Test Play – Developing and testing a new computer role play programme as a research, clinical and educational tool, is an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account-funded project (April-December 2019).

Here, we are creating a bespoke computer-role play software as a continuation of earlier work, in which children (and some adults) role play characters in computer generated comic strip environment. The idea is that computer mediated offers an ethical and controlled insight into people's competencies and vulnerabilities (i.e. ranging from understanding non literal language, to disinhibited social behaviour). This is because computer role play shows an individual working (they play the character), rather than reflective understanding (they have say how a 3rd party would act as in the traditional story vignette method).

References:

Fallon, T., Alyett, R., Minnis, H., & Rajendran, G. (2018). Investigating social vulnerability in children using computer mediated role-play. Computers and Education, 125, 458-464.

Rajendran, G., Mitchell, P., & Rickards, H. (2005). How do individuals with Asperger syndrome respond to nonliteral language and inappropriate requests in computer-mediated communication? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35, 4, 429-442

Rajendran, G., & Mitchell, P. (2000). Computer mediated interaction in Asperger’s syndrome: The Bubble Dialogue program. Computers and Education, 35, 187-207.