Epistemic Game Research Articles

The rules and aims of inquiry

Abstract Are norms of inquiry in tension with epistemic norms? I provide a (largely) negative answer, turning to a picture of epistemic practices as rule-governed games. The idea is that, while epistemic norms are correctness standards for the attitudes involved in epistemic games, norms of inquiry derive from the aims of those games. Attitudes that, despite being epistemically correct, are inadvisable regarding the goals of some inquiry are just like bad (but legal) moves in basketball or chess. I further consider cases in which the aims of inquiry recommend breaking epistemic norms. I compare them to strategic infractions, which are common in many coherent games. Finally, I explore the connections between rules and aims in games and in inquiry. I show that in both cases respecting the rules is constitutively required for satisfying the aims of the practice.

Constructing shared understanding of complex interdisciplinary problems: Epistemic games in interdisciplinary teamwork

ABSTRACT Background Constructing shared understanding of complex interdisciplinary problems is one of the most challenging aspects of interdisciplinary teamwork. How this process unfolds is under-researched, making it esoteric and difficult to scaffold. This paper aims to provide an articulated and nuanced account of what is involved in student teams’ construction of shared understanding of complex interdisciplinary problems. Methods The study combines the theoretical lens of epistemic games with an ecological analytical perspective. Drawing on the analysis of ethnographic cases, it explores how four graduate student teams construct shared understanding of complex problems during interdisciplinary projects. Findings Construction of shared understanding is a multifaceted and dynamic process that extends over the entire problem-solving activity. It relies on epistemic moves that explicate and juxtapose different perspectives and connect abstract ideas with knowledge grounded in students’ experiences and contexts. The pursuits students engage in, when creating shared understanding, reveal epistemic differences related to formulation of the interdisciplinary problem and what constitutes trustworthy knowledge. Contribution The paper contributes to the literature on the nature of students’ construction of shared understanding of complex interdisciplinary problems revealing critical recurrent moves. It also extends earlier conceptualizations of epistemic games as primarily discourse games and demonstrates that they are profoundly multimodal and distributed.

Developing competencies through flow, gamification and cultural integration: an analysis of the potential of games in teaching/learning

Much has been done to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on school and university education, both in filling gaps in learning and in social integration and motivation of students post-pandemic. The need to transition from conventional teaching to remote learning has led students and teachers in a spiral of evolution in the development of digital skills due to the urgent adaptability required by the situation. The search for new technologies and didactics that seemed difficult at the time because many were not yet expecting such a sudden change, now takes advantage of that experience to create projects and courses that allow for accelerated recovery and thus transform what was once a complicated task into a new perspective on teaching and learning. One of these ways is the use of epistemic games and gamification to maintain ‘flow’. Flow is a combination of skill development through challenges and the pleasure of completing tasks. In this work, we will discuss a project that, with the union of remote and face-to-face teaching & learning, allowed university students to use the knowledge received during an intensive course on environmental radiation to design an escape room-style game with the aim of teaching students at other levels of education. CERAMUG, a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) in partnership with ERASMUS+, aimed at two-way learning, to learn to use specific instruments for measuring natural environmental radiation and to teach, through a game, the existence of this natural radiation in order to inform and raise awareness of high school students on the subject. The aim of this course was to promote the development of competencies that allow students to succeed in their future professional challenges. The impact of the project is not only the innovative experience for students to learn specialized nuclear measurement techniques, but also to encourage other employability competencies and digital skills necessary for their careers, as well as promoting integration among students from different cultures and countries.

Epistemic Game on Aplication of Newton’s Laws

Epistemic games are a problem-solving strategy used by students in the process of finding solutions to a given problem. This study aims to determine the epistemic game that is owned by students in solving Newton's law application problems. The method used is a qualitative method in which student problem-solving strategies are identified in six games. The research subjects were students taking physics and biology courses. Data collection uses interviews and concept understanding tests about the application of Newton's law. The results showed that students used different games between each other to solve Newton's law application problems. The epistemic games that students have include mapping meaning to mathematics, physical mechanism, pictorial analysis, and transliteration to mathematics. Students use different games with each other to solve Newton's law application problems. The process by which students determine the solution to the problem-solving application of Newton's law is influenced by their' understanding of the material. This research is limited in the form of an epistemic game analysis of the application of Newton's law, so that further research can be carried out on other material concepts.

