角色扮演遊戲對臺灣大學生的認知創造力和情緒創造力的影響

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學教育心理與輔導學系碩士論文. 指導教授：陳學志博士，邱發忠博士. 教育心理與輔導學系. 國立臺灣師範大學. 碩士論文. 角色扮演遊戲對臺灣大學生的認知創造力和情緒創造力的影響. 研究生：Scott Benjamin Dyson 撰. 角色扮演遊戲對臺灣大學生的認知創造力和情緒創造力胡的金枝影撰響 Dyson. 九十六年撰一一月百零二年六月. 中華民國一百零二年六月.

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(3) Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University Master’s Thesis. Advisors: Dr. Hsueh-Chih Chen and Dr. FaChung Chiu. THE EFFECT OF TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING GAMES ON THE COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL CREATIVITY OF TAIWANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS. Scott Benjamin Dyson June, 2013 iii.

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(5) Acknowledgements. I’d like to thank the following people for their wonderful support and assistance. Without them, I would not have been able to complete my thesis work:. My advisors, Dr. Hsueh-Chih Chen and Dr. Fa-Chung Chiu. My upperclassman, Mr. Yu-Lin Chang My classmate, Miss Tracy Hsiung My wonderful mother, Mrs. Marianne J. Dyson And everyone else who went out of their way to help this pesky foreigner.. v.

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(7) 中文摘要關於桌上型角色扮演遊戲(tabletop role-playing games) 影響創造力的文獻，一直以來都是稀少的，兩者的關聯也是不明確的。本研究的目的在於檢驗角色扮演是如何影響認知和情緒創造力。為此，本研究採用兩組的實驗設計：實驗組（N=19）以及控制組（N=20）。實驗組在完成情緒創造力量表(ECI)和陶倫斯創造力測驗成人適用精簡版(ATTA)兩項前測之後，每週進行一次桌上型角色扮演遊戲，為期四週。實驗結束後，受試者再一次填寫兩份測驗。另一方面，控制組僅實施前、後測而並未進行桌上型角色扮演遊戲。資料蒐集完畢後，研究員採用 ANCOVA 統計法比較兩組的差異，結果並未顯著，亦即角色扮演遊戲對於台灣大學生的情緒和認知創造力並沒有造成影響。. 關鍵字：角色扮演、情緒創造力、認知創造力、創造力訓練。. vii.

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(9) Abstract Research on the effect of tabletop role-playing games on creativity has been sparse. It is not clear exactly how the two are related. The purpose of this study was to examine how role-play influences cognitive and emotional creativity. To investigate this topic, this study used a two group experimental design, one treatment group (N=19) and one control group (N=20). After taking the Emotional Creativity Index (ECI) and Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) as pre-tests, the treatment group played tabletop roleplaying games once every week for four weeks. Upon the completion of the treatment, the subjects retook the tests. The control group only took the pre-tests and post-tests and did not play any role-playing games. After data collection, ANCOVAs were run to test the differences between the two groups. No significant results were found, and it was concluded that role-playing games do not influence the emotional or cognitive creativity of Taiwanese college students. Keywords: role-play, emotional creativity, cognitive creativity, creativity training. ix.

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(11) Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 1 中文摘要 (Chinese Abstract) ............................................................................................. vii Abstract (English) ................................................................................................................. ix Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. xi List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................ 3 1.2 Potential Solutions ...................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Significance to the Field .............................................................................................. 7 1.6 Definitions ................................................................................................................... 8 1.7 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 11 2.1 Defining and Teaching Creativity.............................................................................. 13 2.2 Role-play in the Classroom........................................................................................ 20 2.3 Direct Association: TRPGs and Creativity ................................................................ 22 2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3: Methods ............................................................................................................. 29 3.1 Setting ........................................................................................................................ 30 3.2 Participants................................................................................................................. 30 xi.

(12) 3.3 Experimental Design.................................................................................................. 32 3.4 Materials .................................................................................................................... 34 3.4.1 Instructions. ......................................................................................................... 34 3.4.2 Story Modules. .................................................................................................... 35 3.5 Testing Materials ....................................................................................................... 39 3.5.1 Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). ................................................. 39 3.5.2 Emotional Creativity Index. ................................................................................ 40 3.6 Procedure ................................................................................................................... 42 3.7 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 43 Chapter 4: Results................................................................................................................ 45 4.1 Cognitive Creativity Results ...................................................................................... 45 4.1.1 Overall Creativity Score. ..................................................................................... 48 4.1.2 Flexibility. ........................................................................................................... 49 4.1.3 Originality. .......................................................................................................... 50 4.1.4 Elaboration. ......................................................................................................... 50 4.1.5 Comparison Scores: Fluency, Elaboration, and Originality. ............................... 51 4.2 Emotional Creativity Results ..................................................................................... 53 4.2.1 Overall Emotional Creativity Score. ................................................................... 55 4.2.2 Preparedness. ....................................................................................................... 56 4.2.3 Novel Origins. ..................................................................................................... 56 4.2.4 Novel Reactions. ................................................................................................. 57 4.2.4 Effectiveness. ...................................................................................................... 57. xii.

(13) 4.3 Summary .................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 5: Discussion .......................................................................................................... 59 5.1 Cognitive Creativity ................................................................................................... 60 5.2 Emotional Creativity .................................................................................................. 62 5.3 Overall Considerations .............................................................................................. 64 5.4 Limitations ................................................................................................................. 65 5.6 Implications for Future Research ............................................................................... 66 5.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 68 References ........................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix A Emotional Creativity Index (ECI) ................................................................... 76 Appendix B How to Play TRPGs ........................................................................................ 76 Appendix C Character Sheet(角色欄) .............................................................................. 83 Appendix D God Items Used In Play ................................................................................. 83 Appendix E Agreement of Use for the ECI........................................................................ 88. xiii.

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(15) List of Tables Table 4-1 Group Pre-test, Post-test, and Adjusted Means for Cognitive Creativity Scales47 Table 4-2 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects, the Effect of Group Membership on Scales of Cognitive Creativity............................................................................................................. 48 Table 4-3 Paired Samples Statistics for the Treatment Group ........................................... 52 Table 4-4 Paired Samples Test for the Treatment Group .................................................. 53 Table 4-5 Group Pre-test, Post-test, and Adjusted Means for Emotional Creativity Scales54 Table 4-6 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects, the Effect of Group Membership on Scales of Emotional Creativity ........................................................................................................... 55. xv.

