Towards an embodied view of flow
Pablo Romero & Eduardo H. Calvillo-Gámez
1IIMAS, UNAM, México, DF
2Div. Nuevas Tec. De la Inf. Universidad Politécnica de SLP
pablor@unam.mx, eduardo.calvillo@gmail.com
Abstract. Flow is a psychological construct that has been used to describe
states of optimal experience and intrinsic motivation. We claim that adaptions
of flow made from psychological into computing studies have been done
without a careful consideration of the original concept and that frequently they
are the product of conceptual misunderstandings. We propose a view of flow
for computing studies based on notions of phenomenology and embodied
interaction and analyse the major characteristics of this concept from this
embodied view.
Keywords: Flow, Human-Computer Interaction, Embodied Interaction.
1 Introduction
It can be argued that the most direct motivation to pursue any activity is the
enjoyment we obtain as a result of doing it. If we know that doing a particular activity
would produce an optimal positive experience, then we could consider this knowledge
as a motivation to pursue the said activity. This is the case of flow. The concept of
flow has been used to describe psychological states of optimal experience that are
characterised by a deep concentration in the task at hand and have been associated
with intrinsic motivation, skills promotion and academic excellence [1]. In
computing, a number of studies of video gaming, e-shopping, web marketing and e-
learning, among others areas, have reported their environments as conducive to flow
and promoting positive attitudes and outcomes for users [2-4]. However, there has not
been a consensus on a uniform way to conceptualise, model, operationalise and
measure flow in those studies [2]. Models of flow, for example, do not agree on
which characteristics of flow to include, and how they can be defined, categorised or
related among them.
According to Finneran and Zhang [2], the discrepancies of those models indicate
underlying problems in the conceptualisation of flow. Rather than trying to evaluate,
refine, integrate or create new models of flow, what we propose in this paper is to go
back and revise the way in which this concept has been adapted to the computing
area. The paper has four sections. The second section briefly describes the way the
concept of flow and its characteristics have been understood and adapted in
computing studies and highlights inconsistencies and possible misunderstandings.
The third section proposes a view of flow that addresses those inconsistencies and

2 Pablo Romero & Eduardo H. Calvillo-Gámez
misunderstandings and revisits some of the characteristics of flow in terms of that
view. Finally, the fourth section presents some conclusions.
2 Conceptual inconsistencies and gaps in studies of flow
Computing studies of flow have defined it in a number of different ways: as
engagement and immersion in an activity [4], as absorption in a virtual space and the
fading away of the physical world [5], as a playful and exploratory experience [6],
and as an experience which is undertaken for its own sake [7], among other
definitions. Although Csikszentmihalyi has warned against reifying flow [8], the
ambiguity of the concept of flow has created a situation in which research in the area
might be studying altogether different phenomena. Identifying at least a central
characteristic that could be used to better model and operationalise flow would be
particularly useful for future research in the area.
Computing studies of flow have adopted a set of nine characteristics associated
with this construct: a balance between challenges and skills, clear goals, immediate
feedback, intense concentration, merging of action and awareness, loss of self-
consciousness, a sense of control, time distortion and experiencing the activity as
intrinsically rewarding [7, 9-11]. Models of flow have incorporated those
characteristics and tried to establish causality links among them. However there is no
agreement as to what characteristics to take into account or what their dependencies
are [2, 4].
Also, frequently it is unclear whether different studies understand the
characteristics in the same way. Two examples that are relevant to our main
discussion have to do with the definition of the challenges-skills balance and of
intense concentration. The challenges-skills balance has been understood as the match
between the person’s skill and the challenges associated with the task. However there
is disagreement on whether it refers to the potential challenge of learning and
mastering the use of a digital system or of a task related with some aspect of reality
other than the digital system per se [2]. Additionally, psychology research has
suggested that challenges and skills might be multimodal in the sense that they are
associated with the cognitive, physical and emotional parts of the person [12].
However studies and models of flow in computing have not taken this into account.
The other characteristic, intense concentration, has been defined as a narrow
attention that focuses entirely in the interaction with the digital system, to the degree
that users screen out irrelevant thoughts and perceptions and loose awareness of
everyday life [9,13]. However this understanding is at odds with characterisations of
this feature in psychology studies of flow where frequently it has been described as
the opposite, an attention characterised by an expansive type of awareness [14].
Finally, studies of flow in computing have focused mainly on desktop interaction,
forgetting about movement interaction, a relatively recent but promising area that
includes research in tangible user interfaces, ubiquitous computing and product design
[15]. The following section presents a view of flow that addresses this as well as the
other issues mentioned above.