Development and reliability analysis of a split-administration test of the math epistemic games survey

Development and reliability analysis of a split-administration test of the math epistemic games survey

Towards Syntactic Epistemic Logic

Traditionally, Epistemic Logic represents epistemic scenarios using a single model. This, however, covers only complete descriptions that specify truth values of all assertions. Indeed, many—and perhaps most—epistemic descriptions are not complete. Syntactic Epistemic Logic, SEL, suggests viewing an epistemic situation as a set of syntactic conditions rather than as a model. This allows us to naturally capture incomplete descriptions; we discuss a case study in which our proposal is successful. In Epistemic Game Theory, this closes the conceptual and technical gap, identified by R. Aumann, between the syntactic character of game-descriptions and semantic representations of games.

An epistemic approach to explaining cooperation in the finitely repeated Prisoner\u2019s Dilemma

We use epistemic game theory to explore rationales behind cooperative behaviors in the finitely repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma. For a class of type structures that are sufficiently rich, the set of outcomes that can arise when each player i is rational and satisfies (m_i-1)th order strong belief of rationality is the set of paths on which each player i defects in the last m_i rounds. We construct one sufficiently rich type structure to elaborate on how different patterns of cooperative behaviors arise under sufficiently weak epistemic conditions. In this type structure, the optimality of forgiving the opponent’s past defection and the belief that one’s defection will be forgiven account for the richness of the set of behavior outcomes.

Intentional Agents for Epistemic Games

When humans observe other agents, one key aspect of that agent's behavior that they expect is intentionality, i.e. that the agent is working towards some goal and committed to achieving it. It is therefore desirable to develop agents that exhibit such behavior when they are supposed to interact with humans, especially if communication between the agent and the human is involved. However, as Cohen and Levesque have noted, intention can not be viewed in a vacuum, because it is tightly linked with an agent's beliefs about the world, and that effect is magnified when communication is involved. For my thesis, I am planning an agent framework that exhibits intentional behavior by modeling the agent's beliefs about the world and other agents' beliefs, in a theory of mind. My work not only focuses on having agents act with intentions, but also how they can communicate these intentions to other agents, and even deceive other agents by communicating intentions that they don't actually hold. Therefore, I will be focusing on what I call epistemic games, which are (turn-based) games in which the acquisition and exchange of knowledge is an intrinsic part of game play.

Knowledge, behavior, and rationality: rationalizability in epistemic games

Knowledge, behavior, and rationality: rationalizability in epistemic games

Making sense of sensemaking: using the sensemaking epistemic game to investigate student discourse during a collaborative gas law activity

Beyond students’ ability to manipulate variables and solve problems, chemistry instructors are also interested in students developing a deeper conceptual understanding of chemistry, that is, engaging in the process of sensemaking. The concept of sensemaking transcends problem-solving and focuses on students recognizing a gap in knowledge and working to construct an explanation that resolves this gap, leading them to “make sense” of a concept. Here, we focus on adapting and applying sensemaking as a framework to analyze three groups of students working through a collaborative gas law activity. The activity was designed around the learning cycle to aid students in constructing the ideal gas law using an interactive simulation. For this analysis, we characterized student discourse using the structural components of the sensemaking epistemic game using a deductive coding scheme. Next, we further analyzed students’ epistemic form by assessing features of the activity and student discourse related to sensemaking: whether the question was framed in a real-world context, the extent of student engagement in robust explanation building, and analysis of written scientific explanations. Our work provides further insight regarding the application and use of the sensemaking framework for analyzing students’ problem solving by providing a framework for inferring the depth with which students engage in the process of sensemaking.

A virtual internship to prepare high school students for civic and political action

We explored the impact of participating in a Virtual Internship (VI) computer-supported collaborative learning simulation, on high school students’ (n = 43) development of knowledge and skills for critiquing the political media with which they engage. Second, we evaluated the effect of this intervention on students’ self-efficacy for using specific media strategies to take political action. Finally, we explored the epistemic (knowledge-seeking) and non-epistemic aims that students set for themselves while participating within our VI, which was designed specifically to address students’ epistemic cognition. Analyses of both the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that students: (1) evinced gains in knowledge about what “fracking” is and also knowledge about why it is a controversial topic; (2) evinced gains in self-efficacy for civic engagement—a key indicator to students’ likelihood for acting; and (3) were able to understand the politicized nature of a social media post, and therefore reported wanting to pursue knowledge-seeking goals to understand both sides of the argument and the trustworthiness of the information sources. We discuss these results vis-a-vis the literature on epistemic games, which can help students develop the knowledge, skills, identity, and values of a profession.