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(17) Chapter 1: Introduction. People from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan commonly believe that to be creative, one must be innovative, dynamic, and intellectual, while in the West, artistic expression is also very commonly associated with creativity (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). These creative people, and their creative products, are responsible for massive change, such as a single computer chip going from only being able to hold five transistors in 1964, to now holding a billion or more transistors (Puccio, Mance, Switalski, & Reali, 2012). Yet, very few people recognize that emotions themselves are creative products. A very strong case has been made that emotions are inexorably linked to moral judgments (Prinz, 2006), and predict changes in cognition, judgment, experience, behavior, and physiology (Lench, Flores, & Bench, 2011). It would not be an exaggeration to say that emotions are the very foundation for how people make sense of our world. People respond emotionally all the time, but even experiencing the same situation, people may have widely different emotional reactions with some reactions more adaptable than others. Averill deems this ability to create emotions emotional creativity and has provided plentiful evidence that people differ greatly in this ability (Averill, 1999) and that differences in the factors that compose emotional creativity change how we evaluate works of art (Averill, Chon, & Hahn, 2001). By learning how to create new, authentic, and useful emotional reactions, people can learn how to greater appreciate artwork. Further, if something tragic happens, people with higher emotional creativity may have a much broader range of reactions available to them, and thus will be able to better emotionally cope with any given situation. Therefore, improving or changing emotional creativity could potentially greatly alter people’s worldviews and help them live more fulfilling lives. Creativity could have huge benefits, so it is understandable that some countries show an interest in fostering it. China, for example, found that their students are 1.

(18) insufficiently creative when compared to students in other countries (Niu & Sternberg, 2003), and has since aimed to boost the creativity of its population (Chang, 2009). If only China is successful in this endeavor more than 1.354 billion people (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2013) stand to improve their creative potential. In light of the modern world economy, a decision to actively improve creativity among the populace makes good economic sense. According to the economist Florida (2002), a new group of workers called the “Creative Class” has come into the spotlight on the world stage. This new class of worker is focused on producing products of the mind rather than physical objects. They create ideas, designs, and other creative content. More than 30 percent of the U.S. population now is considered members of the creative class, up from less than 10 percent in the 1950s. But most education all over the world is still geared to an industrial economic model. According to Puccio, et al. (2012) children are expected to accumulate as much knowledge as possible as quickly as possible, and teachers are held accountable for how much material their students learn. That is why testing is so common: how many facts can children regurgitate, and how well do they analyze content someone else produced? These tests measure knowledge, not creative skills. Process-based skills such as creative problem solving are currently almost never taught to students outside of specialty programs, sadly out of reach of the majority of students. As Puccio et al. put it, “we are preparing all students to become assembly line workers” (p. 26, 2012) when the 21st century economy is no longer industrial, but instead a creative economy. School is obviously not the only place one can learn, but a huge number of hours are spent learning there. Knowledge is still important, so perhaps creativity can be taught alongside knowledge rather than at the exclusion of it. To do so, existing techniques that are shown to boost creativity could be more widely applied. Further, teachers who are already trained in existing techniques would not need additional training—all they’d have 2.

(19) to do is use one of the teaching methods already in their repertoire more often. So, in order to help ensure creativity makes it into classrooms, it should be combined with a method that can simultaneously teach creativity as well as factual and analytical abilities so that creativity is not taught at the expense of something else. This approach can be used for emotional creativity as well. If factual knowledge, cognitive creativity training, and emotional creativity training can be combined into the same program, then the chances they’re adopted go up significantly. Unfortunately, no emotional creativity training currently exists, so it hasn’t been combined with established methods. People don’t even know for sure whether emotional creativity can be trained.. 1.1 Statement of the Problem The problems with combining creativity training into already-existing curriculum is too broad of an issue to address in a single study. However, pinpointing one way to enhance both creativity in general and emotional creativity using an existing teaching tool, is a reasonable problem to address. This study breaks the problem down into three areas: how to define creativity, what teaching methods are already being used in classes that could potentially include creativity training, and then how to practically combine one of those methods with creativity training. Creativity is a highly complex subject that must be defined before trying to teach it. Otherwise, training methods may end up enhancing something that doesn’t need or isn't desired to be improved. To integrate training in schools using already existing methods, it must first be known what methods are being used, and which could potentially be most suitable for creativity training. Once it is decided which method is most appropriate, how then is that method actually transformed into creative practice? Creativity means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Defining it was frustrating enough that even experts in the field have considered throwing up their hands 3.

(20) and giving up (Runco, 2007). Examining it cannot be taken lightly, especially since most literature has neglected to include emotions as a creative output. Runco also posited that theories of cognitive creativity may outnumber any other kind of theory (2007). Emotional creativity, in contrast to cognitive creativity, is still in its infancy and was only coined as late as 1989 (Thomas, 1989). It certainly has not undergone the same scrutiny as cognitive creativity, and nobody has attempted to integrate its measures to evaluate the effectiveness of creativity training. There are as many teaching methods as there are teachers, and teaches use a huge variety of mediums to impart knowledge. Even the question of which teaching mediums have been scrutinized in studies on creativity training produces ten (Scott et al., 2004) or more. But certainly not all creativity training methods are equal, and some must be more suited to the task than others. Which methods of teaching creativity work, how well they work, and what delivery methods are best are important questions. Further, whether or not these methods can improve emotional creativity is a separate from whether or not they can enhance cognitive creativity scores. Finally, if case-based learning and cooperative learning do well with cognitive creativity, what can we borrow from them that would be likely to enhance both cognitive creativity and emotional creativity?. 1.2 Potential Solutions Creativity, when thought of as an abstract concept, is assuredly difficult to define. Yet, when one sees creativity, typically one can acknowledge its presence. Thus, defining creativity can be done operationally: what do people consider creative? Averill (1999) points out that a creative product can be judged as creative if it meets all three of the following criteria: novelty, effectiveness, and authenticity. Importantly, this criteria for creativity works for both cognitive products and emotional responses, and therefore can be 4.

(21) applied to emotional creativity as well. Once creativity has been linked to its outputs, it becomes much easier to measure. Simply put: does a certain mental skill help increase the amount and quality of creative outputs one can produce? Thankfully, Torrance has designed a cognitive creativity test, the TTCT, that can predict both private and public creative achievements even 50 years after it is administered (Runco, Millar, Acar, & Cramond, 2010). Therefore, theoretically, any creativity training that increases scores on the TTCT would also increase actual creative achievement. Emotional creativity has also been linked to increased creative output both in the laboratory (Gutbezahl & Averill, 1996) and in everyday life, and further can be effectively measured by the Emotional Creativity Index (ECI) (Averill, 1999). Out of all of the instructional media used to teach creativity in the classroom, Scott et al. (2004) analyzed ten. They found that even though all attempts at enhancing creativity scores were successful overall, how the training was implemented in the classroom did change the size of the effect. Of the implementations examined, case-based and cooperative learning are the leading candidates for the strongest influence on gains in cognitive creativity. Case-based learning involves problems meant to foster discussion, exploration, and that have no single right answer (Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education, 2008). Cooperative learning similarly is a method where students are divided into small groups, engage in discussion, and then are rated based on group performance (Slavin, 1980). Role-play, taking on the role of another person, has many similarities to case-based learning and cooperative learning in that it requires discussion, exploration, and has no single right answer. It is also frequently used in teaching worldwide (Lane & Rollnick, 2007) but was not specifically examined by Scott et al. (2004). Yet, a major difference between it and the other two methods mentioned is that role-play involves assuming the emotional state of a character in a story, whereas case-based and cooperative learning require no such thing. Averill (1999) points out that we could be 5.

