I won't be able to make today's meeting because of another meeting. I think the group should consider developing something from the Lenay and
Steiner experiment. I see there being two layers to the experimental setup: 1) an elaboration of
their setup, which probes a minimal condition for encountering a space of
*multiple* identifiable objects, each with their own location, and does so
in such a way as to let us see how movement engenders locative space. So,
something like: three objects, each lit by LEDs of different colours, with
(say) different fingers being stimulated for each differently coloured
object, so as to get a sense of different identities/locations in felt
movement; 2) a felt constraint on the participant's moving relation to the
objects. I think the latter could be done by having little bump barriers to
impede movement of participants in rolling chairs, given that we might want
to have them seated, for safety, given that they are blindfolded. Or,
perhaps we could let them roam in the black box, and have a system that
monitors their location, and generates a felt sense of running into limits
by having a vibrating device (like a cell phone vibrate) going off on their
back or stomach when they approach virtual walls. I like this second idea
better. For safety, there are no barriers, and objects are on top of soft
foam cube tables or something like that. We have spotters who will tell
participants to stop. First, it lets us combine the virtual and the real, since participants are
really moving around with their real bodies, in a real space; it's just that
the salient aspects of the real space (the three identifiable objects, the
boundaries) are generated within the realm of the participants movement, via
interaction with the three objects, and the boundary generation system. Second, this lets us move the virtual walls as easily as we like, either
from static setup to static setup, or dynamically within a test, so we can
slowly grow 'doors' lengthen, halls, etc. as we like. This gives us
tremendous flexibility. Note we could also use different frequencies of
vibration to do Xin Wei's 'banding'--maybe approaching a 'wall' that slowly
ramps up frequency would feel like pushing through a sticky membrane. Third, it gives us an easy record of the person's position and velocity,
etc. over time. We'd record video of the experiment, and collect self-reports, which would
end up being, I think, on the genesis of space, room, object identity,
within space, etc. We'd want to give some very open ended direction that would conduce memory
issues, like "pick up the ball, move as far away from its initial location
as you can, then go back for the mug and move as far away from its initial
location as you can, and then go back and pick up he book and move as far
away as you can," where they start in a situation where the mug and the book
are far away from one another, in distinctive locations. We'd want to see
how well they remember where the mug vs. the book are, when coming back, and
see how this varies when they are doing it in an unbounded situation (the
whole black box), in a situation that is one long hallway (so move as far
away means going down a hall way), or when moving as far away means going
into another room, and then coming back through a doorway to the mug and
book as framed by a room as constraint, how it varies with picking up and
dropping things. In other words, testing the room effect where the testing
is in terms of felt movement, and the set up can be varied flexibly, and we
thereby probe minimal conditions.
David -----Original Message-----
From: owner-mp-seminar@concordia.ca [mailto:owner-mp-seminar@concordia.ca]
On Behalf Of Sha Xin Wei
Sent: November-17-10 6:09 AM
To: Memory Seminar; post@memoryplace.posterous.com
Cc: TML List
Subject: Memory+Place today Dear Memory+Place: Our next two meetings are today and Wednesday, December 1. Today we carry on our experimental design. It should be helpful to review
Tristana's paper, posted to
http://memoryplace.posterous.com. See you!
Xin Wei
Steiner experiment. I see there being two layers to the experimental setup: 1) an elaboration of
their setup, which probes a minimal condition for encountering a space of
*multiple* identifiable objects, each with their own location, and does so
in such a way as to let us see how movement engenders locative space. So,
something like: three objects, each lit by LEDs of different colours, with
(say) different fingers being stimulated for each differently coloured
object, so as to get a sense of different identities/locations in felt
movement; 2) a felt constraint on the participant's moving relation to the
objects. I think the latter could be done by having little bump barriers to
impede movement of participants in rolling chairs, given that we might want
to have them seated, for safety, given that they are blindfolded. Or,
perhaps we could let them roam in the black box, and have a system that
monitors their location, and generates a felt sense of running into limits
by having a vibrating device (like a cell phone vibrate) going off on their
back or stomach when they approach virtual walls. I like this second idea
better. For safety, there are no barriers, and objects are on top of soft
foam cube tables or something like that. We have spotters who will tell
participants to stop. First, it lets us combine the virtual and the real, since participants are
really moving around with their real bodies, in a real space; it's just that
the salient aspects of the real space (the three identifiable objects, the
boundaries) are generated within the realm of the participants movement, via
interaction with the three objects, and the boundary generation system. Second, this lets us move the virtual walls as easily as we like, either
from static setup to static setup, or dynamically within a test, so we can
slowly grow 'doors' lengthen, halls, etc. as we like. This gives us
tremendous flexibility. Note we could also use different frequencies of
vibration to do Xin Wei's 'banding'--maybe approaching a 'wall' that slowly
ramps up frequency would feel like pushing through a sticky membrane. Third, it gives us an easy record of the person's position and velocity,
etc. over time. We'd record video of the experiment, and collect self-reports, which would
end up being, I think, on the genesis of space, room, object identity,
within space, etc. We'd want to give some very open ended direction that would conduce memory
issues, like "pick up the ball, move as far away from its initial location
as you can, then go back for the mug and move as far away from its initial
location as you can, and then go back and pick up he book and move as far
away as you can," where they start in a situation where the mug and the book
are far away from one another, in distinctive locations. We'd want to see
how well they remember where the mug vs. the book are, when coming back, and
see how this varies when they are doing it in an unbounded situation (the
whole black box), in a situation that is one long hallway (so move as far
away means going down a hall way), or when moving as far away means going
into another room, and then coming back through a doorway to the mug and
book as framed by a room as constraint, how it varies with picking up and
dropping things. In other words, testing the room effect where the testing
is in terms of felt movement, and the set up can be varied flexibly, and we
thereby probe minimal conditions.
David -----Original Message-----
From: owner-mp-seminar@concordia.ca [mailto:owner-mp-seminar@concordia.ca]
On Behalf Of Sha Xin Wei
Sent: November-17-10 6:09 AM
To: Memory Seminar; post@memoryplace.posterous.com
Cc: TML List
Subject: Memory+Place today Dear Memory+Place: Our next two meetings are today and Wednesday, December 1. Today we carry on our experimental design. It should be helpful to review
Tristana's paper, posted to
http://memoryplace.posterous.com. See you!
Xin Wei