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Stories are fundamental to meaning and memory: For social creatures could it be otherwise
Abstract
We applaud Schank and Abelson's focus on stories and their placement o them at the center of human cognitive processing. They argue that stories are highly functional, and they provide a number of compelling examples of this functionality. In our commentary, we focus on why people see to use them so much....We propose that stories are so functional because social interaction is central for human beings, and stories are fundamentally about social interaction.
... These "turns" of one social actor vis à vis another could potentially signal new situations and pertinent cues that involve inferences about "why" (e.g., Why did person A do or say that to Person B? Why did person B grimace when A said that to him/her?). As suggested above, these inferences leverage knowledge structures, (e.g., self and others' goals and beliefs; Miller & Read, 1987, 1991: Narratives or stories can frame and structure causal scenarios and meaning (Read & Miller, 1995;Schank & Abelson, 1977;Schank & Abelson, 1995). Indeed, narratives, which can facilitate interpersonal as well as group communication, may be so fundamental because of their capacity to fulfill core social motives, which are tied to identity (Costabile, Shedlosky-Shoemaker, & Austin, 2018). ...
... 52 Friston (2013, p. 212) notes that "predictive coding is a consequence of surprise minimisation, not its cause." Read and Miller (1998) argued that each of these "structures" or "slots" are likely to reflect "universal" linguistic concepts 53 across cultures (Wiezbicka, 1992) that include "want", "as well as all of the words in the following 'story': I want this, you do this, this happened, this person did something bad, and something bad happened because of this." (Read & Miller, 1998, p. 49). And, as Friston (2013) notes, the neuroscience literature supports at least two likely candidates, those associated with "separable attributes of 'what' and 'where' ...
... Just as only a few letters (26 in English) afford thousands of words, these "causal slots" of a scenario (we call a "plot unit") can afford an almost infinite number of concrete scenario descriptions, some so recurrent that in a given culture we may give them an economical conceptual name, such as here describing John's behavior as aggressive or using trait terms if John has done things like this repeatedly (e.g., aggressive): Indeed, consistent with Read and Miller (1998), underlying many social concepts may be neurally linked "slots" in one or more of these "plot units" (see Figure 3). Because there are so many ways that each of these categories of slots can be filled, there are many alternative causal inferences that could be activated across persons in understanding the meaning of a given sequence of behavior (although this set of alternatives is not unlimited). ...
Causal inference and generalizability both matter. Historically, systematic designs emphasize causal inference, while representative designs focus on generalizability. Here, we suggest a transformative synthesis – Systematic Representative Design (SRD) – concurrently enhancing both causal inference and “built-in” generalizability by leveraging today’s intelligent agent, virtual environments, and other technologies. In SRD, a “default control group” (DCG) can be created in a virtual environment by representatively sampling from real-world situations. Experimental groups can be built with systematic manipulations onto the DCG base. Applying systematic design features (e.g., random assignment to DCG versus experimental groups) in SRD affords valid causal inferences. After explicating the proposed SRD synthesis, we delineate how the approach concurrently advances generalizability and robustness, cause-effect inference and precision science, a computationally-enabled cumulative psychological science supporting both “bigger theory” and concrete implementations grappling with tough questions (e.g., what is context?) and affording rapidly-scalable interventions for real-world problems.
... Two novels, Miguel Cervantes " s Don Quixote and Kazuoro Ishiguro " s Never Let Me Go, indicate how we live in and live by stories and how the stories in fiction represent our engagements with stories in real life. The novels focus on the fact that we are fascinated and dependent on stories, and through the experience of making, reading or listening to stories we expand our character and our web of experiences, improve our understanding of the world and answer mysterious conditions of life [1]. The complex nature of reality, with its contradiction is represented by characters " obsession with stories and their effort to reach the meaning of life out of that obsession. ...
... Although reader recognizes only one obvious narrator, existence of a variety of other narratives is interspersed throughout the novel [4]. " John Allen finds that " this whole complex structure of the novel leads the reader to increased identification with the protagonist, rather than with any of the shifting storytellers [1]. " This seems to be exactly Cervantes " purpose in writing Don Quixote: to demonstrate our amusing madness at such a balance within and dependence on the web of stories comprising our lives and our world. ...
... Cervantes takes his protagonist away from the center of the story while still engaging him in the unfolding and resolution of the intercalated tales involving Cardenio, Fernando, Dorotea and Luscinda. Quixote " s position is our position regarding many stories we encounter, since we sit as spectators to past history, to court cases shaping our laws and our civilization, to news reports flashing our daily realities across a screen [1]. Even if we do not always participate the world and reality that surround us, these realities nonetheless give shape to our emotions and judgments. ...
... People are social creatures (Brown & Duguid, 2002;Read & Miller, 1995). They learn and work in groups (Read & Miller, 1995). ...
... People are social creatures (Brown & Duguid, 2002;Read & Miller, 1995). They learn and work in groups (Read & Miller, 1995). The Internet evolved out of an effort to connect computers and information and therefore people. ...
The theory of social presence is perhaps the most popular construct used to describe and understand how people socially interact in online learning environments. However, despite its intuitive appeal, researchers and practitioners alike often define and conceptualize this popular construct differently. In fact, it is often hard to distinguish between whether someone is talking about social interaction, immediacy, intimacy, emotion, and/or connectedness when they talk about social presence. Therefore, this chapter outlines the evolution of the construct of social presence in an effort to understand better its relationship to online learning.
... These "turns" of one social actor vis a vis another could potentially signal new situations and pertinent cues that involve inferences about "why" (e.g., Why did person A do or say that to Person B? Why did person B grimace when A said that to him/her?). As suggested above, these inferences leverage knowledge structures, (e.g., self and others' goals and beliefs; Miller & Read, 1987: Narratives or stories can frame and structure causal scenarios and meaning (Read & Miller, 1995;Schank & Abelson, 1977. Indeed, narratives, which can facilitate interpersonal as well as group communication, may be so fundamental because of their capacity to fulfill core social motives, which are tied to identity (Costabile, Shedlosky-Shoemaker, & Austin, 2018). ...
... 52 Friston (2013, p. 212) notes that "predictive coding is a consequence of surprise minimisation, not its cause." 53 also closely examined the developmental literature (Read & Miller, 1995). For example, young children have a readiness to communicate wants (Gelman, 1990). ...
Systematic Representative Design (SRD), enabled by today’s technologies leverages many of the strengths of past designs into a new synthesis affording the capacity for both causal inference and generalizability to everyday life (GEL). In doing so, it could help better integrate past and ongoing empirical research findings in psychology. Generally, the commentaries were positive and thought-provoking. Delightfully, they gave us new opportunities to both clarify misunderstandings as well as further address the feasibility of this approach.