(22) learning emotional creativity from experience with different emotional situations, and even implies that dramatic acting makes use of these same mechanisms. Whether or not practice in drama could actually improve or alter emotional creativity is unknown, but it is the best lead currently presented in the literature. Role-playing has already been linked definitively to cognitive creativity when it has been played as a game. Tsui-shan Chung (2013) found that people who participated in tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs, the non-computerized form of role-playing games) had higher creativity scores than non-players, providing correlational support. Karwowski and Soszynski (2008), actually designed a creativity training course inspired by TRPGs called Role Play Training in Creativity (RPTC). Although they modified how TRPGs work for their experiment, RPTC had promising results in cognitive creativity that compare favorably to the methods examined by Scott et al. (2004). What remains to be done is to examine TRPGs to discover what aspects of them, in any, actually enhance creativity. Correlation is not causation, and while Karwowski and Soszynski’s 2008 study is a good indicator that TRPGs influence creativity, it is far from definite. Clarifications are in order. Nobody has yet to attempt to influence emotional creativity scores at all, in any form, so there is a need to test ways to influence it experimentally.. 1.3 Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to use a pure TRPG medium to enhance the cognitive and emotional creativity scores of young-adults in a Taiwanese college. Cognitive creativity training has been examined rather thoroughly in the literature, but whether a pure TRPG effects cognitive creativity is uncertain and should be clarified. Although it can be hypothesized that its connection to drama would elicit changes in emotional creativity, no study thus far has investigated this question, so this study seeks to 6.

(23) rectify that. Emotional creativity training has never before been attempted, but it has to start somewhere. Taiwan, full of ethnic Chinese, is as good a place as any to ensure that results can be applied to as many people as possible. In order to test the ability of TRPGs to enhance the creativity scores of Taiwanese college students, this study made use of a traditional experimental design. It drew on a sample of Taiwanese students from universities in Taipei, and separated them into a control group and an experimental group. Both groups received pretests and posttests on cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. The experimental group received four treatments distributed over five weeks where they played a TRPG. Data was analyzed using quantitative statistical methods after the experiment was complete. It is hypothesized that both cognitive and emotional creativity will be significantly improved in the experimental group, but not the control group.. 1.4 Research Questions Specifically, this study’s questions can be phrased as the following:. 1. What are the effects of playing a TRPG on the cognitive creativity scores of Taiwanese college students? 2. What are the effects of playing a TRPG on the emotional creativity scores of Taiwanese college students?. 1.5 Significance to the Field If TRPGs are shown to be an enhancer of creativity, which specific qualities of TRPGs boost creativity can then be identified and enhanced in future research. However, the most important contribution is that this is the first attempt to measure the effect of a 7.

(24) treatment on both cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. It is also the first experiment to measure the effect of a treatment on emotional creativity at all. Thus, whether the results are statistically significant or not, exploring how to manipulate emotional creativity is an important first step in its research. This study is also the first experiment using TRPGs in any capacity in creativity training that makes use of a control group. The only previous experimental study (Karwowski & Soszynski, 2008) had no control or contrast group, and thus was subject to measurement error.. 1.6 Definitions In this section, certain words that may be unfamiliar to the reader will be clearly defined. Creativity. This study focuses on the potential of one to produce creative achievements, and is further broken up into cognitive and emotional creativity. Cognitive Creativity. Cognitive creativity is the creative potential that leads to the production of ideas. In this study, cognitive creativity is measured by the Traditional Chinese version of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) (Chen, 2006). Its sub-scales include fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Fluency is the number of ideas generated, flexibility is the number of categories the ideas fit into, originality is how outside the norm any given idea is, and elaboration is the amount of detail provided for each individual idea. Emotional Creativity. Emotional creativity is the potential that leads to the production of emotions and emotional reactions. In this study this is measured by Traditional Chinese version of the Emotional Creativity Index (ECI) (Lee, 2009）. Its subscales include preparedness, novel origins, novelty, and effectiveness. Preparedness is how ready the subject is to feel an emotion, and whether they’re ready to analyze what feeling 8.

(25) is appropriate. Novel origins is the tendency of the subject to seek out and identify new emotional reactions, or novel uses of emotion. Novelty means that one can apply an emotional reaction to a situation where a different reaction would normally be used. Effectiveness is the ability to judge which emotion in any given situation would be best. Tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs). TRPGs are a form of game where participants play the role of characters in a story. The participants then cooperate together to create a unique and engaging story that places their characters as the protagonists. Here tabletop means that it is played in person rather than online, and that all aspects of the game must be imagined by the participants. TRPGs must have at least two participants, and one of them is the game-master. TRPGs is the plural form of the phrase whereas TRPG is the singular. Game-master (GM). A GM is a special participant of a TRPG. GMs are typically unique to the group in that while many people may be playing the game, only one is the GM. GMs decide the consequences of attempted actions, the overall structure of the story, and the decisions and actions of characters not controlled by other participants. They are similar to a producer in a film. Player. Player, in this document, will always refer to people engaged in playing a TRPG but who are not GMs. Players control the feelings and attempted actions of a single character. They are similar to actors and actresses in film and theater, and during play are expected to speak and behave as their character would. Story module. Sometimes referred to simply as the module, these are effectively story scaffolding. Rather than burden GMs with completely open-ended story creation, story modules provide guidelines and ideas to help GMs. They do not provide the entirety of a story and do not read like a novel, rather they are the working outline of a story. GMs and players work together to fill in the details. Outside of this experiment, modules are frequently used by TRPG GMs who do not have the time or motivation to generate an 9.

