Chapter 1 - Play

Play is a process.¹ Seemingly pointless², it has been the means of our evolution and survival as a species. It shapes our brain, increases our intelligence and has made us more adaptable. Play lies at the heart of all innovation and creativity³. This chapter will define what is meant by the term play, and that daydreaming can also be considered as a form of play. This will be further confirmed by the discussion of seven defining properties of play; these are: apparent purposelessness, voluntary, inherent attraction, freedom from time, diminished consciousness of self, improvisational potential, and continuation desire.

Research by neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp⁴, and others⁵ confirms that play is a part of our instincts and aids us in our ability to adapt. It is even seen in animals. Similar processes of play inhibition are seen in animals, as well as in humans, as we progress throughout our lives. Society tends not to value play, and as a result we can develop a play-deficit; this deficit causes us to engage in a process called rebound play. The effects of a decreasing amount of play-based escape can also be seen through our societies declining creativity. This chapter argues that, due to play’s significance in brain plasticity and creativity, we should choose to continue to engage in play-based escapes throughout our lives.

Think back to when you were a child. Think of a memory where you were playing with a favourite toy. It is very likely that while playing with this toy you were completely absorbed by this activity and experiencing what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2008) calls flow⁶. Consider this memory again; the game was never the same was it? Each time we played as a child, new and often pretend situations would arise causing the game to change. Essentially as children we were learning how to adapt. In a playful, safe, and fun setting we were testing ways in which we would react to new situations.

Similarly, when we daydream we often play out scenarios in our minds and test how we would react without any actual risk to ourselves. Daydreaming, also called fantasy, fantasy play or mind-wandering⁷, is considered as another form of a play-based escape. Play will henceforth include daydreaming when used in this thesis.

In his book, Daydreaming, Jerome L. Singer⁸ describes how the word daydream is used.

Generally the word [daydreaming] is used to mean a shift of attention away from an ongoing physical or mental task or from a perceptual response to external stimulation towards a response to some internal stimulus. The inner processes usually considered are ‘pictures in the mind’s eye,’ the unrolling of a sequence of events, memories, or creatively constructed images of future events of various degrees of probability of occurrence.⁹

While providing often delightful fleeting moments of escape from reality, daydreaming may also serve as a defensive function, similar to the fight-or-flight response to stress. Singer describes the daydream as “one manifestation of the ability to attend to internally produced stimuli or to use those stimuli to construct a new stimulus source less monotonous or less threatening than some external stimulus patterns.”¹⁰ According to Freud, who originally noted this defensive function, the daydream serves to allow an individual to avoid awareness of “sexual fears or doubts through fantasied prowess in semi-disguised form.”¹¹

What exactly is play? What is meant when we talk about play? According to Brown (2010), play is defined by seven properties: apparently purposeless, voluntary, inherent attraction, freedom from time, diminished consciousness of self, improvisational potential, and continuation desire.¹²

In some ways escape, especially through play, is not viewed in a positive light. One reason for this is that it is seen by many as an apparent waste of time. A play-based escape does not seem to possess any purpose. It is not done to bring about food or income, and play may be seen as an impractical retreat from the realities of everyday life. We of course now know the true purposes behind this kind of escape are integrated with developing the ability to adapt and increase our intelligence. We must still admit, however, that our escapes still appear to possess no immediately apparent purpose.

Play must also be voluntary; we cannot be forced or obligated into it. It simply cannot occur under these circumstances. While involved in it, we experience a diminished sense of self. Worries about our appearance, intelligence, and skills subside; no longer are we conscious that we are thinking; we are experiencing what Csikszentmihalyi (2008) calls flow. We are finding pleasure and enjoyment in it. Play has inherent attraction; it provides psychological arousal, is exciting, and seems to cure boredom. While enjoying ourselves we also lose our sense of time. There becomes truth to the expression, “time flies when you are having fun!” as the experience provides a freedom from time.

Importantly, another property is that within play there is improvisational potential. We never really know what is going to happen when we play or daydream, but as new ideas, or instances come about, we incorporate them and react to them. We improvise. We thereby discover new behaviours, strategies, thoughts, and ideas. Play means being open to chance and not locking into a rigid method or routine while engaged in it. This property allows us to build upon ourselves, adapt, and develop.

