Using Out-of-Character Reasoning to Combine Storytelling and Education in a Serious Game

To reconcile storytelling and educational meta-goals in the context of a serious game, we propose to make use of out-of-character reasoning in virtual agents. We will implement these agents in a serious game of our design, which will focus on social interaction in conflict scenarios with the meta-goal of improving social awareness of users. The agents will use out-of-character reasoning to manage conflicts by assuming different in-character personalities or by planning to take specific actions based on interaction with the users. In-character reasoning is responsible for the storytelling concerns of character believability and consistency. These are not endangered by out-of-character reasoning, as it takes in-character information into account when making decisions

Aantekeningen bij L'ARGENT

Bij het zien van l'ARGENT waren het de exaktheid, de strengheid van de beelden en geluiden en het ontbreken van enige vorm van psychologie, van enige vorm van verklaring van de gebeurtenissen die mij het meest gefascineerd hebben ..... 02 01 89 93

Meta-techniques for a social awareness learning game

In live action role play, so-called meta-techniques are used, in which meta-information (information outside of the enacted world setting, such as learning goals) is taken into account and used during play. We show how we intend to include two such meta-techniques in LOITER, a serious game about social interaction. In this game, players can interact with virtual characters with the ultimate goal of improving their own social awareness. We have constructed sets of learning goals around the interpersonal circumplex, a model for social interaction also used in the training curriculum of the police academy. The meta-techniques we are developing can assist players in attaining these learning goals by providing both feedback and insight into what is at play in characters' minds. The first meta-technique is that of act breaks: intermissions between acts of a live action role play during which players discuss the previous and following acts. In LOITER, consecutive acts have increasing levels of interaction complexity, corresponding to our sets of learning goals. In the act breaks, the trainee and the virtual character exchange information about their motivations for certain actions and what the effects of these actions were. This helps the trainees analyse the situation and their own actions. Secondly, feedback on the actions of trainees can be given in a less intrusive way during the acts themselves. We show, based on another meta-technique, how virtual characters can show 'thought bubbles' which give insight in their personal thoughts and thus help the trainees determine the reasons behind their behaviour

Women's Autonomy and Subjective Well-Being in India: How Village Norms Shape the Impact of Self-Help Groups

This paper presents quasi-experimental impact estimates of women self-help groups on subjective well-being in Orissa, India. We find that, on average, self-help group membership does not affect subjective well-being. However, our results at the same time reveal that subjective well-being sharply declines for those members whose newly gained autonomy meets with relatively conservative social gender norms among non-members. We interpret this finding as evidence for heterogeneous losses of feelings of identity for self-help group members. Identity losses loom larger when women’s enhanced autonomy implies a stronger violation of social gender norms at the community level. Social sanctioning mechanisms play an important role in the heterogeneous negative impact on subjective well-being, as evidenced by qualitative accounts of women’s empowerment trajectories in the research area.Autonomy; Subjective Well-Being; Impact Evaluation; Identity; Sanctioning; India

CLIC e+e- Linear Collider Studies - Input to the Snowmass process 2013

This paper addresses the issues in question for Energy Frontier Lepton and Gamma Colliders by the Frontier Capabilities group of the Snowmass 2013 process and is structured accordingly. It will be accompanied by a paper describing the Detector and Physics studies for the CLIC project currently in preparation for submission to the Energy Frontier group.Comment: Submitted to the Snowmass process 2013. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1208.140

CLIC e+e- Linear Collider Studies

This document provides input from the CLIC e+e- linear collider studies to the update process of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. It is submitted on behalf of the CLIC/CTF3 collaboration and the CLIC physics and detector study. It describes the exploration of fundamental questions in particle physics at the energy frontier with a future TeV-scale e+e- linear collider based on the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) two-beam acceleration technique. A high-luminosity high-energy e+e- collider allows for the exploration of Standard Model physics, such as precise measurements of the Higgs, top and gauge sectors, as well as for a multitude of searches for New Physics, either through direct discovery or indirectly, via high-precision observables. Given the current state of knowledge, following the observation of a \sim125 GeV Higgs-like particle at the LHC, and pending further LHC results at 8 TeV and 14 TeV, a linear e+e- collider built and operated in centre-of-mass energy stages from a few-hundred GeV up to a few TeV will be an ideal physics exploration tool, complementing the LHC. Two example scenarios are presented for a CLIC accelerator built in three main stages of 500 GeV, 1.4 (1.5) TeV, and 3 TeV, together with the layout and performance of the experiments and accompanied by cost estimates. The resulting CLIC physics potential and measurement precisions are illustrated through detector simulations under realistic beam conditions.Comment: Submitted to the European Strategy Preparatory Grou