(26) entire original plotline on their own. Thus, their inclusion does not differ from how TRPGs are typically played. The pamphlet “How to Play TRPGs” is Appendix B, and includes examples of how to use the story modules.. 1.7 Ethical Considerations In this study, all participants were complete volunteers and were informed they could leave at any time. Even if the participant quit the experiment early, their time was still compensated (only one person quit). The participants were never lied to or manipulated, and the largest danger was a small threat of papercuts. In communications to the participants, names and contact information for other participants was never revealed. Further, scoring removed the names of the subjects, effectively making their scores anonymous. The room where the experiment was conducted was borrowed with permission from the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at National Taiwan Normal University. The Chinese version of the Emotional Creativity Index was reproduced and used with the written permission of the localizer, Lee, Jo-Yu. A copy of her permission is included in Appendix E.. 10.

(27) Chapter 2: Literature Review. If creativity and creative thinking can produce innovative change, such as the miniaturization of computers, (Puccio, Mance, Switalski, & Reali, 2012) the question arises “How can we get more creative people to drive that change”? This question is especially important to East Asian countries because in many areas of creativity, students in much of East Asia are routinely scoring lower than their Western counterparts (Niu & Sternberg, 2002), despite sharing similar (although not identical) definitions of what it means to be creative (Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). For example, Chinese students’ artwork scores lower in creativity than American students’ artwork when shown to either Chinese judges or American judges (Niu & Sternberg, 2003). It is entirely possible in this information age that lacking creative talent will dull Asia’s competitive edge in the world’s economy. The societal benefits of increased creativity have been astounding. For instance, Steve Jobs completely reformed our conception of personal computing: he designed the smart phone and the entirety of “mobile culture” can be traced back to his influences on tablet and mobile computing (Seitz, 2011). Steven Hawking rewrote our understanding of space and time by combining the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and even made it understandable to the public via the best-selling book A Brief History of Time (1988). Creative people such as Jobs change lives by using original methods to introduce and implement new, practical ideas to the world. If educational systems could produce even 0.01 percent more of these people, the benefit to the world economy would be staggering, especially because the creative economy of today is in increasing need of creative people (Florida, 2002), and that creativity has become a primary concern of businesses (Runco, 2004). Creativity can be taught: strong evidence exists that creativity 11.

(28) training, especially training in divergent thinking (an aspect of creativity)(Scott, Leritz, & Mumford, 2004) can lead to new ideas others widely judge to be creative. Creativity training has also been shown to be effective in increasing creativity scores in ethnic Chinese (Wang, & Horng, 2002). These creativity scores, in turn, have been linked to higher numbers of creative achievements throughout the life of a person (Runco, Millar, Acar, &Cramond, 2010). In East Asia, China alone has more than one billion people (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2013). Implementing a creativity training program that reaches just 10% of those people would already give the world that 0.01 percent boost. But, the world can never have enough good ideas: there is no reason to stop there. Emotions, too, can be creative products. People have a large number of available emotional responses when presented with any given situation. Just like other creative products, some of these emotions are more effective than others. Does a mother panic and scream incoherently, or rush to her child’s defense? Lives frequently depend on whether someone can stay calm or react well to a problem. Emotions can be transformed as well and these sorts of transformations are creative in nature: joy may turn into shame if someone receives a present he doesn’t deserve (Averill, Chon, & Hahn, 2001), but the reverse can also happen. As that is the case, if people can learn emotional creativity then they could learn to find joy where none was before, and to lead a more emotionally fulfilling life. Before now, there were no experimental studies attempting to train emotional creativity, though it has been proposed that dramatic acting could be used to increase emotional creativity (Averill, 1999). All of the creativity training investigated thus far focused on cognitive products rather than affective ones. But, cognitive creativity and emotional creativity are both creativity, and it would clearly be superior if both were to be taught simultaneously, and taught well. One candidate for creating an improved creativity training tool by including emotional creativity is tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs). TRPGs are games that 12.

(29) involve people taking on a character’s role similar to improvised dramatic acting with no script The games are usually played face-to-face around a table, hence the name. Creativity is stimulated because the bulk of the imaginative burden is on people’s minds, rather than on computers. These games have already been shown to have an effect on cognitive creativity (Karwowski & Soszynski, 2008), but the only such experiment investigating this question lacked a control group, and had no measures for emotional creativity. This study builds on previous work while simultaneously attempting to duplicate, in an ethnic Chinese sample, previous results on using TRPGs to improve cognitive creativity. To that end, the literature review addresses three areas related to teaching creativity. The first section addresses research related to defining creativity, how to measure it, how its definition can be used to help craft effective creativity teaching techniques, and how effective creativity training has been so far. The second section will detail role-playing and its historical uses in teaching, and then make the case that role-play is particularly well suited for creativity training, especially training targeting emotional creativity. The third section will highlight how this study plans to improve on the previous literature on roleplay and creativity.. 2.1 Defining and Teaching Creativity Before teaching creativity can be considered, it is important to first define what exactly it is. Unfortunately, this task is epic in proportion. Runco’s book Creativity: Theories and themes: Research, development, and practice (2007) spends a great number of pages addressing this subject, because according to Runco “there may be more cognitive theories of creativity than any other kind of theory.” (p. 1-2) One way to sneak up on a definition of creativity is to work at it backwards, through defining what people consider to be creative responses. Once a creative response is defined, then promoting those responses is related to creativity. 13.

(30) Averill (1999) defines creativity by its outcomes. He lists three conditions that must all be satisfied at some level for something to be considered creative. The first is novelty. A response or product must be original and novel to be considered creative. Thus how creative something is can be judged on how many people consider it novel: it may be novel to an individual but because everyone else is already doing it, nobody else would judge it creative. The second is effectiveness. To put it simply, if an otherwise novel idea is totally useless, it isn’t creative, it’s crazy or inappropriate. The final criterion is authenticity. Averill believes creativity is from the self, and so must originate there—it can’t be copied from someone or something else. Authentic creations are therefore original as well as novel. Copying a painting abroad and bringing it home may result in people thinking the painting novel (they hadn’t seen it before) and effective (it’s pretty), but even if one falsely claims it as his own it would not be a creative work: it would be not be original or authentic. Averill’s definition for creative outcomes can be applied to cognitive creativity, but it can also be applied to more affective responses. Averill has worked extensively to develop emotional creativity as an idea (Averill & Nunley, 1992) from a socialconstructionist view of emotion (Averill, 1980), and has differentiated it clearly from emotional intelligence (Averill, 2004). So he states it best when he defines its various forms as:. At the lowest level, emotional creativity involves the particularly effective application of an already existing emotion, one found within the culture; at a more complex level, it involves the modification (‘‘sculpting’’) of a standard emotion to better meet the needs of individual or group; and at the highest level, it involves the 14.