... As such, narrative cognition is thought to represent the default mode of human thought, proving structure to reality and serving as the underlying foundation for memory (18). This reliance on narratives is suggested to be the result of an evolutionary benefit because narratives provide their users with a format of comprehension to simulate possible realities (23), which would serve to better predict cause-and-effect relationships and model the thoughts of other humans in the complex social interactions that define our species (24). ...
... Similarly, health communication is another area exploring the potential benefits of using narrative, often to better educate or persuade individuals toward healthy behavior choices. Some studies empirically examine the effects of narratives on perceptions of specific health issues, such as anticoagulant medication (28), breast cancer (29), or vaccinations (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32), whereas others take a broader view to justify the theoretical inclusion of narrative within health (33) or to provide a guide to its use (8). A meta-analysis of many of these health-related narrative studies found mixed results with regard to a net narrative effect (34), although a lack of a consistent conceptualization of narrative (35) likely complicates any generalization. ...
Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.
... As discussed above, a key element of investigative sense-making is achieving an understanding of the activities, intentions and reactions of social actors. A large body of research indicates that in such situations, sense-making is most likely to have a narrative flavour (e.g., Mar, 2004;Read & Miller, 1995;Robinson & Hawpe, 1986;Wyer Jr. & Radvansky, 1999). A narrative is "the description of a series of actions and events that unfold over time, according to causal principles. ...
... When the problem under consideration involves social interaction, people use heuristics such as story generation to make sense of the problem situation (Robinson and Hawpe, 1986). Story strategies are well-suited to the understanding of social interaction because they offer a causal framework within which inferences about character and motivation of the actors involved can be easily accommodated (Schank and Abelson, 1995;Read and Miller, 1995). Search strategies in such cases involve focusing on information that concerns the motives, goals and actions of the actors, and that enables sense to be made of event sequences. ...
This thesis explores psychological mechanisms underlying the acquisition, interpretation and exploitation of information in complex criminal enquiries. Detective work is conceptualised as problem-solving and the importance of sense-making is highlighted. A model of investigative sense-making is presented, grounded in social-cognitive psychological and criminological research and bringing together several theoretical concepts within one coherent framework. Two studies explored aspects of this framework. First, 42 UK police officers gave written responses to four crime-related vignettes. Content analysis of the answers showed how sense-making about what had occurred varied according to the vignettes and between participants. Building on this pilot, a simulated investigation method was developed and tested with 22 UK detectives. Qualitative content analysis of ‘think aloud’ transcripts (using the qualitative analysis package N-Vivo) focused on how participants made sense of the victim’s story, the characteristics of the offender and the plausibility of potential suspects. Participants spontaneously generated and tested multiple hypotheses about investigative information using mental simulation, tolerating high levels of uncertainty throughout the ‘investigation’ and paying particular attention to investigative opportunities. This research suggests that successful detectives need the ability to imagine multiple potential explanations for investigative data and the knowledge to identify the opportunities for action such data affords. Download at http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/353/
... People are social creatures (Brown & Duguid, 2002;Read & Miller, 1995). They learn and work in groups (Read & Miller, 1995). ...
... People are social creatures (Brown & Duguid, 2002;Read & Miller, 1995). They learn and work in groups (Read & Miller, 1995). The Internet evolved out of an effort to connect computers and information and therefore people. ...
The theory of social presence is perhaps the most popular construct used to describe and understand
how people socially interact in online learning environments. However, despite its intuitive appeal,
researchers and practitioners alike often define and conceptualize this popular construct differently.
In fact, it is often hard to distinguish between whether someone is talking about social interaction,
immediacy, intimacy, emotion, and/or connectedness when they talk about social presence.
Therefore, the focus of this chapter is on outlining the evolution of the construct of social presence in
an effort to understand better its relationship to online learning.
... Las historias son fundamentales para la conversación entre los miembros del grupo y la creación de significados importantes para la identidad grupal. Los seres humanos podríamos tener una predisposición natural, que se desarrolla y moldea en el contexto sociocultural, desde etapas muy tempranas del desarrollo para escuchar y comprender historias (Read y Miller 1995). En términos estrictos, la naturaleza esencial de todas las culturas humanas es narrativa, puesto que proporciona un marco compartido de modelos mentales que permite la interpretación del mundo sobre cómo debe ser en términos de los principios de la coexistencia social, es decir, una ideología. ...
The boundaries between disciplines are not natural, but invented. However, the history of every discipline includes processes of defense and self-definition in relation to other disciplines. Disciplines are fiercely defended by their tribes as if they were physical territories that must be protected from desecration by members of other academic tribes. As heirs to a long history of sociocultural evolution, our brains and minds have been shaped both by internal group conflicts and by intergroup conflicts, resulting in sophisticated—though biased—social brains with powerful impulses to form groups and tribes everywhere, even in academia.
Al igual que las fronteras que dividen a las naciones en un mapa, las fronteras entre las disciplinas no son naturales, sino inventadas. Sin embargo, la historia de toda disciplina incluye procesos de defensa y de autodefinición frente a otras disciplinas. Anthony Giddens ya había notado una asombrosa similitud entre la devoción hacia una nación y hacia una disciplina: en ambos casos se presentan padres fundadores venerados y respetados por los individuos que componen la nación o la disciplina, mitos fundacionales que incluyen narraciones heróicas del papel de sus fundadores, un tipo de ideología que integra las normas de comportamiento de los individuos y la defensa férrea de su territorio o del campo académico. Para entender, al menos en parte, la dificultad de los académicos para transitar naturalmente hacia la interdisciplina, es necesario entender los aspectos de la naturaleza humana que hacen que los académicos se resistan a ello. En este trabajo se expondrá una perspectiva interdisciplinar que nos permita entender las fuerzas internas de las disciplinas en contra de la interdisciplina y por qué las disciplinas son defendidas con ferocidad por sus tribus como si fuesen territorios físicos que es necesario proteger de la profanación por parte de miembros de otras tribus académicas, complicando la interacción interdisciplinar. Estas fuerzas están constituidas por sesgos cognitivos moldeados durante millones de años de evolución social que han producido ideologías de grupo que determinan nuestras interpretaciones y valoraciones en función de nuestra condición humana antropocéntrica, tribal y local. Herederos de una larga historia de evolución sociocultural, nuestros cerebros y nuestra mente han sido forjados tanto por los conflictos internos de grupo, como por los conflictos entre grupos, produciendo sofisticados, aunque prejuiciosos cerebros sociales con poderosos impulsos para formar grupos y tribus en todas partes, incluso en la academia.
... Most entertainment offerings are of a narrative kind, which reflects both the individual and societal need for narratives as a broad and pervasive human practice (Read & Miller, 1995). Narratives play a dual role: they provide us with pleasure by stimulating imagery and emotions, but they also promote social cohesion among audiences and cultural norms in the form of shared stories and myths. ...