Lastly, play provides a continuation desire. It is addictive. We gain pleasure from it, and our brains are stimulated, therefore we want to continue the experience. When it finally ends, we want to do it again.¹³

You may be asking yourself: Why play? You may have been thinking: but I participate in escape all the time; I read, I watch TV, I use video-games. Why is play more beneficial? Studies by two leading researchers, Jonathan Schooler and Jonathan Smallwood (2005) of the University of California, Santa Barbara, have suggested that while engaged in these activities, those of games and pure diversion, we may not be conscious of our daydreaming or mind-wandering. In a study which involved reading passages from War and Peace, participants were asked to relate how many times they “zoned-out”¹⁴, and they would respond that on average about 2 or 3 times. However, when interrupted during intervals, 10 percent of the time they would admit to having been daydreaming, yet, until they were interrupted, they were unconscious that they were doing so.¹⁵

As discussed in this thesis, those who participate in daydreaming, or mind-wandering, have shown increased creativity. According to Schooler, in order to encourage this creative process we should go jogging or take a walk because relatively undemanding tasks seem to free the mind to wander productively. These undemanding tasks also allow us to be aware of the “Eureka moment” when it occurs. “For creativity you need your mind to wander,” Schooler says, “but you also need to be able to notice that you’re mind-wandering and catch the idea when you have it.”¹⁶

I would argue that we should engage in a play-based escape; however, by its very nature, we often cannot avoid doing so. Play is instinctive. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp has done numerous studies on play in rats and other animals. He has found that there must be an emotional linkage in order for play to occur. If this does not exist, then something other than play is occurring. In other words, Panksepp believes that play is initially activated in the brainstem, which then connects to, and activates the pleasurable emotions experienced during the play process. The brainstem, or hypothalamus, is where our automatic actions – our instincts – are controlled; therefore, according to Panksepp, play-based escape can be considered instinctive.¹⁷

As we can see, the act of playing is built in and hardwired. It is a survival mechanism within the brainstem such as respiration, sleep, consciousness, and dreams. When reviewing Kurt Goldstein’s work, and Robert W. White’s concept of competence, Singer discusses that:

The capacities for image formation and symbolization and for adopting an ‘attitude towards the possible,’ as Goldstein has put it, may well be a product of natural selection and are available for man’s development.¹⁸

These capacities are seen to extend to the animal kingdom as well. Animals also engage in play. As mentioned, play is related to the concept of flow. Engrossed in the experience of the activity, consciousness of the surroundings and even the sense of self diminishes. For example, growing up on the farm there were always numerous farm cats, and every year, with farm cats came kittens. A batch of wild kittens, completely engrossed in play, can be seen to have completely forgotten their surroundings. This becomes most obvious when they are surprised. It was fun to see them run in the wrong direction after I surprised them. After a couple seconds they would realize their mistake and franticly attempt to correct themselves to run to safety under the chicken coop.

Play and fantasy in animals is controversial; however, as new studies continue to arise, this concept has gained acceptance. Not long ago this concept could only be whispered, as it was believed that what makes us human is our capacity for thoughts and fantasy. In the book Origins of Human Nature, Bjorklund and Pellegrini¹⁹ describe a study that found a captive chimpanzee signing to its toy dolls during play. Not only this, but young, wild chimpanzees were found to wash rocks, mimicking the elder chimpanzees who would wash potatoes before eating them. The process of play was allowing them to practice rituals for their survival. Were they playing house?²⁰

It is now accepted that all mammals engage in play²¹. As well as a positive link between brain-size and play among mammals, there is a correlation between the development of the brain’s frontal cortex with the amount of play. The frontal cortex is the region of the brain responsible for most of what we call cognition, such as “discriminating relevant from irrelevant information, monitoring and organizing our own thoughts and feelings, as well as planning for the future.”²² This is to say, that while almost everything sculpts the brain, play seems to be a significant factor²³. The brain develops most efficiently during the early stages of life, however, continues to develop at a slower pace as we grow older. Play largely occurs, and is most beneficial therefore, in the juvenile stage of our development. As humans, we extend our juvenile period out longer than any other creature.