(31) development of a new form of emotion, based on a change in the beliefs and rules by which emotions are constituted. (Averill, 1999, p. 334). Emotions, then, can be considered creative products in their own right, especially if they meet the same three criteria as cognitively creative products. Averill goes on to say that. emotional. creativity has. three. main. facets:. preparedness,. novelty,. and. effectiveness/authenticity (1999). Two have already been explained. Authenticity and effectiveness were combined because, although theoretically different, a factor analysis of Averill’s measure for emotional creativity, the Emotional Creativity Index (ECI), showed them to correlate very strongly. Preparedness was included because novelty, effectiveness, and authenticity all relate to only the final stage of the creative process. Averill believes that the initial stage of the creative process, preparation, is also important for judging somebody’s cognitive and emotional creative capacity. Basically, if one can’t get started, then how to judge an outcome won’t even matter. Averill pulls extensively from Bloch (1993) for an example of how one can be prepared emotionally. As Bloch says, in method acting, actors train to experience as well as express emotions to better portray their characters. Averill (1999) simply points out that all of humanity undergoes some degree of informal training in this regard, and that we are all socialized to know how to feel in various situations. In sum, according to Averill, emotions, even though they are produced through an affective rather than a cognitive process, are and can still be judged as creative products, even using the same criteria for judgment. Further, he strongly implies that differences in emotional creativity could be because of inherent ability and training, rather than just natural talent.. 15.

(32) Therefore, even if creativity can’t be defined with extreme precision, it can still be measured via its outcomes. That is, the traits of people who reliably generate products and actions that others deem creative can be measured. Runco, Millar, Acar, and Cramond (2010) founded one of the most common measures of creativity, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) to be a highly accurate method of predicting creative outcomes. The TTCT itself measured four aspects of creativity: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Fluency is the number of ideas one can produce; flexibility is how many different categories those ideas can fit into; originality is how unusual those ideas are; and elaboration is how well detailed the products of creativity become (Guilford, 1967, and Torrance, 1969, as cited in Almeida, Prieto, Ferrando, Oliveira, and Ferrándiz, 2008). Fifty years before Runco et al’s 2010 study, a group of people took part in a longitudinal study where the TTCT was used to measure their creative potential. There was a follow up in 1998 on the group, but prior to their study there had not been another comparison in the past ten years. The objective of Runco et al, then, was to see how well the TTCT predicted actual creative accomplishments in the lifetime of those it measured. Their results show that at least some part of creativity is effectively measured by TTCT: the TTCT scores predicted 40 percent of the variance of actual creative achievements, public and private. The measure may not be perfectly precise, but it is certainly useful. Because it can predict outcomes, the TTCT can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of creativity training even if an operational, outcome-based definition of cognitive creativity is used. Unfortunately, the TTCT relies exclusively on the cognitive production of creative ideas to measure creativity. Thinking of different, creative ideas and novel solutions to problems are all cognitive processes. Thus, it cannot be used to measure emotional creativity. To date only Averill and Thomas-Knowles (1991, as cited in Fuchs, Kumar, & Porter, 2007)’s Emotional Creativity Index (ECI) measures emotional creativity. Averill 16.

(33) (1999) conducted a series of six studies to see if the ECI had validity. Of particular interest to this study is Averill’s second experiment, where peers were asked to judge each other in emotional creativity after the criteria were explained to them, and each participant completed the ECI. The study was designed to see if high and low scores on the ECI could be judged by peers through simple observation. In other words, does having a high ECI score mean someone produces observably more creative emotions in daily life? Participants were asked to choose individuals they knew and pair them up with one another. For each pair, the participant judged one of the two to have higher emotional creativity than the other. After judging, the participants had their acquaintances complete the ECI. The experimenters then analyzed how accurately the participants were able to predict which acquaintances had higher ECI scores. The judgments made by participants were found to be accurate, and predicted actual ECI scores. Averill concluded that the ECI is not just theoretical or based on inaccurate introspection: ECI scores can be associated with everyday behavior, observable by peers. The ECI can also be used to predict creative products: in a separate set of studies Gutbezahl and Averill (1996) found that when study participants produced narratives about emotionally challenging events, drew pictures of emotions, and wrote stories about emotionally ambiguous situations, that those with high ECI’s expressed the emotions with more creativity in all three artistic mediums. Therefore, both emotional creativity can also be operationally measured and defined via its outcomes. The ECI further has been tested on a Taiwanese sample. Jo-Yu Lee (2009) found through an exploratory factor analysis of the ECI that the ECI measured four factors: preparedness, novel origins, novel reactions, and effectiveness. She then further supported these findings with a confirmatory factor analysis. Preparedness is how ready the subject is to feel an emotion, and whether they’re ready to analyze what feeling is appropriate. Novel origins is the tendency of the subject to seek out and identify new emotional reactions, or 17.

(34) novel uses of emotion. Novelty is very similar to cognitive creativity’s novelty. Here it means that one can apply an emotional reaction to a situation where a different reaction would normally be used. Effectiveness is the ability to judge which emotion in any given situation would be best. Using measures linked to predictors of creative outcomes, what types of creativity training have been shown to improve creativity? Scott, Leritz, and Mumford (2004) performed a very in-depth meta-analysis of creativity training, including 70 studies on a large variety of different approaches. They found that all of the approaches resulted in positive effects on creativity. This presents very strong evidence that cognitive creativity can be taught. Of all of these approaches, the strongest effects were elicited from divergent thinking and problem solving methods. Divergent thinking is “the capacity to generate multiple alternative solutions as opposed to the one correct solution.” (p. 363, Scott et al., 2004) This is typically measured in ways similar to (or identical to) the TTCT, as described above. As measures such as used on the TTCT have been linked to creative achievement, divergent thinking tasks are frequently used when designing creativity courses. Scott et al. then showed that using divergent thinking in creativity training truly was highly effective. Most divergent thinking tests include providing a scenario or item and asking the student to come up with as many answers as possible. For example, on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA), students are asked to list all the different problems one may run into after gaining the power of flight. TRPGs can easily incorporate divergent thinking tasks by offering similar fantastical situations: when obvious solutions are removed, players are encouraged to think, “in what ways can we use our current resources to solve this problem?” and thus lists of ideas are produced and evaluated naturally. Problem solving similarly is an important part of cognitive creativity. According to Mumford, Peterson, and Childs (1999) the problem solving process can be divided into 18.

