The Flow Grid: A Technique for Observing and Measuring Emotional State in Children Interacting with a Flow Machine

Abstract

The presence of flow state was measured and observed in children playing with the MIROR-Improvisation prototype, an interactive reflexive musical system (IRMS). IRMS have been defined as ‘flow machines’ on account of their ability to imitate the style of the human playing a keyboard. Twenty-four children (4 and 8 years old) took part in three sessions playing a keyboard on three consecutive days. In each session, all children played the keyboard with and without the MIROR-Impro, alone and with a friend. One group of children played the system with a set-up in which the reply is more similar to the child’s input (set-up Same). The other group played the system with the set-up Very Different, in which the reply is less similar to the child’s input. The results show that the flow state is higher when the children play with MIROR-Impro, with the set-up Same and in 8-year-old children. These results would support the hypothesis that IRMS and reflexive interaction can generate an experience of well being and creativity. The flow grid worked in an effective way and it was possible to identify some aspects of the system that could be improved.

Keywords:

• MIROR platform
• flow machine
• human-machine interaction
• observation methodology
• emotion
• childhood music education

Acknowledgements

This article is a revised and extended version of the paper published in E. Cambouropoulos, C. Tsougras, P. Mavromatis, & K. Pastiadis (Eds.) (2012), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) (pp. 20–30), Thessaloniki, Greece. Adapted with permission.

Notes

1 Further data were collected which were used for other analyses besides flow. In particular: a week after session 3, each child was invited by her/his teacher to draw a picture of the experience; profiles of the children were completed by the teachers during the third week of the protocol; questionnaires for parents were distributed at the end of the protocol and collected by the teacher.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the EU-ICT Project MIROR (Musical Interaction Relying On Reflexion, www.mirorproject.eu).