Children demonstrate learning by encoding and retrieving from memory. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the mechanisms that support memory and hence how we can support learning. The 'self-reference effect' (SRE) has shown that individuals are better at remembering information about themselves than information relating to others. This is particularly effective because it occurs in different contexts. For example, when the information is perceived as self-owned, or when the information is encoded while thinking about self. Most research exploring the extent of the SRE has been conducted in a laboratory setting. To determine the benefits for learning, this project aims to explore the potential uses of self-referencing in the classroom. The project will explore SREs across an array of literacy processing, numeracy processing and learning tasks. Personalisation in learning, such as including personal hobbies and cartoon characters in materials, has been encouraged as it helps to promote rich encoding. However, this is costly as it requires individualised materials. Self-referencing incurs less cost as the changes are not individual (e.g., using pronouns 'you' or 'I' instead of a character name) yet there is evidence that these changes lead to improvements in learning. For example, in a spelling task, children improved the accuracy of their spelling for new words when they wrote sentences starting with the word 'I' compared to sentences they wrote about another character. They also wrote longer sentences, which indicates that they were more engaged with their learning. In an arithmetic task, self-pronouns included in maths problems (e.g., You have 3 balls. Bob has 2 more balls than You. How many balls does Bob have?") elicited faster and more accurate problem-solving than when the problems were presented entirely in the third person (e.g., "Tom has 5 balls..."). In additional to pronoun changes, another study showed that children learned novel shapes better if the shapes were 'owned' by them during a sorting game. These studies indicate that there is great potential in using self-referencing in the classroom; however, systematic research is necessary to test the efficacy of these manipulations, and their underlying mechanisms. Three potential mechanisms for the impact of self-referencing on learning have been proposed. First is the self-knowledge framework, which is the most established account of the SRE. Self-knowledge is particularly extensive and accessible relative to other knowledge in memory, so can be used to enrich and organise new information, providing multiple routes to successful retrieval. However, there may also be an important role for attention and this has been explored to a lesser extent, particularly with regards to learning. Self-cues are difficult to ignore, and this may provide a mechanism whereby the children are engaged in the material to be learned for longer intervals. Finally, working memory, a type of short-term memory that encompasses both storage and processing, may also be affected by self-reference cues. For example, when personal pronouns are included in literacy and numeracy tasks, it reduces the number of referents or things to be remembered. This research will test the effect of self-referencing on attentional capacity, working memory load, task engagement ans memory support as a necessary step in the successful translation of self-referencing to the classroom. A further aspect of translation is to test transferability of SRE interventions, comparing the impact of training teachers v. learners. Teacher input will be sought at every stage of experimental design to ensure materials are easily transferable to classroom activities. Based on the experiments conducted, the project will develop educational resources and a website enabling teachers and parents to implement self-referencing in learning. This will ensure the impact of this project is wide and sustainable in practice.

InGAME International is an international consortium of games industry stakeholders brought together from industry, agencies and universities to investigate the challenges to, and deliver solutions that support, international collaboration between the videogames sectors in the UK and China. The videogames sector in China boasts the biggest market in the world and some of the largest and most profitable games companies. In 2018 620 million spent $37.9 billion across mobile, PC and console games. The UK is the 6th biggest market in the world and the creators of so,me of the most successful games titles. 37.3 million players spent $4.5 billion in 2018. Alongside this asymmetry in scale, each sector has strengths and weaknesses that contribute to inhibiting the growth and evolution of the videogames industry in both territories. Research undertaken by BOP Consulting on behalf of the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK shows that the videogames sector in China is dominated by a small number of very large media companies. In total, 12 companies generate 90% of revenues from video games in China. Tencent and NetEase dominate the video games market with over 50% of the entire video game market and over 60% of the mobile game segment. The same research highlights access to funding is the main barrier to UK companies achieving the scale required to enter the Chinese market. As well as commercial barriers, cultural differences and production processes, business and regulatory environments and education and professional training are also cited as barriers to growth and international collaboration. The proposed project aims to pick up from the BOP report to build cross-sector expertise and a research team that is able