Cisco Parisi - Empathy for the Avatar Mea @ uni bo

1. Empathy for the
Avatar
Towards an Embodied Account of
Game Playing
Francesco Parisi - fparisi@unime.it

2. Paper structure
a) to present the embodied account of cognition and its neuroaesthetic
applications to painting and moving pictures
b) to summarize philosophical arguments and scientific acquisitions
highlighting the naturally present predisposition of our phenomenal
experience to be externalized on artificial agents, showing how our brains
allow us to phenomenologically perceive avatars in game playing not as
“others” but as “we”
c) to arrange these discoveries within an unified view of the role of technology
in shaping our cognition

4. Embodied simulation in film
viewing
Related readings:
Gallese, V., & Guerra M. (2012). Embodying movies: Embodied
simulation and film studies. Journal of Philosophy and the Moving
Image, 3, 183-210.
Heimann, K., Umiltà, M. A., Guerra, M., & Gallese, V. (2014). Moving
Mirrors: A High-density EEG Study Investigating the Effect of
Camera Movements on Motor Cortex Activation during Action
Observation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(9), 2087–2101.

5. Embodied game playing
Gegersen, A., & Grodal, T. (2014). Embodiment and Interface. In Wolf, M. J.
P., & Perron, B. (2013). The Video Game Theory Reader 2. London, Routledge,
pp. 65-83.
Cognition is embodied, we experience both
- ownership
- agency
Related reading:
Gallagher, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

6. We are Mario
The guy on the screen during game playing is not a
character I empathize with, I’m not putting myself in
his/her shoes by simulating his/her perspective: I’m
him!

7. Body-Mapping and its fallacies
“The existing interfaces primarily support agency, and thus possibly feelings of
active ownership and efficacy in relation to avatars and tools. In contrast,
experiences of being patients, being objects of embodied actions deriving
from game worlds, are presently not supported by existing interface
technology.”

8. Wii Tennis

9. Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., & Ducheneaut, N. (2009). The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation
on Online and Offline Behavior. Communication Research, 36(2), 285–312.

10. Mental bilocation
Furlanetto, T., Bertone, C., & Becchio, C. (2013). The bilocated mind: new perspectives on self-localization and
self-identification. Front Hum Neurosci, 7, 71.
Lenggenhager, B., Tadi, T., Metzinger, T., & Blanke, O. (2007). Video ergo sum: manipulating bodily self-consciousness.
Science, 317(5841), 1096-1099.

11. Experimental Goals
1) the third-person visual perspective on the avatar (3PP)
2) players emotional involvement with their avatar
3) avatar-related memory
Ganesh, S., van Schie, H. T., de Lange, F. P., Thompson, E., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2012). How the Human Brain Goes Virtual:
Distinct Cortical Regions of the Person-Processing Network Are Involved in Self-Identification with Virtual Agents.
Cerebral Cortex, 22(7), 1577–1585.

13. Ganesh, S., van Schie, H. T., de Lange, F. P., Thompson, E., & Wigboldus, D. H.
J. (2012). How the Human Brain Goes Virtual: Distinct Cortical Regions of
the Person-Processing Network Are Involved in Self-Identification with
Virtual Agents. Cerebral Cortex, 22(7), 1577–1585.
Decety J, Grezes J. (2006). The power of simulation: imagining one’s own
and other’s behavior. Brain Res. 1079:4--14.

14. Leménager, T., Dieter, J., Hill, H., Koopmann, A., Reinhard, I., Sell, M., et al. (2014). Neurobiological correlates of physical
self-concept and self-identification with avatars in addicted players of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
(MMORPGs). Addictive Behaviors, 39(12), 1789–1797.

15. The Extensions of Man

16. Peri-personal space modulation
“If external objects can be reconceptualized as
belonging to the body, it may be inevitable that
the converse reconceptualization, i.e. the subject
can now objectify its body parts as equivalent to
external tools, becomes likewise apparent. Thus,
use of tools may lead to the ability to disembody
the sense of self from the literal flesh-and-blood
boundaries of one’s skin.” (Iriki Sakura 2008)
Iriki, A., & Sakura, O. (2008). The neuroscience of
primate intellectual evolution: natural selection
and passive and intentional niche construction.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B:
Biological Sciences, 363(1500), 2229–2241.

17. Media Feedback

18. Material Engagement Theory
[Material Engagement Theory ] maps a cognitive
landscape in which brains, bodies, and things play equal
roles in the drama of human cognitive becoming. The
Material engagement approach proposes a new way of
thinking about minds and things that, I hope, will help us
answer the question that is central to this book: how do
things shape the mind?.

19. Conclusion
1) Pictures play a crucial role for our cognition, because they allow a degree of simulative
accomplishment not comparable for other media: they work like environments where one can
freely simulate experiences from a safe position.
2) Among pictures, video games fully accomplish the simulation, fostering a complete self
allocation beyond the body: the guy on the screen is me!
3) An increasing amount of evidence demonstrates that we are “natural born cyborgs” (quoting
Andy Clark). Our cognition is constituted by the technology surrounding us, as media ecology
ever since aims to show.