In the wild, leopard kittens play very similar to how domestic kittens play. As they grow older they play less. “While engaged in play, animals are not finding food or shelter. If adult animals do nothing but play, they won’t be paying attention to their offspring, making them more vulnerable to predators.”²⁴ The inherent drives of hunger and sleep are stronger than the drive to play, especially when survival is at risk.

Since we now know that the brain continues to develop throughout our lives, we can understand the importance of, often needed, play-based escapes as well. As we grow from infants to adults, numerous stages of play can be observed. However, similar to animals, we tend to distance ourselves from play as we grow older, inhibiting motor activity and eventually nearly abandon play completely.

Children play – it comes naturally to them. They take pleasure in the use of these capacities and gain a sense of competence. From some of the earliest stages of development this is evident as a child plays peek-a-boo games, “delighted by the rise and fall of tension in the ‘now it’s here, now it isn’t, now I can bring it back’” described by White.²⁵ The inclination to try other types of make-believe play is advanced by the sense of efficacy gained from the thrill of the capacity to hide and uncover his hand or rattle. This sense of control also helps the child learn to differentiate between his self and the environment.

The earliest form of play is called body-play, also known as movement-play. According to Stuart Brown, it begins as early as while a developing child is still within in the womb. As soon as they are born, babies start waving their arms, and kicking their legs in apparent randomness. Soon they learn to walk, and then to crawl. “They roll food around with their tongues, sucking it in and spitting it out, enjoying the process immensely. [...] These are not random movements – they are intrinsic behaviours that promote exploration and learning.”²⁶

Soon, forms of imaginative play take place and have been documented in children as young as two years of age.²⁷ As a child grows from an infant into early childhood, he learns to use common objects to represent more complex objects, such as using a book as a make-believe airplane, or a stick as a gun. However, as this child grows older, beyond the preschool age, having more realistic-appearing toys becomes infinitely more exciting. It would be interesting to know whether or not these realistic looking toys hinder any further imaginative development.

As the child plays during this time he combines overt motor activity such as running around, jumping, and mock shooting of laser-beams, with equally bold verbalizations, such as narrating play, and imitation sounds. As he grows older the verbal expressiveness and motor play become more elaborate and varied, reflecting an enhanced complexity.

By the ages of about ten to twelve gradually less and less play is verbalized and expressed in such a boisterous motor fashion. Many children feel the need to continue such activity; however, it now takes a social form, and often includes numerous toys and accessories. Solitary play becomes more silent and drawing sometimes becomes a vehicle for play. The child continues to play, yet at this point will inhibit his motor activity and verbalizations. According to Werner’s theory of sensory-tonic vicariousness, by inhibiting overt motor activity, a child may be “sensitizing his brain for the apparent motion perception – one basis for the stuff of imagery.”²⁸ When observing fantasy play in an older child we may only notice whispers of conversation or hushed imitation sounds. “What seems to be happening is that the child [...] is finding a means for storage of the associational content in a form readily available on demand but not requiring public manifestations.”²⁹ This tends to occur prior to social pressures for inhibition of overt motor play as evidenced by more elaborate fantasy play. As social pressures for internalization increase, this storage process becomes more essential. Tomkins proposes the idea of miniaturizing which is a process of informational compression for storage and internalization of fantasy play.

Though play is beneficial, youth often want to be treated as adults and they strive to break away from the confines and limitations that accompany being a child. As they grow older, teens begin to participate less in imaginative play. Their drives to be social and interact with peers arise, and they fear that they will appear childish among their peers if they engage in play. It is in this fashion that the fears of ridicule, as well as social pressures, work towards inhibiting play as children grow older. As responsibilities and schoolwork increase, play and daydreams must eventually take a backseat.

As adults, play is not approved of. “[...] we are made to feel guilty for playing. We are told that it is unproductive, a waste of time, even sinful.”³⁰ An eyebrow would certainly be lifted if a fellow colleague was caught playing GI-Joe™ with his coffee cups. To avoid any embarrassment of appearing juvenile we therefore engage in the more structured forms of escape, such as games. For example, organized sports, which have clearly defined rules that are widely accepted and not up for any embellishment or interpretation; they are rigid and competitive. “We strive to always be productive, and if an activity doesn’t teach us a skill, make us money, or get on the boss’s good side then we feel we should not be doing it.”³¹ Ultimately, the demands of daily life simply rob us of the ability to play. If we are not rich, or retired, we simply may not have time for play.³²

It is clear to see that as we progress through life we are first escaping from daily routine in order to engage in play, and as we grow older we slowly learn to internalize the process so that our actions are hidden and our voices are lowered. Eventually we nearly abandon this form of escape altogether.