Characterizing permissibility, proper rationalizability, and iterated admissibility by incomplete information

We characterize three interrelated solution concepts in epistemic game theory: permissibility, proper rationalizability, and iterated admissibility. We define the lexicographic epistemic model in a framework with incomplete information. Based on it, we give two groups of conditions; one characterizes permissibility and proper rationalizability, the other characterizes permissibility in an alternative way and iterated admissibility. In each group, the conditions for the latter are stronger than those for the former, which corresponds to the fact that proper rationalizability and iterated admissibility are incomparable but compatible refinements of permissibility within the complete information framework. The essential difference between the two groups is whether a full belief of rationality is needed.

Using Epistemic Game Development to Teach Software Development Skills

This paper presents a pilot study on the evaluation of instruments for data gathering for an epistemic game development competition for high school students. The initial results show that a significant percentage of the students who participated in the competition appear to exhibit a skillset of professional attitude, software-related knowledge, and employability traits, and this skillset may be attributed to the intervention. The data was validated through a two-method triangulation technique that utilized expert evaluation and participant interviews. The data analysis shows early indicators of the desired learning outcomes, although a more thorough methodology is needed to verify this. Furthermore, the competition acts as an awareness campaign that promotes computer science studies through a gamification process. It is proposed that competitions of this type are held and evaluated on an annual basis to maximize the benefits and to further prepare students to acquire early in their studies a skillset that will make them the innovators of the future society.

Enseigner les ondes mécaniques comme jeux d’apprentissage sur simulation

In this paper, we propose to present a teaching approach based on an investigation process. This approach entitled teaching by Prevision, Confrontation, Discussion and Resolution (PCDR). We then had trained a novice teacher in the Inquiry-based activity and we provide through a full educational scenario for him. We have subsequently observed the teacher applying the new approach on simulation of mechanical waves in the secondary science class. The analysis of this session is part of the theory of joint action in didactics (JATD); the methodology adopted is based on analysis of the descriptors at the situations and their implementations. The descriptors are epistemic games, learning games, didactic contract and didactic setting.

From Design to Management of Digital Epistemic Games

The development of pedagogies that can provide alternatives to traditional approaches is becoming increasingly important as a means of enhancing the attractiveness of training courses, appealing to new types of learners and designing learning systems that help to develop multidisciplinary skills. In this context, the JEN.lab project aims to offer innovative perspectives for learning based on the design of digital epistemic games (JENs in French). The research effort presented in this paper is part of the JEN.lab project. We aim to study problems related to the modelling and design of digital epistemic games. We propose a co-design process and an assistant tool supporting this process to guide teachers in designing digital epistemic games called ADDEGames (Assistance Design tool for Digital Epistemic Games). Our approach is based on: (i) the learners and the situation that emerges when they play the game, rather than the device used to play; and (ii) the teachers who want to manage a game-based learning situation. The iterative and participative development process and acceptance test using an agile approach are presented.

PERIODIC STRATEGIES II: GENERALIZATIONS AND EXTENSIONS

At a mixed Nash equilibrium, the payoff of a player does not depend on her own action, as long as her opponent sticks to his. In a periodic strategy, a concept developed in a previous paper [V. K. Oikonomou and J. Jost, Periodic strategies: A new solution concept and an algorithm for nontrivial strategic form games, Adv. Compl. Syst. 20(5) (2017) 1750009], in contrast, the own payoff does not depend on the opponent’s action. Here, we generalize this to multi-player simultaneous perfect information strategic form games. We show that also in this class of games, there always exists at least one periodic strategy, and we investigate the mathematical properties of such periodic strategies. In addition, we demonstrate that periodic strategies may exist in games with incomplete information; we shall focus on Bayesian games. Moreover, we discuss the differences between the periodic strategies formalism and cooperative game theory. In fact, the periodic strategies are obtained in a purely non-cooperative way, and periodic strategies are as cooperative as the Nash equilibria are. Finally, we incorporate the periodic strategies in an epistemic game theory framework, and discuss several features of this approach.