For over four decades, scholars have developed the field of entertainment science, establishing a thorough understanding of the business behind filmed, recorded, written, and programmed media products and services, encompassing consumer behavior and strategic decision-making. Building on six foundational characteristics that jointly define entertainment offerings (i.e., their hedonic, narrative, cultural, creative, innovative, and digital nature), we synthesize key findings from entertainment science research. Since each of these characteristics can be found individually in various industries, this review offers substantial potential for learning beyond the entertainment world. Leveraging the entertainment industry’s pioneering role in major cross-industry trends, including virtual worlds and generative AI, we then provide best practices for adapting to these developments. We conclude by proposing a comprehensive agenda for future research on each of the foundational entertainment characteristics within the field of entertainment science and beyond.
... Yet, innumerous studies have shown how memory is influenced by surrounding social contexts (Wyer & Srull, 2014). Indeed, individuals are social beings, situated in precise socio-cultural contexts within which they continuously interact with other people (Read & Miller, 1995). Therefore, laboratory studies in which social interactions are recreated are necessary to further understanding of human memory and how it is shaped by collaboration both during the encoding and recall of information. ...
Collaborative memory research has focused primarily on the effects of collaboration at recall with collaboration during encoding receiving less attention. In the present study, collaboration was investigated both at encoding and at retrieval to determine its effects and possible interactions. The aim was to clarify whether the collaborative inhibition effect depended on whether the encoding was with the same or with a different partner. A total of 320 participants (160 Italian and 160 Spanish undergraduate students) were administered a modified version of the collaborative memory paradigm with a new categorization task of verbal affective stimuli at encoding. Specifically, they were asked to classify 90 printed words into 6 categories, so as to have 15 words in each category and then did two recall tasks. Participants were assigned to one of five possible conditions according to encoding (collaborative, individual) and recall (collaborative with the same partner, with another partner, and individual). Results show a collaborative encoding deficit and the classic collaborative inhibition effect independently of whether the encoding was collaborative or individual and even in a collaborative recall group that showed a degree of recall output organization comparable to that of the individual recall group. These results are not wholly consistent with a retrieval disruption explanation and are discussed according to divided attention during collaborative recall and how it may contribute to the collaborative inhibition effect.
... Understanding narrativity is argued to be crucial to understanding human cognition, generally (Bruner 1990(Bruner , 1991Carrithers 1991;Turner 1996), and the evolution of human social cognition in particular (Read & Miller 1995;Dautenhahn 2001Dautenhahn , 2002. Dautenhahn's (2001) Narrative Intelligence hypothesis, for example, argues that the evolutionary origin of communicating using stories reflects the increasingly complex social dynamics that evolved among our early human ancestors. ...
Why are humans so clever? The ‘Social intelligence’ hypothesis explores the idea that this cleverness has evolved through the increasing complexity of social groups. Our ability to understand and control nature is a by-product of our ability to understand the mental states of others and to use this knowledge to co-operate or deceive. These abilities have not emerged out of the blue. They can be found in many social animals that co-operate and compete with one another, birds as well as mammals. This book brings together contributions from an impressive list of authorities in the field, appropriately concluding with a chapter by Nick Humphrey (one of the pioneers in this field). This volume examines social intelligence in many different animal species and explores its development, evolution and the brain systems upon which it depends. Better understanding and further development of social intelligence is critical for the future of the human race and the world that we inhabit. Our problems will not be solved by mere cleverness, but by increased social co-operation.
... It supports the ideas of Bruner (1990), who saw narrative structuring as being present in social interactions even before the onset of language use -"narrative structure is even inherent in the praxis of social interaction before it achieves linguistic expression" (Bruner, 1990, p. 77). Similarly, Read and Miller (1995), social psychologists, consider narratives to be "universally basic to conversation and meaning making" (p. 143). ...
Since the publication of Meltzoff and Moore’s seminal paper, neonatal imitation has been discussed, debated, and scrutinised at considerable length. Despite this, the temporal structure within which the interaction sits, has received limited attention. We hypothesise that underlying successful examples of neonatal imitation exists a narrative temporal structure, expressed and perceived not only through vocalisations but also (if not primarily) through movement. We contextualise neonatal imitation through a communicative lens, viewing the phenomenon as an early dialogue between adult and infant, underpinned by the same narrative structure as other “proto-conversations” in infancy. From this perspective, several of the leading and traditional theories that have been proposed to explain neonatal imitation are considered. Ultimately, we argue neonatal imitation is an innately dialogical phenomenon that forms one of the first examples of primary intersubjectivity, exemplifying the importance of the neonatal period in human psychological and social development. On this basis we propose further study is required into the temporal structure underlying neonatal imitation.
... Words are not necessary to experience a story, nor to re-tell it. Read and Miller (1995) consider narratives to be "universally basic to conversation and meaning making" (p. 143) irrespective of its modality. ...
We review evidence of non-verbal, embodied narratives in human infancy to better understand their form and function as generators of common experience, regulation, and learning. We examine their development prior to the onset of language, with a view to improve understanding of narrative as regular motifs or schemas of early experience in both solitary and social engagement. Embodied narratives are composed of regular patterns of interest, arousal, affect, and intention that yield a characteristic four-part structure of (i) introduction, (ii) development, (iii) climax, and (iv) resolution. Made with others these form co-created shared acts of meaning, and are parsed in time with discreet beginnings and endings that allow a regular pattern to frame and give predictive understanding for prospective regulation (especially important within social contexts) that safely returns to baseline again. This characteristic pattern, co-created between infant and adult from the beginning of life, allows the infant to contribute to, and learn, the patterns of its culture. We conclude with a view on commonalities and differences of co-created narrative in non-human primates, and discuss implications of disruption to narrative co-creation for developmental psychopathology.
... That is why stories are central for human communication and meaning making, and have been described as the ancestral form of human expression (Graesser and Ottati, 2014). By evoking emotions when sharing stories, they also have a crucial role in forming social bonds and can foster a sense of belonging with one's community or ancestors (Read and Miller, 1995;Sakakibara, 2008). Personal identity is shaped by stories about your home, your community or the place you grew up in (Rappaport, 1995). ...
