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Shared mental models in improvisational theatre

Published: 03 November 2011 Publication History

Abstract

This article presents our currents findings from an empirical study of the cognition employed by performers in improvisational theatre. Improvised theatrical performance is an activity in which one or more individuals create a dramatic or comedic performance in real-time and is an interesting example of creative, real-time, collaborative problem solving. Unlike other forms of creative problem solving, improvisers are constrained from explicitly coordinating with the other improvisers on stage or revising their decisions after the fact. This article focuses on the means by which a group of improvisers converge on a shared understanding (i.e. a shared mental model) of what a scene is about and how it should proceed. We present our findings on how improvisers build shared mental models during a performance and discuss our applications of these findings to the design and development of improvisational intelligent agents.

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  • (2024)Cyber Ear / Cypher Ear, a System for Automatically Appreciating Off-the-Top RapProceedings of the 16th Conference on Creativity & Cognition10.1145/3635636.3664270(38-42)Online publication date: 23-Jun-2024
  • (2023)Observable Creative Sense-Making (OCSM): A Method For Quantifying Improvisational Co-Creative InteractionProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593514(103-115)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
  • (2022)The Relationship between Co-Creative Dialogue and High School Learners' Satisfaction with their Collaborator in Computational Music RemixingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129706:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
C&C '11: Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Creativity and cognition
November 2011
492 pages
ISBN:9781450308205
DOI:10.1145/2069618
  • General Chair:
  • Ashok K. Goel,
  • Program Chairs:
  • Fox Harrell,
  • Brian Magerko,
  • Yukari Nagai,
  • Jane Prophet
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 03 November 2011

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Author Tags

  1. cognition
  2. improvisation
  3. intelligent agents
  4. mental models
  5. theatre

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C&C '11
Sponsor:
C&C '11: Creativity and Cognition 2011
November 3 - 6, 2011
Georgia, Atlanta, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 108 of 371 submissions, 29%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Cyber Ear / Cypher Ear, a System for Automatically Appreciating Off-the-Top RapProceedings of the 16th Conference on Creativity & Cognition10.1145/3635636.3664270(38-42)Online publication date: 23-Jun-2024
  • (2023)Observable Creative Sense-Making (OCSM): A Method For Quantifying Improvisational Co-Creative InteractionProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593514(103-115)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
  • (2022)The Relationship between Co-Creative Dialogue and High School Learners' Satisfaction with their Collaborator in Computational Music RemixingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129706:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
  • (2022)Investigating the Relationship Between Dialogue States and Partner Satisfaction During Co-Creative Learning TasksInternational Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education10.1007/s40593-022-00302-533:3(543-582)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2022
  • (2018)Sources of Embodied Creativity: Interactivity and Ideation in Contact ImprovisationBehavioral Sciences10.3390/bs80600528:6(52)Online publication date: 23-May-2018
  • (2015)Play together, think alike: Shared mental models in expert music improvisersPsychology of Music10.1177/030573561557740644:3(544-558)Online publication date: 24-Apr-2015
  • (2014)The PC3 Framework: A Formal Lens for Analyzing Interactive Narratives across Media FormsInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-319-12337-0_10(103-112)Online publication date: 2014
  • (2013)Leaving room for improvisationProceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children10.1145/2485760.2485771(92-101)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2013
  • (2013)Let's get togetherProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2470654.2466266(2009-2018)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2013
  • (2012)A formal architecture of shared mental models for computational improvisational agentsProceedings of the 12th international conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents10.1007/978-3-642-33197-8_45(440-446)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2012

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