Epistemic Games of Moderate Physics-Capable Students in Completing Electrical Circuit Problems

The students need a learning strategy that is compatible to develop electrical circuit problems completion. Additionally, problem-solving strategy (epistemic game) will develop a learning process that can stimulate the completion of physics. This case encourages the researcher to determine the epistemic game of moderate physics-capable students in solving electrical circuit problems. Moreover, it is qualitative research, and the participant of the research is the students who learn the electrical circuit. Moderate physics-capable students (4 moderately capable students out of 13 students) based on their physics understanding test results. Test and interview were used by the researcher to collect data. The test consists of a physics understanding test and an electrical circuit test. The physics understanding test is used to determine the level of students’ physics understanding, while the electrical circuit test is used to determine students’ epistemic games to solve the problems. The research finding showed the epistemic game of moderate physics-capable students was obtained from the analysis result of the electrical circuit test and interview. The analysis result of the first test, the second test, the third test, and the seventh test showed that the game used to solve problems was transliteration to mathematics. Meanwhile, the students used mapping mathematics to meaning and transliteration to mathematics to solve the problems in the fourth test. The analysis result of the fifth test and the eight test showed that the students used mapping mathematics to meaning to solve the problems. Furthermore, the sixth test was completed by mapping meaning to mathematics.

The Role of Epistemology and Epistemic Games in Mediating the Use of Mathematics in Chemistry: Implications for Mathematics Instruction and Research on Undergraduate Mathematics Education

Mathematics is used in the physical sciences to describe and model phenomena, resulting in a unique interface between mathematics and disciplines such as chemistry and physics. This paper focuses on themes emerging from a larger project that investigated how students understand and use mathematics in chemical kinetics, a field of study concerned with monitoring the rate of chemical reactions. The primary data source for this study involved a subset of the data from the larger project, focusing on semi-structured interviews with 40 students sampled from a second-semester general chemistry course. During the interviews students were asked to work through chemical kinetics problems that could be solved without calculations (using relationships between quantities and chemistry principles) or they could be solved algorithmically (using equations and the provided data). The interviews were analyzed using the construct of epistemic games, which describe a collection of resources and an associated structure that define and guide problem-solving and reflect epistemological commitments. Findings indicate students have productive resources and approaches for engaging in problem-solving, reflected by the observed shared set of epistemic games. Implications emphasize the role of scaffolding and explicit questioning to prevent compartmentalization of chemistry and mathematics, suggesting the need for more support to help students productively apply the knowledge and skills learned in mathematics courses to contexts such as chemistry.

A virtual internship for developing technological pedagogical content knowledge

This study examines the use of a virtual internship (an epistemic game) for developing preservice teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). TPACK aims to capture the essential qualities of teacher knowledge that are needed for integrating technology into teaching. Virtual internships are computer-based professional practicum simulation games where participants assume the role of a professional, work collaboratively on authentic tasks, and engage in complex professional thinking. The online collaborative chat records of 33 preservice teachers who played the game over the course of 8 weeks were analysed using epistemic network analysis (ENA), which made it possible to examine the dynamic connections between various TPACK domains over time. The analysis showed that participants’ TPACK representations gradually became more complex in terms of the number of pedagogical considerations and the strength of connections between pedagogical considerations, technology, and content. Suggestions are made for designing learning environments that aim to develop preservice teachers’ TPACK.

Epistemic game theory without types structures: An application to psychological games

We consider multi-stage games with incomplete information, and we analyze strategic reasoning by means of epistemic events within a “total” state space made of all the profiles of behaviors (paths of play) and possibly incoherent infinite hierarchies of conditional beliefs. Thus, we do not rely on types structures, or similar epistemic models. Subjective rationality is defined by the conjunction of coherence of belief hierarchies, rational planning, and consistency between plan and on-path behavior. Since consistent hierarchies uniquely induce beliefs about behavior and belief hierarchies of others, we can define rationality and common strong belief in rationality, and analyze their behavioral and low-order beliefs implications, which are characterized by strong rationalizability. Our approach allows to extend known techniques to the epistemic analysis of psychological games where the utilities of outcomes depend on beliefs of order k or lower. This covers almost all applications of psychological game theory.