(35) eight steps: information gathering, information organization, synthesis/reorganization, and then idea generation, idea evaluation, implementation planning, and solution appraisal. As Scott et al. (2004) point out, this conceptual model is highly relevant to creativity training because many parts have been linked to creative performance and problem solving. They give references for problem finding (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1976; Okuda, Runco, & Berger, 1991; Rostan, 1994), conceptual combination (Baughman & Mumford, 1995; Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992), and idea evaluation (Basadur, Runco, & Vega, 2000; Runco & Chand, 1994) specifically. In all of the methods evaluated by Scott et al’s meta analysis (2004), problem solving had the strongest positive effect on creativity, even above divergent thinking. Thus it is important to note that all of these processes in problem solving are present in situations simulated in role-playing, should problems be presented. In almost all ways, problem solving in TRPGs is identical to the real-life problem solving process, and so TRPGs should serve as excellent practice for problem-solving skills. Although some of the studies Scott et al. included in their meta-analysis incorporated some emotional elements of creativity in their training, such as motivational approaches, all of them only judged cognitive outcomes. No studies were found in the literature that focused on emotional creativity training and its outcomes. However, when designing creativity training, it should be possible to judge its effectiveness using the ECI in a similar way to the TTCT. The TTCT predicts cognitive creative outcomes, and therefore it can be used to judge the general effectiveness of cognitive creativity training. The ECI can predict emotionally creative outcomes, so creativity training with affective components theoretically should also increase scores on the ECI. Averill (1999) drew from drama theory to explain how people receive informal training in emotional creativity. It may be supposed, then, that a training method that makes use of dramatic techniques could elevate one’s emotional creativity. Role-play is one such method.. 19.

(36) To summarize, for the purposes of this study, the definition of creativity is an operational one because of the ultimate goal of creativity training: producing outcomes that are both more creative and more numerous. Because the TTCT and the ECI have both been shown to predict creative achievements, in the TTCT even 50 years later, they are both suitable to this purpose. Because studies have shown emotional creativity to be a distinct construct from cognitive creativity, the ECI offers an excellent additional tool to measure the overall effectiveness of any new creativity training method.. 2.2 Role-play in the Classroom Although role-play is new to the creativity scene, it is a well-tested teaching technique for other subjects. So what is role-play exactly? Unlike the elusive creativity, role-play has been succinctly defined. “The idea of role-play, in its simplest form, is that of asking someone to imagine that they are either themselves or another person in a particular situation.” (p. 16, Van Ments, 1989) Others have expanded on the simple definition to include having people take the role of non-human things (McSharry & Jones, 2000). As a teaching tool, role-play is largely used to train for social situations. Indeed, role-play has been effectively used in teaching communication skills world-wide (Lane & Rollnick, 2007). Role-play is also frequently used to teach medical students a variety of topics (Simpson, 1985; Joyner & Young, 2006, etc), and ethical issues (Rosnow, 1990). Perhaps less obviously, role-play can also be used to teach the hard-sciences (McSharry & Jones, 2000). Role-play then can be used to teach almost any material required, and is already being used in many classrooms worldwide. Role-playing games at their core are a type of game that attempt to represent a real or imagined world through simplified game-rules. They then focus on the interaction between people (characters) in various situations (Van Ments, 1989). It can be inferred that role-playing games, because people are encouraged not just to think but also to feel as if 20.

(37) they were a different person, could have an effect on emotional life, and also should influence creativity. Vygotskys’ theory on the development of imagination and creativity can give us some insights into the effects of role-playing (Ayman-Nolley, 2009). Imagination starts out as manifest in pretend-play with children. Pretend-play is very similar to role-playing games, though much less structured. In adolescents, Vygotsky saw that reasoning and imagination begin to come together to create a “mature creative imagination” (ibid, p. 81) that is a primary cause of emotional maturation. Role-playing games not only engage the mind in imagination, but they also require the player to use their cognitive problem-solving skills to accomplish their character’s goals. Vygotsky theorized that as imagination and reasoning became more and more intertwined, productive creativity would increase. Roleplaying games provide a rich test-bed for both of these things in great abundance, so practicing role-playing should allow participants to enrich their creativity. In a less abstract sense, what are the underlying mechanisms that could help people well-practiced in role-play to be more creative? It was mentioned that specific, guided methods produced stronger results than less guided creativity techniques (Scott et al., 2004), and one such method is to shift perspectives (Runco, 2007). Shifting perspectives is an inherent part of role playing because participants spend their entire time thinking as if they were a different person. Frequently practicing looking at problems from new angles, as different people in different situations, could help people be more flexible and original in their creative endeavors. If one perspective fails to produce a satisfactory outcome, if one has the sufficient reasoning ability and empathy to construct a new, imagined perspective, then seeing a problem from a new angle becomes routine. All of this indicates that role-play can be used as a flexible and effective teaching method for creativity. Role-play has been an identified teaching method for a very long time, and has already been implemented in a host of pedagogies and classrooms teaching 21.

(38) subject material. Evidence points towards role-play providing superior motivation, attitude change, and retention when compared to other teaching methods, and perform just as well in other categories (Pierfy, 1977). All of those things can be beneficial to creativity training. Finally, Vygotsky’s theory describes interactions between emotional capability, cognitive capacity, and creative outcomes, emphasizing even more how important it is to measure the emotional creative process whenever studying creativity training. Emotions are simply too intertwined with cognition and creativity to ignore, and role-play touches on all three. Tsui-shan Chung (2013) looked for support for these ideas, and found them. She posed the question: If TRPGs are an effective method to support creativity, then those who frequently engage in it should have higher creativity scores than those who do not engage in them. She surveyed players of TRPGs, electronic role-playing games (ERPGs), and nonplayers to find their comparative levels of creativity. ERPGs use computers to visualize the fictional universe the characters operate in, rather than relying on people’s imagination. She found that TRPG players had higher creativity scores than both other groups, including measures of divergent thinking. This implies there could be a causative link between TRPGs and creativity.. 2.3 Direct Association: TRPGs and Creativity Only one set of experimental studies have been done on TRPGs as creativity training. Karwowski and Soszynski (2008) engaged in two experiments inspired by, but distinct from, TRPGs. They sought to test the effectiveness of Role Play Training in Creativity (RPTC) on enhancing creativity scores, and to determine whether or not distributed practice had an effect or not. The same exact treatment was performed on two different groups. The only difference was one group utilized distributed practice, and so their training was spread over four weeks, one two-hour session a week. The other group 22.