Many social-ecological issues are characterised by a multiplicity of stakeholder voices with often fundamentally divergent values, beliefs or worldviews. Those differences in perspective can be also viewed as different narratives on individual, community and cultural scales that both express and reinforce people’s identity, value system and manifested behaviours. Navigating between those narratives requires approaches that facilitate the co-existence of multiple ways of knowing. The currently dominant knowledge production system of Western scientific knowledge often fails to meet those challenges due to its positivist and reductionist tendencies. However, embracing a co-existence of knowledges isn’t just necessary from a pragmatic perspective to adequately engage in those situations, but also represents an ethical imperative that includes acknowledging the colonial and oppressive history of Western scientific knowledge toward other knowledges, especially regarding Indigenous knowledge production systems. We propose adopting a narrative lens as a metaphor for embracing multiple ways of knowing and being as narratives play a key role for human cognition, communication and in shaping and expressing fundamental values at different levels. Using an example of contested narratives from a fisheries management conflict, we illustrate how narratives can help to develop a richer understanding of social-ecological conflicts. We also reflect on some narrative discourses commonly used in marine science that stem from the binary nature-culture divide prominent in Western scientific knowledge and discuss their implication for hindering sustainable ocean governance. Furthermore, we demonstrate how storytelling methods can be used to surface and share those narratives and to unravel the underlying values and fundamental beliefs and to re-shape them. The narrative lens we propose is suitable under multiple simultaneous disciplinary homes including Indigenous methodologies and systems thinking. They share the key features of having a holistic and relational approach that recognises the co-existence of multiple ways of knowing and being and use self-reflection as key for critical engagement with the situation and to surface and acknowledge one’s own internal narratives. This represents no exhaustive review of narrative inquiry, but a reflective journey illustrating how engaging with narratives can facilitate knowledge co-existence including different ways of relating to human and non-human beings.
... In contrast, descriptive and personal norms (which capture intrinsic values of energy-saving for an individual) significantly affect energy-saving behaviors only in the case of single-person offices, while AR (which captures perceived responsibilities and obligations related to energy-saving behaviors) has a significant impact on energysaving behaviors only in the case of shared offices. These conclusions are intuitive; humans are highly social creatures [71], so their behavior is mostly determined by the perceived expectations of others (i.e., Note. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01. ...
Developing and maintaining efficient energy-saving behaviors in the workplace is an important factor in reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Building on integrated theories, including a recently developed theoretical approach to studying the dynamics of social norms and decision-making, the theory of planned behavior, the norm activation model, and the motivation-opportunity-ability model, this study analyzes the influence of normative values, office design, and perceived benefits and costs on energy-saving behaviors in different office settings. Based on a survey from 555 U.S. employees, this study found that occupants in single-person offices were influenced by a combination of descriptive, injunctive, and personal norms, while those in shared offices tended to align their actions with injunctive norms and ascription of responsibility. Descriptive norms had a stronger effect on energy-saving behaviors in single-person offices than in shared offices. Ascription of responsibility, however, had a stronger effect on energy-saving behaviors in shared offices. The perceived ease of access to building control features significantly influenced energy-saving behaviors of shared-office occupants only. Time availability had no significant effect on energy-saving behaviors of occupants in both single-person and shared offices. This study provides policy recommendations for building architects, engineers, managers, and policymakers to enhance energy-saving behaviors.
... In this condition, we can see the flexibility of Ruangguru as an online learning platform, which is one of the advantages that can be a substitute for conventional learning. Humans are consciously social beings who carry out learning activities and work in a group (Read, S. J., & Miller 1995). A study conducted by Gunawerdana revealed that social presence in face-to-face interaction in the classroom is a significant factor in increasing learning effectiveness. ...
The technological revolution that has changed from analog to digital creates new challenges and opportunities, particularly when referring to the communication perspective. This study discusses communication through digital media and its dynamics in Indonesia. It comprehensively examined Ruangguru, the biggest online learning platform in Indonesia. This paper uses a qualitative descriptive approach with a case-study method. It is aimed to analyze Ruangguru’s online learning communication patterns using the social presence theory in the dimensions of social context, online communication, and interactivity. The result of this study reveals many advantages offered by online learning. Nevertheless, online learning can not fully replace conventional learning, especially when viewed from the low dimensions of social context. In the online communication dimension, Indonesia is still hampered by technical problems, both from technology infrastructure and the readiness of teachers and students.
... 77). Similarly, Read and Miller (1995), social psychologists, consider narratives to be "universally basic to conversation and meaning making" (pp. 143). in the narrative begins at a low-intensity in the introduction, which 'invites' participation in purposefulness; (ii) the coordination of the actions and interests of real and imagined agents intensifies over the development, as the 'plan' or 'project' is developed; (iii) a peak of excitation with achievement of a goal in mutual intention is reached at the climax; after which (iv) the intensity reduces as the purposes of the participants share a resolution, and those who were closely engaged, separate. ...
Since the publication of Meltzoff and Moore’s (1977) seminal paper, neonatal imitation has been discussed, debated and scrutinised at considerable length. Despite this, the temporal structure within which the interaction sits, has received limited attention. We hypothesise underlying successful examples of neonatal imitation exists a narrative temporal structure, expressed and perceived not only through vocalisations but also (if not primarily) through movement. We contextualise neonatal imitation through a communicative lens, viewing the phenomenon as an early dialogue between adult and infant, underpinned by the same narrative structure as other proto-conversations in infancy. From this perspective several of the leading and traditional theories that have been proposed to explain neonatal imitation are considered. Ultimately, we argue neonatal imitation is an innately dialogical phenomenon that forms one of the first examples of primary intersubjectivity, exemplifying the importance of the neonatal period in human psychological and social development. On this basis we propose further study is required into the temporal structure underlying neonatal imitation.
... 27). We propose that the universality of narrative occurs not only because narrative is a fundamental element of human social and cultural life (Read & Miller, 1995), but importantly, because narrative is a fundamental element of one's self and identity. ...
... This is unusual in studies of autism, despite the view of seminal developmental theorist that narrative is central to understanding human communication. Similarly, Read and Miller [38], social psychologists, consider narrative to be "universally basic to conversation and meaning making" (pp. 143). ...
Shared understanding is generated between individuals before speech through a language of body movement and non-verbal vocalisation, expression of feeling and interest made in gestures of movement and voice. Human understanding is co-created in these embodied projects, displayed in serially organised expressions with shared timing of reciprocal actions between partners. These develop in narrative events that build over cycles of reciprocal expressive action in a four-part structure shared by all the time-based arts: "introduction," "development," "climax," and "conclusion." Pre-linguistic narrative establishes the foundation of later, linguistic intelligence. Yet, participating in social interactions that give rise to narrative development is a central problem of autism spectrum disorder. In this paper, we examine the rapid growth of narrative meaning-making between a non-verbal young woman with severe autism and her new therapist. Episodes of embodied, shared understanding were enabled through a basic therapeutic mode of reciprocal, creative mirroring of expressive gesture. These developed through reciprocal cycles and as the relationship progressed, complete co-created narratives were formed resulting in shared joy and the mutual interest and trust of companionship. These small, embodied stories enabled moments of co-regulated arousal that the young woman had previous difficulty with. These data provide evidence for an intact capacity for non-verbal narrative meaning-making in autism.
