample t-Tests were used to analyze the data. Out of 572 children included in the analysis, n = 60 (10,2%) were rated as having some form of hyperactivity. On the whole, the findings illustrated that the observed averages of attendance and overall engagement in social types of play did not differ significantly between children with and without hyperactivity. However, an in-depth analysis of participation patterns, linked to contextual and environmental factors such as proximity and play location, revealed several considerable differences between the two groups of children. It seems that preschoolers with hyperactive behavior seek social play opportunities as much as their typical behavior peers, but the quality aspects of their experience defined by a specific context and environment may differ further as the interaction develops. Contextual and environmental factors are crucial determinants to take into account when studying participation. Play, operating as a natural booster of self-regulation and engagement may have the potential to serve as a mediating factor accommodating hyperactivity and promoting participation in Early Childhood Education settings.
10

Utilizing Play to Help Adopted Children Form Healthy Attachments

Sallot, Coleen Michelle 26 April 2021 (has links)
No description available.

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