(39) received all of their training in one single eight-hour session. For their final analysis, Karwowski and Soszynski combined both groups to make a general assessment of the effectiveness of RPTC. They found RPTC did increase creativity at similar levels to the average effectiveness of trainings reviewed by Scott et al. (2004), and that the group who utilized distributed practice had much higher gains in flexibility compared to the singleday group. The other difference between the groups was that the one-day group had significant changes in originality, whereas the distributed learning group did not. However, their experiments had single-group designs, with only an experiment group and no comparison control group. They used a modified Test of Creative Imagination by Kujawski and the Test of Creative Thinking - Drawing Production by Urban and Jellen as pre-tests and post-tests. Both tests were somewhat similar to the TTCT, but once again emotional creativity was omitted. The two groups also received different treatments and yielded different results, yet were combined for the analysis of RPTC. They mention that the pre-test and post-test results had marginally significant differences when comparing across groups (Karwowski and Soszynski, 2008). This may have biased their results. Perhaps the largest difference between these experiments and TRPGs is that, while the players created their own characters, these experiments had no true game-master – a participant of the TRPG who has authoritative control over the general storyline. The experimenters stood in front of the group, offered instructions, and then the groups took turns presenting to the experimenters in front of every other group. This active participation from an authority figure such as an experimenter is different from TRPGs which usually have each group of players choose their own personal game-master, and definitely do not have an experimenter attempting to actively change participant creativity. The clear differences between true TRPGs and RPTC could result in different outcomes. Whether or not RPTC managed to distill all of the useful parts of TRPGs, or if the changes 23.

(40) Karwowski and Soszynski made to TRPGs eliminated some useful elements, is worth investigating. So their experiment has some limitations. For one, a one-group experiment structure is methodologically inferior to experiments including control groups. They also, like all studies on creativity training to date, did not examine emotional creativity at all. Further, they combined groups with meaningfully different results, skewing their analysis. So while their study is an excellent start, and the first of its kind, more investigation into the effectiveness of RPTC would be illuminating. The present study seeks to build on the work done by Karwowski and Soszynski (2008). The present study also examines the effects of TRPGs on creativity, but does not eliminate core aspects of TRPGs to do so. Further, the present student recognizes the emotional components of TRPGs and includes the ECI as a measure of emotional creativity. Additionally, the present study has a sample much closer to gender equity, and includes a control group for comparison. Otherwise, there are many similarities: Karwowski and Soszynski’s study had similar sized samples as this study: Their groups both had about 23 participants. This study’s treatment group (N =19) attended four training sessions over several weeks, and so due to its similar sample size and identical use of distributed practice is hypothesized to show similar gains to Karwowski and Soszynski’s distributed practice group in fluency and other measures. This experiment also includes a control group (N=20) to control for time and increase in skill in taking creativity tests. Further, this study’s experiment group sample was roughly 37 percent male, 47 percent if game-masters are excluded. This is much more diverse than Karwowski and Soszynski’s 83 percent female sample. Seeing as Karwowski and Soszynski discovered much higher gains by utilizing distributed practice, I saw no need to include a third group where the entire treatment took place on a single day.. 24.

(41) This study seeks to examine TRPGs in a purer form than examined by Karwowski and Soszynski’s study. They eliminated game-masters from the design, and perhaps more importantly, their research materials did not contain player choices with consequences. In one exercise whether the participants did very poorly or extremely well, they had the same result and none of their choices influenced any other part of the story. This means that important stages of problem solving were altered: nobody actually had to imagine what consequences their actions would have on the story. Therefore idea evaluation, implementation planning, and solution appraisal all were changed. With success as a given, participants didn’t need to evaluate contingency plans, how to alter implementations if circumstances changed, and didn’t have to worry as much about appraising their solution: their solution always worked, it was just a matter of how well. In a true TRPG, the groups must decide for themselves “If we do this, then this will happen” a step completely missing from Karwowski and Soszynski’s study. Players also have to worry about the distinct possibility of failure (including the death of their player?). Because they eliminated continuity, they successfully created a creativity training style inspired by TRPGs, but didn’t produce the phenomenon studied by Tsui-shan Chung (2013), which showed a high correlation between TRPG players and creativity scores. An experiment with an experimenter as an active participant cannot compare directly to Chung’s results that TRPG players have higher creativity. This study emphasized consequences of choices and stressed continuity in every session, included game-masters in each treatment sub-group, and had a completely passive experimenter, so should model TRPGs much more precisely, and thus answer whether players of TRPGs have higher creativity because of self-selection, or because TRPGs actually encourage creative growth. Yet the largest difference between Karwowski and Soszynski’s study and the current one is the recognition of the essential emotional element of role-play, and its potential consequences on emotional creativity. In order for a player to act in a fashion 25.

(42) suitable for their character, they must predict and simulate their character’s emotions, much as an actor would in drama. This flexing of one’s emotional “muscles” should alter one’s ability to experience and produce emotions, but Karwowski and Soszynski used no measure for emotional creativity. This study remedies this oversight by including the ECI.. 2.4 Conclusion A new form of creativity training, one that combines emotional and cognitive creativity, demands creativity! Creativity definitions have long been elusive, and so figuring out what exactly one wishes to train is a task in its own right. Most research on creativity has exclusively focused on the cognitive products of creation. While role-playing has been in use for more than thirty years in classrooms worldwide, only a single study has attempted to explore how it can be applied to creativity training. That single exploratory study should only be considered the beginning point of further investigations. Creativity has a lot of different potential definitions, but this study focuses on the potential of one to produce creative achievements, and is further broken up into cognitive and emotional creativity. Cognitive creativity is the creative potential that leads to the production of ideas, whereas emotional creativity is the potential that leads to the production of emotions and emotional reactions. This present study has attempted to craft a useful and effective creativity training tool by using a pure TRPG model, and to side-step most of the issues raised in the literature. In order to avoid the large issue of defining creativity, the experiment is anchored in an operational definition of creativity: if it helps produce creative materials, that’s good enough, and the literature has shown definitive links between divergent thinking measures and real-life creative outcomes. Yet despite its proven effectiveness in creativity training, using just divergent thinking tests to measure the entirety of creativity is too limited. Thus, emotional creativity is incorporated into the measurements to help cover 26.

(43) the full spectrum of what it means to be creative. Finally, this study aims to build on what Karwowski and Sosynski (2008) started and continue the investigation of how role-playing games can help creativity grow by improving on their methodology by adding a control group, and designing a treatment much closer to real TRPGs. To that end, this study tests the following hypotheses, based on the eight sub-scales of cognitive and emotional creativity, along with an overall measure for each:. 1. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on overall creativity than the control group. 2. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on fluency scores than the control group. 3. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on flexibility scores than the control group. 4. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on originality scores than the control group. 5. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on elaboration scores than the control group. 6. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on overall emotional creativity scores than the control group. 7. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on preparedness scores than the control group. 8. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on novelty/originality scores than the control group. 9. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on novel reactions scores than the control group.. 27.

(44) 10. The treatment group will show greater positive gains on effectiveness scores than the control group.. 28.