... A core aspect of our approach is the use of narratives as a way to generate content on social interactions. Stories are central to social interactions since they integrate the event structures responsible for the social dynamics with the knowledge regarding the situation [13,14]. ...
... 27). We propose that the universality of narrative occurs not only because narrative is a fundamental element of human social and cultural life (Read & Miller, 1995), but importantly, because narrative is a fundamental element of one's self and identity. ...
For millennia, narratives have been a primary mode of oral discourse. Narrative presentation of information has been shown to facilitate interpersonal and group communication. However, research indicates that narratives are more than merely an adaptive mode of communication. Narrative is a fundamental – and perhaps foundational – element of social and cultural life. The present article posits that the centrality of narrative in social life is due to narrative’s ability to help satisfy the five core social motives, as identified by Fiske belonging, understanding, control, self-enhancement, and trust. In so doing, this article reviews empirical and theoretical work examining basic narrative processes, autobiographical narratives, and entertainment narrative consumption to illustrate how narrative thought helps to satisfies core human motives and in turn, how the narrative construction process informs self and identity formation.
... Furthermore, the theme provides justifications for what is happening, often leading to an overall morale or 'lesson learn'. As a method of communication, the strength of a narrative lies in its ability to explain human activity in a manner that is understandable to humans (Read & Miller, 1995;Schank & Abelson, 1995). ...
This study examined the comprehension of cardinality constraints in conceptual models. The aim was to enhance the comprehension by supplementing the conceptual models with narratives. The narratives provided verbal descriptions of some, but not all, of the cardinality constraints depicted in the conceptual model. We conducted a lab experiment to test the effect of the narratives on comprehension of the cardinality constraints. We tested this on two different groups: one group that had received training in the conceptual model notation (Entity-Relationship model), and one group that only had received general training on cardinality. Our findings suggest that narratives had an overall positive effect on comprehension of the cardinality constraints depicted in the conceptual model. The effect was greatest with people who had not received any training on the ER notation. The effect also varied across the different types of cardinality constraints.
... Narratives are possibly the oldest, and often most effective way of sharing knowledge (Schank and Abelson 1995;Read and Miller 1995). Because narratives are effective, they have been adopted throughout the systems development lifecycle for a range of different purposes (Alexander and Maiden 2004). ...
We aim to tackle an important challenge related to the use of conceptual models: providing additional support to non-technical users. Specifically, we build on prior research in psychology that argues that providing concrete examples of generalized propositions can improve problem understanding and performance. We propose to combine conceptual models with narratives containing specific statements about the application domain. We conducted a laboratory experiment that supports our general claim that supplementing conceptual data models with narratives increases understanding of conceptual data models (specifically, cardinality constraints). We then propose a strategy for finding effective application of narratives. The paper concludes by outlining directions for future research.
... Humans are social creatures (Read & Miller, 1995). Gossiping and storytelling is the means by which social interactions affect the balance of communities and societies (Emler, 2001). ...
A web-based story sharing forum has been established to provide students in Bogotá, Colombia, New Brunswick, Canada and Dundee, Scotland with the opportunity to exchange cross-cultural stories as a complement to the regular ELT Curriculum. This paper will describe the process through which the exchange experience was established and the progress achieved by the group of Colombian students in their regular interaction through blogs, theme-based wikis, social forums and online debates. The teaching practices utilized in the forum have fostered the creation of communities of interest and practice among teachers and students in the forum. Early results suggest that this innovative way of implementing the ELT curriculum has promoted student involvement and language development through the use of ICTs.
... Their verdict in a court case depends on how coherent and credible the investigative story is presented by the prosecutor. This reconstructive process with its pragmatic and subjective nature is therefore not merely a product of expedient detective cultures -it is deeply rooted in the principles of human memory and cognition (e.g., Alison, Barrett, & Crego, 2007;Cohen, Freeman, & Wolf, 1996;Loftus & Loftus, 1980;Morley, 1996;Read & Miller, 1995;Schank & Abelson, 1995;Schwartz, 2005). ...
Drawing on theoretical frameworks developed in social and cognitive psychology, this thesis examines the degree to which individual and systemic factors may compensate for inherent biases in criminal detectives’ judgments and decision-making. Study I – an interview study – explored criminal detectives’ views of critical factors related to decision making in homicide investigations. Experienced homicide investigators in Norway (n = 15) and the UK (n = 20) were asked to identify decisional ‘tipping point’– decisions that could change detectives’ mind-set from suspect identification to suspect verification together with situational and individual factors relating to these decisions. In a content analysis, two types of decision were identified as typical and potentially critical tipping-points: (1) decisions to point-out, arrest, or charge a suspect, and (2) decisions concerning main strategies and lines of inquiry in the case. Moreover, 10 individual factors (e.g. experience) and 14 situational factors (e.g. who is the victim) were reported as related to the likelihood of mind-set shifts, most of which correspond well with previous decision- making research. Study II, using a quasi-experimental design, compared the quality of investigative decisions made by experienced detectives and novice police officers in two countries with markedly different models for the development of investigative expertise (England and Norway). In England, accredited homicide detectives vastly outperformed novice police officers in the number of adequate investigative hypotheses and actions reported. In Norway, however, bachelor educated police novices did marginally better than highly experienced homicide detectives. Adopting a similar design and the same stimulus material, Study III asked if a general test of cognitive abilities used in the selection process at the Norwegian Police University College could predict police students’ ability to generate investigative hypotheses. The findings did not support such a notion and this is somewhat in line with the available knowledge in the area showing that cognitive ability tests have low predictability for applied reasoning tasks. Taken together, this thesis suggests that investigative judgments are highly susceptible to the individual characteristics and biases of the detective. The results indicate that detective-expertise might act as a viable safeguard against biased decision-making, but length of experience alone does not predict sound judgments or decisions in critical stages of criminal investigations. Education and training is a solid foundation for the making of an expert detective. Nevertheless all participants’ researched across the two experiments were biased towards crime and guilt assumptive hypotheses. Hence, true abductive reasoning (i.e. to identify all competing explanations) and the presumption of innocence is hard to operationalise even for expert detectives with extensive training.
... Humans are social beings who learn and work in groups (Read & Miller, 1995). Internet technology connects internet users with information. ...