It is now becoming more common for families to have two working parents. As each parent works full time they place their children in numerous organized sports, as well as other structured activities, or games, so that they are not left alone and can engage in social interactions with other children. However, according to Singer, “Children will often show signs of a need to withdraw from a group in order to carry on fantasy activity or some form of solitary play.”³³ The organized activities more common to a child’s life today preclude any privacy they may need in order for solitary play and fantasy development. Added to this, White and Schachtel discovered that the “manifestations of creative play are most likely to appear under conditions in which biological drives are reasonably well satisfied and anxiety is kept to a minimal level.”³⁴ If the parents are over-worked and stressed they will have less ability to engage in, and encourage creative play with their children.

Michael Ungar, author of Too Safe for Their Own Good (2007), states that children now live in a world that is safer than ever before in history, and that, as parents, we must take care not to be too over-protective. It is much less common for children to play unsupervised. Even playgrounds now have been renovated or redone in order to provide a safer environment for children.³⁵ Scott Eberle, an intellectual historian of play, believes that most people go through a six-step process as they play. Not necessarily done in order, Eberle says that play involves: anticipation, surprise, pleasure, understanding, strength, and poise. The anticipation characteristic he mentions encompasses wonder, curiosity, anxiety, and importantly, a small amount of uncertainty and risk. If children are not reaching this step as they play, they can become bored, and may later engage in rebound play. Just as a sleep-deficit results in an extra need for sleep, play-deficit results in an extra need for play; this extra play is called rebound play.³⁶

Rebound play can be disruptive at times, especially if it occurs when a child is meant to focus on a class discussion, or school-work. With enough play, the brain simply works better. Creativity and innovation are nourished by play-based escape. This has been a common process among our evolutionary history, however, more and more we are attempting to reduce daydreaming and play. Higher education has become so vastly important in our society that we spend all our efforts as children and young adults attempting to gain the highest grades. Daydreaming is often believed to distract us from these goals and is greatly discouraged as we grow up, even chemically reduced, using drugs such as Ritalin™. Children today hardly have any moments for play-based escape. We are beginning to see the repercussions.

Torrance scores are used to measure creativity. Torrance scores are gathered from Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) developed by Ellis Paul Torrance, an American psychologist, who built on the work of J.P. Guilford. The TTCT involves testing divergent thinking and other problem solving skills, and are scored on five scales: fluency, originality, abstractness of titles, resistance to premature closure, and elaboration.³⁷

Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William and Mary discovered that creativity scores are declining in the United States. Kim analyzed nearly 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults and found that creativity scores had been steadily rising until 1990. However, after 1990 creativity scores consistently inched significantly downward. Noted by Kim, as the “most serious” decline, were the scores of younger children, from kindergarten through to sixth-grade.³⁸

A possible cause outlined by Kim, is the rise in the number of hours that children spend watching T.V. and playing videogames as opposed to being engaged in more creative activities. Another cause may be the lack of encouraged creativity development within schools.³⁹

Referring back to the problems experienced by Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) due to a decline and lack of creativity within new employees, this company found a solution: Play.

They came to this conclusion after they noted the results found by a man named Nate Jones. Jones, a man who ran a machine shop specializing in precision racing and Formula One tires, noticed that many of his new employees were not able to problem-solve. Wondering what had changed, he questioned both his older employees along with his new employees. Jones found that “those who had worked and played with their hands as they were growing up were able to ‘see solutions’ that those who hadn’t worked with their hands could not.” After writing an article about what he had found, it came to the attention of the Head of JPL. After JPL researched their own company and found similar patterns, they then began an attempt to hire a new group of professionals which have shown not just the highest grades, but continued evidence of play throughout their lives.⁴⁰

The benefits of a play-based escape, such as productivity and creativity, demonstrate a need for continued play and daydreaming throughout life. Playing more in order to increase productivity may be a difficult concept for our current society to accept; however, this has shown to be the case. In order to grasp how to design an environment that will encourage a play-based escape, the conditions and context necessary for this form of escape must first be understood.