(45) Chapter 3: Methods. A variety of studies have been done on how to increase creativity through creativity training. This training is important to explore thoroughly because increasing creativity even a small amount could potentially have massive benefits for humanity at large. However, to date few studies have included emotional creativity in their measures. Additionally, studies on creativity training in Asia continue to be few and far between. Tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs), where a group of people come together to collaboratively create a story, may present a unique avenue to train both cognitive creativity and emotional creativity at the same time, while being similar to methods teachers in many fields are already familiar with. To date, there has only been one experimental study on the effect of TRPGs on cognitive creativity. This study seeks to build upon those results by utilizing TRPGs to enhance both cognitive and emotional creativity, and to broaden the sample base by conducting the experiment with Taiwanese subjects.. To that end, the two following questions were included in this study:. 1: What are the effects of playing a TRPG on the cognitive creativity of Taiwanese college students?. 2: What are the effects of playing a TRPG on the emotional creativity of Taiwanese college students?. This study followed a classical, quantitative experimental model, using a treatment pretest-posttest group compared to a control pretest-posttest design. To stimulate cognitive 29.

(46) creativity, divergent thinking activities and problem solving activities were included in the curriculum for the treatment group. Emotional creativity was targeted by dramatics embedded in the curriculum. Otherwise the material was written to be both entertaining and fantastical to increase engagement. The participants became part of a story where they were the crew of the spaceship Crusade, and it was their responsibility to find an ancient and powerful item to save the galaxy. The treatment group attended weekly sessions lasting three hours each. The control group simply took the pretests, waited five weeks, and then took the posttests. Pre- and post-treatment data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.. 3.1 Setting The research was conducted at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei. NTNU is an urban school in the middle of one of the wealthiest sections of Taipei. It is one of the top universities in all of Taiwan, and several of its departments are considered the best in the nation. Additionally, it receives considerable funding from the government to keep tuition costs low. Consequently, entry into this university is highly competitive because of the excellent education for relatively affordable costs. Taiwan is highly homogenous, and about 98 percent of the island are Han Chinese (Taiwanese Cultural Society, 2005). International students are rare. The treatment was conducted en-masse in a classroom in the evening. The room contained a large number of flat tables and chairs, and had a computer and whiteboard in the front of the room (neither was utilized). The room was otherwise unremarkable. The tables were pushed together to form four groups, and the students sat around the tables facing towards their own group members.. 3.2 Participants 30.

(47) Treatment-group subjects were solicited through advertisement in a number of locations. The advertisements required applicants be Taiwanese college students who had never participated in TRPGs before. Those interested sent an email to the experimenter, where they then received an application form. On the form, students provided their name, age, gender, and contact information. There was also a section explaining briefly what being a game-master (GM) entailed, and asking if the student would be interested in being a game-master rather than a player. Finally, applicants were asked whether or not they had any friends who were applying as well, and were asked to provide their friends’ names (if any). Twenty people responded to the advertisements. The participants of the treatment group were divided into four sub-groups: each group had one game-master and four players. Every sub-group was mixed gender, and all but one sub-group had equal numbers of female and male participants. All game-masters were female to greater control for gender. Friends were separated so that all members of each sub-group were strangers. The control group was recruited in a similar manner, but was only asked for their name, age, gender, and contact information. The control group, due to their lack of organized activity, was not divided between game-masters and players, and not separated into sub-groups. Twenty people responded to these advertisements, and none dropped out. Participants were randomly assigned their positions within the sub-groups except for ensuring each group had a game-master, someone who volunteered to be a game-master but was not selected, friends were separated, and that each group had roughly equal numbers of men and women. Both the control and treatment groups were offered monetary compensation for their time. In the treatment group there were 12 women, four of which were GMs, and seven men, all players, and only a single male subject dropped out of the study before completion (not included in this analysis). Most of the participants were NTNU students, though a few other subjects attended similarly high-rated schools. Ages were between 18 and 26 with the majority (N) between 20 and 22. All of the students were native Taiwanese and ethnic 31.

(48) Chinese. The experimenter was a Caucasian male, but Taiwanese assistants were brought in to help conduct the pretests and posttests. Participants were not screened for college major, and a variety were represented.. 3.3 Experimental Design The independent variable measured consisted of four sessions playing through TRPG story modules. The TRPG was designed to influence cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. Cognitive creativity was intended to be influenced by creative problem solving tasks presented to the players in the story modules, as well as by divergent thinking tasks that were necessary for the players to accomplish their goals. Emotional creativity was intended to be influenced through dramatic productions: the players and game-masters were instructed to become their characters and behave as they would for the duration of the game. In this way, they were encouraged to feel and express what their characters were feeling at any given point in the game, and to emotionally invest in their characters’ endeavors. Throughout the story module, the players took their characters through a multitude of challenging problems and emotional atmospheres. The dependent variables measured in this study were cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. Cognitive creativity was divided up into fluency, originality, flexibility, and elaboration. Emotional creativity was divided into four different factors: preparedness, novel origins, novel reactions, and effectiveness. The treatment group was divided into sub-groups, each with five members: one GM and four players. Small groups have dynamics that have been studied by social psychologists. In TRPGs each group must have a minimum of, but is not limited to, two participants: one is the game-master, who makes decisions on how the players’ choices affect the setting. Any other participants are all players: participants who control one. 32.

(49) protagonist in the story. In most TRPG groups, the players will discuss among themselves how to solve problems, only asking to the game-master to repeat or provide information. Because the responsibility of being a GM was different than that of a player, the GMs received slightly different instructions. Except for the first session, GMs were told they would have to spend their own time to become familiar with the story modules (described in the materials section below) so that the sessions could run smoothly. The GM was instructed to take approximately one hour to become sufficiently familiar with the story modules. This added time was the main reason research subjects were asked to volunteer to be a GM. For their additional work, GMs received slightly superior monetary compensation over the players. There was no indication that the GMs involved in the study did not perform this review. Bales (1970) did extensive research on group interaction and recorded the total interactions initiated by each group member. The group sizes ranged from three to ten. On this scale, it was discovered that typically as more members were added to the group, one person tended to do a higher percentage of the talking. About 45 percent of the interactions in all group sizes were monopolized by a single person, with the remaining 55 percent spread out among the other participants. There was one exception to this rule: groups of four. For whatever reason, groups of four were found to be the most egalitarian in terms of distribution of interaction. Therefore, because this experiment holds that practicing creativity will increase it, it was important all members of the group participate. The goal of each group was to engage each member as much as possible, keep them motivated, and allow for an even distribution of discussion. Maximizing the likelihood that each member would do a fair share of the talking also increased the likelihood that the subjects were engaged in the process. Furthermore, it controlled better for “amount of time spent participating” as, according to Bales’ research, the distribution should be as even as it is. 33.