Internet technology has accelerated the development of communities from face-to-face into computer-mediated communications. Individuals who joined the virtual communities contributed greatly to building their knowledge by sharing their experiences. This study investigates the individuals’ knowledge sharing intentions using two approaches for the research model. The first approach is adopted from Hung & Cheng’s (2013) model that incorporates technology readiness, compatibility and acceptance. The second approach is a new model built specifically for this study which combines the social presence and compatibility into the technology acceptance. Furthermore, this study compared both models to identify their ability to explain the individuals’ knowledge sharing intentions.This study’s results show that the first model is not better than the second. In the first model, the technology readiness, as represented only by the innovative, is the only one having a positive effect on the technology acceptance. Meanwhile, the three other constructs, i.e. optimism, discomfort, and insecurity are not. In the second model, the social presence and compatibility that are integrated into the Technology Acceptance Model could actually positively affect the technology acceptance.In the technology readiness model, the ease of the technology is not the indicator which assesses the usefulness of the technology. Meanwhile, in the social presence model, the ease of use affects the usefulness of the technology. Furthermore, both in the technology readiness and social presence models, the perceived usefulness and ease of use affect the knowledge sharing intentions. The study finds that the social presence is able to explain the knowledge sharingintentions better than the technology readiness does. It implies practically that virtual community providers should make individuals be more active in their virtual communities. Then, the providers could facilitate the improvement of the individuals’ cognitive capabilities and competencies with their high motivation for knowledge sharing.Keywords: technology readiness, social presence, communications medium, compatibility, virtual community, online learning
... We explore space and time in active experience, and build social understanding by shar- ing feelings and intentions in movement (Delafield-Butt and Trevarthen 2015). Narrative behaviour, "inherent in the praxis of social interaction [even] before it achieves linguistic expression" (Bruner 1990, p. 77) is a foundation of conversa- tional meaning-making and culture (Read and Miller 1995;Cobley 2014). In our stories we make sense of our experiences, evaluate our actions and understand our intentions with aesthetic and moral feelings about how they are performed (Kearney 2002;Cunliffe and Coupland 2012). ...
In this chapter, I make use of the concepts of events and order-words from philosophers Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to ask “What work does the construct or category of ‘under 3s’ perform?” Taking two key events within the Australian policy context [2007–2015] in which under 3s performed an order-word in contrasting ways, I contend that with respect to policy commitments to the provision of a national system of high quality early childhood education and care, the category under 3s may serve similar functions to a ‘canary in the coal mine’. This idiomatic English language phrase refers to an advance warning of danger ahead. It originates from the days when underground miners carried caged canaries. If there were no noxious gases in the mine, the canary would survive yet another day. If noxious gases were present in the mine, the canary would perish before the levels of the gas reached those hazardous to humans. Employing this metaphor, I argue that in the current Australian context, ‘under 3s’ are at risk of being seen by the Australian Government as a category for whom policy commitments, particularly with respect to educator qualification requirements, are as expendable as the miners’ canaries. Endangered policy commitments to under 3 could portend further dangers ahead for efforts to achieve systemic and sustainable high quality ECEC.
... We explore space and time in active experience, and build social understanding by sharing feelings and intentions in movement (Delafield-Butt and Trevarthen, 2015). Narrative behaviour, "inherent in the praxis of social interaction [even] before it achieves linguistic expression" (Bruner, 1990, p. 77) is a foundation of conversational meaning-making and culture (Read and Miller, 1995;Cobley, 2014). In our stories we make sense of our experiences, evaluate our actions and understand our intentions with aesthetic and moral feelings about how they are performed (Kearney, 2002;Cunliffe and Coupland, 2012). ...
This chapter presents the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities. He or she is intuitively sociable, seeking affectionate relations with companions who are willing to share the pleasure and adventure of doing and knowing with ‘human sense’. Recent research traces signs of the child’s impulses and feelings from before birth, and follows their efforts to master experience through stages of self-creating in enjoyable and hopeful companionship. Sensitive timing of rhythms in action and playful invention show age-related advances of creative vitality as the body and brain grow. Much of shared meaning is understood and played with before a child can benefit from school instruction in a prescribed curriculum of the proper ways to use elaborate symbolic conventions. We begin with the theory of James Mark Baldwin, who observed that infants and young children are instinctive experimenters, repeating experience by imitating their own as well as other’s actions, accommodating to the resources of the shared world and assimilating new experiences as learned ideas for action. We argue that the child’s contribution to cultural learning is a good guide for practice in early education and care of children in their families and communities and in artificially planned and technically structured modern worlds of bewildering diversity.
... We explore space and time in active experience, and build social understanding by sharing feelings and intentions in movement (Delafield-Butt and Trevarthen 2015). Narrative behaviour, "inherent in the praxis of social interaction [even] before it achieves linguistic expression" (Bruner 1990, p. 77) is a foundation of conversational meaning-making and culture (Read and Miller 1995;Cobley 2014). In our stories we make sense of our experiences, evaluate our actions and understand our intentions with aesthetic and moral feelings about how they are performed (Kearney 2002;Cunliffe and Coupland 2012). ...
Notions of well-being have long been heralded as vital to the good life for human beings. This chapter considers the place of well-being in ECEC with a particular focus on the complex interconnections between well-being and the pedagogical experiences of infants. An examination of the place and purpose of well-being is critiqued in relation to eudaimonic and hedonic theorisations of well-being – theorisations that have implications for both the adult and the child. We explore the philosophical and educational underpinnings of a conceptualisation of well-being and use these to critique the contemporary observed problem of a lack of care, a lack of well-being, and the development of the early childhood teaching profession. We consider the competing concerns of care and education of infants and toddlers that are evident in the policies of the ministries of Health and Education in Aotearoa New Zealand. The chapter critiques positivistic approaches that seek to reduce well-being to discrete variables or checklists of health or happiness, and offers alternative views of well-being in terms of both an experience of well-being and a professional knowledge of well-being. Drawing upon the policy context of Aotearoa New Zealand, the final section of this chapter explores how the policy context can use simplistic approaches to well-being to avoid the important interconnections that exist between well-being and pedagogy. A key policy provocation that this chapter then engages with is: Should teachers of infants have a distinct early childhood teaching qualification? The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Starting strong II: early childhood education and care. OECD Publishing, 2006) notes that no “dominant core professional profile for work with infants and toddlers has emerged. This may be due to seeing the work as primarily a question of care, or in collective situations, as a question of maintaining health and hygiene.” We are not seeking to entrench any such dominant profession here, however we are seeking to create spaces of resistance for the dominance of some professional knowledge and educational traditions that seem to have made it possible to regard, for example, knowledge of health and hygiene as marginal (at best) matters of professional knowledge.
... This is particularly true for postcolonial societies, where divided pre-colonial loyalties need to be reconfigured and reconciled with new postcolonial allegiances. (Koh 2010: 1) Existing research and scholarship have demonstrated that 'stories are universally basic to conversation and meaning making', and 'humans appear to have a readiness, from the beginning of life, to hear and understand stories' (see, for instance Read and Miller 1995). According to narrative psychology, stories are the most efficient and natural way to communicate, especially when communicating about others (see, for example, Bruner quoted in Dautenhahn 2002: 103). ...