to adapt quickly to new knowledge and understanding emerging from research findings. The project recognises the dynamic nature of the sector and of academic understanding and has designed a programme that is capable of respoding to emergent conditions. InGAME International proposes to establish projects in two main areas. Researchers in the UK and China will work together to identify policy and regulatory barriers to cooperation and develop new modes of working with a view to creating innovative new products, services and business models. Researchers will work with industry professionals to understand regulation and policy; especially licensing and IP, together with market dynamics and commercial models, including in-game revenue streams. We will also explore organisational cross-nation interoperation, especially between very small and very large organisations, cultural and audience differences to identify the relationship between developed product and consumer-base in key games subsectors. Simultaneously, researchers will work with industry partners to will review a range of gaming and other game-technology enabled experiences and their aesthetics together the technologies that underpin both those experiences themselves and the production pipelines used to create them. We will also characterise the different models of game production in the UK and China, identifying key similarities and differences. Building on this research base the project will undertake to test the research outcomes through the creation of a small number of demonstrator projects involving international co-production of innovative new products aimed at testing assumptions or exploring new opportunities. Alongside this, the project will apply InGAME UKs action research methodology to assess and verify innovation processes and practices across all aspects of policy, regulation, production and commercialisation in order to develop guidelines and advice, academic programmes and professional training to ensure that outcomes and impacts are resilient, learning and networks are sustained and new generations of games professionals are equiped to work with researchers to innovate new products for international markets.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

This proposed study is in response to the urgency grants highlight notice on impacts on cultural heritage resulting from natural disasters and climate change. In March 2019, devastating floods due to Cyclone Idai left Zimbabwe hard hit and devastated in terms of loss to human life and livestock as well as damage to property (UN Report, 2019). About 270,000 people were affected by Cyclone Idai, approximately 339 died, 15,230 displaced and about 349 are still missing to date. The Government of Zimbabwe and its development partners (international and local NGOs) have been on the forefront assisting the affected communities in Manicaland district with humanitarian aid and with relocating and reconstructing affected communities, especially in Chimanimani, Chipinge and Buhera districts. Hence, the urgent need to conduct this study so that it inputs into the post-Cyclone Idai recovery programme being championed by the Government of Zimbabwe and its development partners. Climate change induced disasters, such as Cyclone Idai, pose a severe threat to cultural heritage. Cultural heritage plays an important role as a reflection of cultural, historical, and social values, is valuable to national and community identities, and it links to the past, and ongoing social cohesion. However, the adverse effects of climate change induced natural disasters on cultural heritage tend to be considered primarily in connection with tangible or physical cultural properties, such as buildings, monuments, or archeological sites, and less in connection with Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, indigenous rituals, kinship systems. For example, the two most pronounced Post-cyclone Idai recovery initiatives in the nine affected districts in Manicaland province; the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP) and the Post Cyclone Idai Emergency Recovery and Resilience Project (PCIREP), are mainly focused on livelihoods and infrastructure. ZIRP is focusing on rebuilding community infrastructure and restoring livelihoods through cash transfers, restoring agricultural crops and livestock production. The PCIREP programme is focusing on rebuilding key infrastructure across Zimbabwe, which include transport, electricity, and water and sanitation. None of these programmes are targeted at recovering or restoring the ICH of the affected communities. Intangible heritage faces considerable risks through the scattering of communities such as what happened in the Cyclone Idai hit districts in Zimbabwe where 10,000 houses were destroyed and the families are being relocated to other districts. This type of damage often has a longer-lasting social impact e.g., affect cultural diversity and socio-cultural interactions as families are forced to change their community set up, ways of life, and to compete for resources. There is urgent need to include ICH within the framework of disaster risk management being used in recovering and rebuilding Cyclone Idai affected communities in Manicaland province in Zimbabwe as cultural heritage is often damaged or destroyed in the aftermath of a disaster due to insensitive conservation, recovery, and reconstruction. Hence, this study is of urgency to provide evidence-based information on the intangible cultural heritage of these affected communities that is useful for sustainable resilience, reconstruction and relocation of the affected communities.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.