What's Cooking in the Imagination Lab?

Psychology professor Marjorie Taylor tests out Second Life in her graduate seminar on imagination

Joyce Winslow
jwins@uoregon.edu

Psychology professor Marjorie Taylor looks a bit worried as she describes her plan to attempt a meeting of her graduate seminar in Second Life. She admits some misgivings that her bold experiment may not work. "It could be a disaster!" she exclaims, wincing at the thought.

So why is she taking the risk?

At this moment she is probably wondering this herself, having only just learned about Second Life (SL) software and its possible educational applications while attending a professional seminar last summer. At the time it seemed like an ideal addition to her fall graduate seminar on imagination, and possibly another way of expanding her research into the creative process. What better way to explore the realm of imagination than in a virtual world where people create their own alter egos (known as "avatars" in Second Life)?

Taylor has already done extensive research on imagination in children and has written a book on the subject (Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999). She is currently exploring a phenomenon reported by many adult fiction writers in which their characters take on a life of their own. Taylor calls this "the illusion of independent agency," and she has been documenting its occurrence for a new book.

When her seminar first met last fall, Taylor gave students the assignment of creating Second Life avatars and familiarizing themselves with the program. They were asked to keep a journal of their experiences in Second Life, and to think about ways the software might be useful in psychological research. "I'm really interested in the emotional content of fantasy material…the fact that we can love something that's imaginary, or become afraid of something that's not real," Taylor explains. "I'm also trying to understand companionship in Second Life--not romantic companionship, just everyday companionship and the development of identity--the dynamics of how that works." Her hope was that her class's voyage of discovery would yield some important clues.

Initially, some students were a bit put off by the learning curve. For those with little or no gaming experience, becoming adept at moving their cyber-personas and mastering the art of flying, chatting, gesturing--and even taking snapshots--in Second Life was a challenge. To help them along, Taylor invited Second Life expert Jonathon Richter, a researcher with the UO's Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE), to demonstrate some navigation techniques to her class. Richter is part of a CATE team that recently received a grant to research the educational possibilities of Second Life, and his enthusiasm inspired the class to refine their skills.

The culmination of their labors came on November 14, when the class met in cyberspace for the first time.

As it happened, Taylor need not have worried about the outcome, because her seminar in Second Life turned out to be a great success. IT Connections reporter Vickie Nelson and I can attest to that, because we took a crash course in Second Life, hastily created our avatars, and joined Taylor's class on the big day.

Rather than gather her students in one place for a traditional classroom-style discussion, Taylor opted to organize a Second Life "field trip" for the class. Working from their laptops and workstations at home or on campus, everyone logged onto Second Life at the appointed hour to meet in Chilbo Town Hall. After assembling in the courtyard to pose for a class photo, the group teleported to several other novel Second Life locales, including St. Basil's Cathedral, where they visited Lenin's Tomb, and Roma, where they took a litter ride to the Theater of Dionysius and explored the marketplace. Throughout, the group engaged in lively instant messaging exchanges, and the more nimble among us experimented with antics ranging from parachuting to piano playing.

For the grand finale, everyone repaired to "Ruby's," where retired teacher and Second Life enthusiast Tom Layton, in the guise of his SL avatar Sir ArthurConan Doyle, offered the group refreshment and relaxation. (Ruby's is an integral part of the G.U.I.L.D. Academy in New Babbage, an SL research and teacher training facility where Layton serves as a team leader in online learning ventures.)

From the standpoint of our reporting team, going on an SL field trip was remarkably similar to a real-life experience. The mood was one of excitement and anticipation, and the students, seeing each other's avatars for the first time, were amused and surprised by the contrast between their classmates' real-life personas and their SL characters.

A frequent complaint we heard about students' initial solo SL experiences was that they seemed "random and aimless," "lonely," or "isolated." Once Second Life explorations were given the social context of the class field trip, however, it made all the difference in terms of connecting emotionally to the virtual world. "The class field trip was definitely bonding. I saw another, more relaxed side of my classmates. People were funnier, more outrageous," observed Alison Shawber, a third-year Ph.D. candidate and GTF in Taylor's Imagination Lab. Her classmate John Meyers, a first-year masters degree candidate focusing on social psychology, said that prior to the field trip, he hadn't spoken to his classmates outside of class, "but in Second Life I was more inclined to chit chat…I enjoyed the companionship of traveling together."

Aside from the opportunity to explore the dynamics of social interaction, identity, and companionship, another feature of Second Life that fascinates Taylor is the opportunity it gives participants to use their own creativity and imagination. "I want to involve students in the creative process themselves, not just scholarly research," she says. Taylor, who takes a very hands-on approach to research herself, even went so far as to try writing a screenplay, a process she found very helpful in understanding the creative process.

Although Second Life was perhaps the most unusual component of Taylor's seminar, it comprised only about 20 percent of the course. "The field trip was used as a vehicle to connect back to our study of the human capacity to become absorbed in fictional social worlds," she explains. Other facets of the course included the evolution of foresight, mental time travel, creative cognition, personality correlates of fantasy proneness, the functions of mind wandering, the distinction between fantasy and reality and the development of imagination in children.

For one of their final projects, students were asked to reflect on how virtual realities ("sims") such as Second Life might be used in psychological research. Alison Shawber, whose research focuses on the relationship between children's sociability and their pretend play, was intrigued by what Second Life might reveal about adults. "Second Life is an adult form of child's play. It would be interesting to investigate adult imagination and role play, to find out what it is about Second Life that engages them--why would adults do that?" she mused. Her classmate Laura Akers, who is studying personality and individual differences for her Ph.D., concluded that "SL is a world for extraverts who are visually oriented (but not too picky about visual quality) and for eager prim artists." She thought further investigation into the lure of virtual reality "may also have interesting psychological aspects and shed some light on basic issues of imagination and imaginativeness." John Meyers saw real research potential in Second Life. "I can definitely see its potential in various areas of psychological research--especially in my field (self representations)." He was also intrigued by the potential of Second Life for studying how people's avatars/fictional personas might influence changes in their behavior, both in the virtual world and in the real world.

Taylor is understandably relieved that her class experiment was successful. "I was flying by the seat of my pants! Luckily, a lot of things just worked out," says Taylor. She also gives a great deal of credit to the advice and support of experienced Second Life educators Tom Layton and Jonathon Richter. "They were very inspiring--and very, very helpful," she says gratefully.

Buoyed by the success of her trial run, Taylor plans to use Second Life again in her spring term Imagination course. This will present new challenges, as the spring class is roughly five times the size of her fall seminar. Several graduate students from the fall seminar, including Laura Akers and Jef Petersen, will assist Marjorie with the spring course. Petersen, a theater arts major with a strong interest in interdisciplinary work in the fields of theater and psychology, has proposed another bold experiment: producing a theater piece in Second Life.

Taylor and her research team are fastening their seat belts. It should be another wild ride into the realm of imagination.

* "primitive parts," the building blocks of Second Life that are used to create the virtual world

Want to learn more about Second Life? See our list of Second Life Resources.