This article argues that the corporatist narrative of governance in Singapore is losing narrative rationality due primarily to large-scale immigration to Singapore. The real or perceived threat from such immigrants has galvanized Singaporeans
from different ethnic groups such that a strong Singaporean identity has emerged. As a result, the once strict artificial differences required for the corporatist narrative to be believable, that is, its narrative rationality, are being gradually eroded. The People's Action Party (PAP) will have to either repair the narrative rationality of corporatism or develop an alternative one that is more relevant in order to continue its narrative dominance of the political space in Singapore.
... Finally, the use of narrative, often included in both immersive and epistemic environments, is a feature that is uniquely characteristic of games, and is not commonly used in ITSs. Narrative is comprehended quickly and remembered well compared with other genres [41,42]. Unlike text or film, narrative in games has a distinctive status because the story plans can be co-constructed between the player and game system (with or without other players) and because it's possible for a player to experience hundreds of game threads rather than a single episodic sequence [23,43]. ...
Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been producing consistent learning gains for decades. The authors describe here a conceptual framework that provides a guide to how adding game-based features and components may improve the effectiveness of ITS learning environments by improving students’ motivation to engage with the system. A problem consistently faced by ITS researchers is the gap between liking and learning. ITSs effectively produce learning gains, but students often dislike interacting with the system. A potential solution to this problem lies in games. ITS researchers have begun to incorporate game-based elements within learning systems. This chapter aims to describe some of those elements, categorize them within functional groups, and provide insight into how elements within each category may affect various types of motivation.
... ' The conclusion of a narrative episode is followed by a disengagement , which allows the two partners to consider renewing their mutual focus , ready to begin building a new narrative cycle , or they may separate . Read and Miller ( 1995 , p . 143 ) , social psychologists , consider narratives to be " universally basic to conversation and meaning making . ...
Narrative, the creation of imaginative projects and experiences displayed in expressions of movement and voice, is how human cooperative understanding grows. Human understanding places the character and qualities of objects and events of interest within stories that portray intentions, feelings, and ambitions, and how one cares about them. Understanding the development of narrative is therefore essential for understanding the development of human intelligence, but its early origins are obscure. We identify the origins of narrative in the innate sensorimotor intelligence of a hypermobile human body and trace the ontogenesis of narrative form from its earliest expression in movement. Intelligent planning, with self-awareness, is evident in the gestures and motor expressions of the mid-gestation fetus. After birth, single intentions become serially organized into projects with increasingly ambitious distal goals and social meaning. The infant imitates others’ actions in shared tasks, learns conventional cultural practices, and adapts his own inventions, then names topics of interest. Through every stage, in simple intentions of fetal movement, in social imitations of the neonate, in early proto-conversations and collaborative play of infants and talk of children and adults, the narrative form of creative agency with it four-part structure of ‘introduction,’ ‘development,’ ‘climax,’ and ‘resolution’ is present. We conclude that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self. This basic structure is evident before birth and invariant in form throughout life. Serial organization of single, non-verbal actions into complex projects of expressive and explorative sense-making become conventional meanings and explanations with propositional narrative power. Understanding the root of narrative in embodied meaning-making in this way is important for practical work in therapy and education, and for advancing philosophy and neuroscience.
... The psychologist and philosopher Jerome Bruner holds that "just as our experience of the natural world tends to imitate the categories of familiar science, so our experience of human affairs comes to take the form of the narratives we use in telling about them" [5]. In other words, stories are pervasive: they are sense-making devices; they are characteristic of human thought; they are omnipresent in social interactions and communication [18,4]. By weaving stories between and around facts and events, humans make sense of their experiences, of their memories, of other humans' actions. ...
Although Social Machines do not have yet a formalized definition, some efforts have been made to characterize them from a ``machinery'' point of view. In this paper, we present a methodology by which we attempt to reveal the sociality of Social Machines; to do so, we adopt the analogy of stories. By assimilating a Social Machine to a story, we can identify the stories within and about that machine and how this storytelling perspective might reveal the sociality of Social Machines. After illustrating this storytelling approach with a few examples, we then propose three axes of inquiry to evaluate the health of a social machine: (1) assessment of the sociality of a Social Machine through evaluation of its storytelling potential and realization; (2) assessment of the sustainability of a Social Machine through evaluation of its reactivity and interactivity; and (3) assessment of emergence through evaluation of the collaboration between authors and of the distributed/mixed nature of authority.
... The relationship between social intelligence and narrative intelligence is outlined, with a particular emphasis on 1) the phylogenetic origins of primate (narrative) intelligence, and 2) the ontogenetic origin of autobiographical stories. The chapter is based on the assumption that in order to fully understand the importance and role of narrative in human intelligence one needs to draw attention to 'where stories come from', i.e. addressing whether story-telling can be linked to communication mechanisms that are evolutionary older but served a similar function, under which conditions and constraints story-telling capacities might have evolved, to what extent narrative intelligence is linked to social intelligence, etc, see Read and Miller (1995). This chapter will address some of these questions on the origin of narrative in primates and hopes to complement research that focuses on the particular structure and role of narrative in humans, e.g. ...
... At a cognitive level, narratives have been said to represent the default format for human thought, which form the foundation for decision making (Schank & Abelson, 1995). This reliance on narratives is suggested to be an evolutionary response to the need of humans to model the thoughts of other humans in the complex social interactions that define our species (Read & Miller, 1995). ...
This article discusses three ethical considerations science communicators face when considering narrative as a communication technique for science policy contexts: (a) What is the underlying purpose of using narrative: comprehension or persuasion? (b) What are the appropriate levels of accuracy to maintain? (c) Should narrative be used at all? These considerations intersect with perceptions of the appropriate roles of communication and of scientists within democracy. By providing a clearer articulation of these ethical considerations, the authors hope that narrative can become a more useful communication technique toward informed science policy decisions.
... The particular topic of this paper is narrative. With a few exceptions (Read & Miller, 1995), most discussions on the 'narrative mind' have neglected the evolutionary origins of narrative. Research on narrative focuses almost exclusively on language in humans (see, e.g., Turner, 1996). ...
This article presents work in progress towards a better understanding of the origins of narrative. Assuming an evolutionary and developmental continuity of mental experiences, we propose a grounding of human narrative capacities in non-verbal narrative transactions in non-human animals, and in pre-verbal narrative transactions of human children. We discuss narrative intelligence in the context of the evolution of primate (social) intelligence, and with respect to the particular cognitive limits that constrain the development of human social networks and societies. We explain the
Narrative Intelligence Hypothesis
which suggests that the evolutionary origin of communicating in a narrative format co-evolved with increasingly complex social dynamics among our human ancestors. This article gives examples of social interactions in non-human primates and how these can be interpreted in terms of narrative formats. Due to the central role of narrative in human communication and social interaction, we discuss how research into the origins of narrative can impact the development of humane technology which is designed to meet the biological, cognitive and social needs of human story-tellers.
