Seán Roberts

Ah, I was trying to figure out which to start with. Good to know there's extra info in combining the two. Thanks!

GraphViz? This is what the Video Games Dialogue Corpus uses (but currently only accepts VGDC formats). correlation-machine.com/VideoGameDia... I was trying to make a converter from Ink to VGDC, so your explorer code is very helpful. I may try to use it as a template for a python module if that's ok?

AdventureX 2025 – Talk: Steph Rennick & Seán Roberts "Women's Dialogue in Video Games" YouTube video by AdventureX

We had a great time at #AdventureX in November. You can now watch our our talk on women's dialogue in video games here ... With BSL interpretation! #videogames #linguistics
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA--...

Nowe spojrzenie na język Nowe spojrzenie na język

Short post about our TiCS paper "The 'design features' of language revisited" on the news portal of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (in Polish)
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
portal.umk.pl/pl/article/n...

Looking for a gift for geeky kids? Check out this fun mission pack - use your STEM skills to fix the Voyager Space Probe! I had a lot of fun working with Collider Cafe on this. collidercafe.com/shop/ws-/pro...

Interactive #dialogue is a key mechanic in #videogames for giving the player a sense of agency. Can we improve player experiences by taking inspiration from real life conversations? Join our free online workshop for game developers, writers and researchers www.eventbrite.com/e/1977041007...

Can the way you speak affect your attitude to the future? Cole Robertson and I talk to @becauselanguage.com about our new work showing that, actually, maybe possibly could-sort-of-be-going-to-be definitely yes.
becauselanguage.com/130-back-to-...

Investigating environmental effects on phonology using diachronic models | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core Investigating environmental effects on phonology using diachronic models - Volume 6

This paper with Frederik Hartmann and colleagues uses DAGs: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Any study with path/mediation analysis: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

And our review of DAGs in language evolution has a few studies that use them conceptually. academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

I'll be presenting this work at the @uoe-cle.bsky.social in Edinburgh on the 22nd January. I look forwards to robust discussion!

Of course, there are good reasons to keep piloting and main experiments separate. We're calling for more transparency, not less rigour. So we suggest a 'waterwheel' model that combines a cyclic pilot phase and a linear testing phase.

We combine this approach with ethnographic 'thick description' of experiment results. We show how this has inspired theories of language evolution from game design and our recent paper. And we suspect that most researchers are already using this kind of approach, though informally.

Valve's "Secret Weapon" YouTube video by Game Maker's Toolkit

We take inspiration from video game design, where rapid, iterative prototyping is a vital part of reaching design goals. Putting a game in front of players is the best way to identify faulty assumptions. Valve call this hypothesis testing, and is close to piloting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yom...

This was a process of piloting, which is part of most studies but rarely talked about openly (we even struggled to find a definition in textbooks). For us, it's where most of the important insights came from. How can we reach these insights systematically and transparently?

For example, the first time we ran our minecraft experiment (academic.oup.com/jole/article...), instead of inventing a language, players got exploded by enemies, fought each other, took so long that it got dark, or built a mile-high tower. But each 'failure' taught us something about our theory.

Most experiments in language evolution (and psychology more broadly) are described as a linear process running from identifying a theory to designing, then running, then analysing an experiment. But in our experience, this isn't the full story. What about all the piloting and failed experiments?

Get data early, get data often, iterate constantly: an explorative, participatory approach to studying language evolution Abstract. We argue that, as well as an empirical approach borrowed from experimental psychology, studies of language evolution can also benefit from an exp

Last month we published a new experiment into how symbolic languages evolved. Today, we've published a follow-up, REVEALING WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
New paper with Kateryna Krykoniuk, Fiona Jordan and @gamemakerstoolkit.com. academic.oup.com/jole/article...

... but the story's not over. We're about to publish another paper where we reveal what *really* happened over the last 10 years, and issue a challenge to experimental work on the evolution of language.

We argue that an environment needs three things before communicators will bother inventing a symbolic language: division of knowledge, division of labour, and contextually distal meanings. This fits with many theories of language.

The arena of language evolution: the emergence of symbolic referential signals in a common task framework Abstract. We present the common task framework approach to testing causal theories about the evolution of language. There are now many theories about how s

Liz Irvine and I once ran an experiment which went so wrong that I spent the next 10 years figuring out what had happened. Today we've published the explanation: a new theory for the evolution of symbolic signals (with Kateryna Krykoniuk & Fiona Jordan).
academic.oup.com/jole/article...

A new twist to the idea that future tense use affects decision making👇 Cole Robertson @seangroberts.bsky.social et al show it’s not future tense that drives psychological discounting but how people express the possibility of future events happening (modality). authors.elsevier.com/c/1m4gJ2Hx2-...

Space Ghost Train 12 YouTube video by SeanGeraintRoberts

A little late in the witching hour, but Space Ghost Train 12 is here. youtu.be/l0x2nfpeElc #SpaceGhostTrain

A place for gamers who also happen to be women, probably A delightfully polarizing term for women who game. This is a community space for ladies to hang out, talk about gaming, and game together. We also discuss topics around women in geek culture and debr...

There still aren't great tools for discovering games if you're not already familiar with games (would love to know about them if there are!). But for tips and advice there's loads of forums, like www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/

Women in gaming: Twitch streamer Alyska and the female gamers defying stereotypes Once thought of as a male-dominated pastime, the number of women streaming and playing video games is growing rapidly.

But gaming is slowly becoming more accessible as women become more visible in gaming culture. Our study suggests that normalising everyone playing video games, and celebrating our gaming achievements, can help us feel more positive about this amazing hobby.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How to: Play like a feminist YouTube video by Common Ground Research Networks

This all aligns with previous research on barriers to gaming for women, such as the work of Shira Chess. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ootr...

But negative feelings like guilt and shame do not predict how much time women spend gaming. Instead, gaming time is related to their attitudes to games and gaming identity.

Almost 1 in 6 women keep their gaming hobby a secret from their family and friends for fear of judgement. Women who feel very proud of their achievements in games are MORE likely to keep their gaming a secret than those who do not feel as proud.

We found that 28.8% of women feel guilty about taking time to play games. Feeling guilty is associated with feeling excluded from gaming culture, or not knowing which games to try.

In a survey of 1000 women who play mobile games in the UK, most identify as 'casual' gamers. Even for women who spend more than 5 hours a day playing games across multiple platforms, 75% did not feel like they played enough to consider themselves a 'gamer'.

Not Gamers, Just Women Who Play Video Games: A Survey of Women’s Attitudes to Mobile Games in the UK - Sex Roles Sex Roles - This study investigates the barriers to playing video games that women face. Despite gaming being a traditionally male-dominated pastime, 51% of women now game in some capacity compared...

Our paper in the Journal Sex Roles goes into more detail: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Nearly a third of female gamers feel guilty about their hobby – new study Almost 60% felt that they do not play enough games to consider themselves a ‘gamer’ and more than 30% would be embarrassed to call themselves one.

Nearly a third of women who play mobile video games in the UK feel guilty about their hobby – new study with Steph Rennick. theconversation.com/nearly-a-thi...