... Narrative is a fundamental concept across cognitive (e.g., Schank & Abelson, 1995;Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994), social (Read, 1987;Read & Miller, 1995), emotional (Damasio, 2003;Stein & Levine, 1991), and communicative (e.g., Bryant & Zillman, 2002;W. R. Fisher, 1987;Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994;L. ...
A socially optimized learning approach, which integrates diverse theoretical perspectives, places men who have sex with men (MSM) in an interactive virtual environment designed to simulate the emotional, interpersonal, and contextual narrative of an actual sexual encounter while challenging and changing MSM's more automatic patterns of risky responses. MSM assume a character's identity and are scaffolded in their decision-making and relearning process by supportive, and often humorous, peer coaches who encourage situated learning of self-regulatory and behavioral skills, and tailor and frame their responses to be responsive to the men's behavioral choices. In a longitudinal design, participants were randomly assigned to receive either an interactive video (IAV) intervention with peer counseling or to a peer-counseling-alone control. Compared to the counseling alone, men who also received the IAV reduced risky anal sex behaviors and increased protected anal sex behaviors.
... Humans are social creatures (Read and Miller 1995). Gossiping and story telling is the means by which social interactions affect the balance of communities and societies (Emler 2001). ...
Incorporating storytelling into organizational culture.
This chapter considers the myths and falsehoods that Black children will encounter throughout their lifetime. These are numerous and are constantly being reinforced by children’s books, media, school curriculum, and the adults in their lives. As such, this chapter explores the use of and power of the purposeful placement of storiesStoriespurposeful placement in the author’s role as a Black mother of young Black children in the United States as an attempt to combat these and otherOther racialized realities.
This chapter explores the role of fear in politicians and presidents who led (and the politics of their time) amid some of the United States’ greatest crises. Further this chapter assesses political leaders and the concomitant systems of politics’ ability to move the masses, shift the thoughts of and influence constituents via the employment of fear (Ahmed, The politics of fear in the making of worlds. Int J Qual Stud Educ 16(3):377–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000086745, 2003). Fear, whether it is quelled and/or stimulated, provides the capacity to both “control and manipulate a variety of social and political discourses” (Shirlow and Pain, The geographies and politics of fear. Cap Class 27(2):15–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/030981680308000103, 2003). Fear over time and with conditioning is inextricably linked with matters and topics that impact humans’ daily living – to the extent that fear becomes like the air we breathe, we cannot see it, but it is there and a part of our daily living (Altheide, Notes towards a politics of fear. J Crime Conflict Media 1(1):37–54, 2003).
Learning is participatory and embodied. It requires active participation from both teacher and learner to come together to co-create shared projects of discovery that allow meaning to unfold and develop between them. This article advances theory on the intersubjective and embodied nature of cognition and meaning-making as constituted by co-created narrative units. Learning within embodied narrative episodes incorporate affective, energetic, and intentional components to produce schemas of engagement that structure knowledge and become units held in memory. We examine two cases of nonverbal narrative patterns of engagement between teacher and child within Nurture Group practice, a special pedagogy that attunes to the affects and interests of children. Analysis of these cases reveal patterns that established shared rhythm, affect, and body movement between teacher and child, which, on completion, generated shared joy and learning. Thus, we identify an embodied, co-created narrative structure of embodied cognition essential for learning and participatory meaning-making.
As human beings, more than two thirds of our conversation is spent in socialising, gossip and story telling (Dunbar, 1996, 1997). Transactional or functional conversation quickly moves on to social interaction, and we constantly recount anecdotes to reinforce a practical point we are making or to reinforce our validity to have an opinion on a subject.
This qualitative study considers emergent themes from purposive interviews with four individuals representing different age groups (child, young adult, adult, and older adult). The purpose of this study was to explore participants' meanings of leisure in relation to current recreation and leisure literature. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured interview questions and responses were examined for leisure themes. The findings of this study suggest that common leisure concepts and experiences emerged consistent with themes and definitions common in the leisure and recreation literature. Introduction The experience of leisure has been explored by numerous researchers and philosophers and is typically associated with the concepts of perceived freedom (Neulinger, 1974), activity (Nash, 1953), free time, personal expression, and enjoyment (Kleiber, 1999). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine common definitions and concepts of leisure and recreation through the lived experience. Specifically, two researchers conducted interviews with four individuals at four distinct ages. Five themes emerged from participant responses: leisure as freedom from obligation, leisure as voluntary participation, leisure as an activity, leisure as a social outlet, and connection to nature through leisure. Methodology and Interviewee Profiles To repond to Kleiber's (1999) call about the lack of examination of leisure behavior throughout the lifespan, this study employed a cross-sectional, semi-structured interview-design during spring 2010 to explore the experience of leisure with four individuals. A qualitative analysis was chosen to explore the leisure and its meanings through the lens of both investigators and interviewees (Merriam & Associates, 2002). Viewing the nature of reality as being individually and socially constructed, Bloomberg and Volpe (2008) added that the central assumption of basic interpretive qualitative research is that a person's reality is subjective to the experiences and relationships lived. To this end, and to compare interview responses, the researchers
People’s communications about a social interaction they have observed can often decrease their memory for the protagonists’ statements and behaviors. The nature of this decrement depends on both the type of communication and the type of item to be remembered. Participants in three experiments observed a movie of an interaction with the objective of merely comprehending it. Later, they wrote their impressions of the characters involved or alternately described the sequence of events that occurred. Communicating impressions of the protagonists decreased recognition of the statements that protagonists made but had little effect on the recognition of nonverbal behaviors. However, describing the sequence of events that occurred decreased recognition of both statements and nonverbal behaviors. A visual reminder of protagonists’ behaviors increased recognition of both these behaviors and the statements that accompanied them, whereas an auditory reminder of protagonists’ statements decreased recognition of nonverbal behaviors. Results were conceptualized in terms of the different mental representations that people use as a basis for judgment and the processes that underlie their construction.
In 4 longitudinal studies, the authors explicated how storytelling about relationships biases subsequent impressions in the direction of the story told. In Study 1, storytelling about a relationship conflict vignette biased impressions of blame 2 weeks later, even with memory bias neutralized. Study 2 tracked 2 distinct and variable influences on blame,—storytelling heuristic and memory mediated mechanisms—over a 40-week period. Heuristic but not memory mediated effects depended on story quality. In Study 3, the need for structure moderated use of the storytelling heuristic. In Study 4, storytelling biased impressions of real-life relationship conflicts 8 weeks later. In light of past research indicating that storytelling and idealization characterize satisfied relationships, the present results suggest that the cognitive side effects of storytelling may help cause idealization and satisfaction in relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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