Towards an embodied view of flow 3
3 A view based on phenomenology and embodiment
The main reference of our approach is the embodied interaction framework of Dorish
[16]. From this framework, and in general from its foundations, embodiment and
phenomenology, we take four points as central for our embodied view of flow. The
first is attention; a central issue for phenomenology is to be able to turn one’s
attention to the lived experience instead of being just inattentively immersed in it. The
second is the importance of the context, the world in which people think, act and live.
The third are the notions of present-at-hand and ready-to-hand; whether when
performing a task, the user is directly concerned with the digital system or with any
other aspect of reality. Finally the fourth is the importance of the body; within the
phenomenological tradition, Maurice Merlau-Ponty [17] gives special importance to
the body as the entity that makes the act of experiencing possible and to the bodily
skills and knowledge that enable us to act on and experience the world. The relevance
of these points for our view is described below.

Captive, effortful and effortless attention
While not attempting to provide a precise definition, we would like to highlight the
fact that computing studies of flow have largely ignored a central characteristic of this
construct: effortless attention. Flow has been defined as a state of deep concentration
that is perceived as effortless. People perceive this experience as their attention being
effortlessly carried by a current, hence the analogy with flow [18]. Under ordinary
circumstances, subjective attentional effort in a task is proportional to the demands of
the task, until there comes a point in which no increase in effort is possible (see figure
1a) [19]. In contrast to this effortful attention scenario, there are occasions in which
paradoxically, at some point in the execution of the task, one is concentrated so
thoroughly in the activity that suddenly attention seems effortless. At these moments,
increased demands can be met with a sustained level of efficacy but without an
increase in the perceived attentional effort (although the real level of attention is high.
See figure 1b).

Fig. 1.Effort vs. demands in a) effortful and b) effortless attention. From Bruya (2010).
Effortful attention has been defined as people focusing and maintaining attention
on specific stimuli intentionally [20]. Most of the time, however, attention is captured

4 Pablo Romero & Eduardo H. Calvillo-Gámez
by external stimuli: smells, noises and images of the external world, for example.
People pay attention to these stimuli without spending any effort. This captive type of
attention has a passive quality to it; the person is not in control of which stimuli are
attended to. In contrast, effortful attention has a more active quality to it; some effort
is required to keep such focus. The fact that effortless attention occurs in contexts that
should demand an effortful type of attention makes it difficult to imagine that
recreational, non-goal oriented online activities like browsing aimlessly on the web
[21] could promote states of flow.
The expansive type of awareness reported in the psychological flow literature
could also be strongly associated with the effortless nature of attention in flow
episodes. Being able to register an unusual amount of context detail means that the
detail does not act as a distractor anymore. Ordinarily, attention is effortful because
the tendency to attend to constant external distractors must be overridden in order to
keep an intentional focus on the chosen stimuli. In flow episodes, what is usually
considered as external distractors can instead be regarded as part of the activity; they
do not distract anymore but are included in the experience.
In practical terms, studies and models of flow should discriminate between captive,
effortful and effortless attention.

The importance of context
The view of flow we propose is in line with the emphasis of the embodied interaction
framework of taking technology to the world of people. This stance contrasts with
other approaches such as virtual reality, where people are the visitors in the world of
computers. Our embodied view of flow instead suggests that it is digital applications
that are drawn into the world of the user. We believe this is a more appropriate view
because it is more in tune with the concept of effortless attention and the expansive
awareness it can bring; and also because it is more suited to movement interaction
research. In practical terms this view would lead to question the widely held
assumption that when in flow, users are so absorbed in the task that they loose
awareness of everyday life [9].

In flow with or through the system
Another important point of our embodied view of flow is related to whether the task
promoting the flow experience is directly concerned with the digital system or with
any other aspect of reality. In terms of an example, the task might have to do with,
say, learning to use a graphics editing application or with using such an application to
retouch a photograph. In the first case users will probably be concerned with
analysing and reflecting about the system, while in the second they will want to
achieve a task that ultimately is not about the system but that will be accomplished
through the use of the graphics editing application. This differentiation is known as
present-at-hand or ready-to-hand in the phenomenological terminology of Heideger
[22]. When present-at-hand, the digital system becomes the focus of the users’
attention, and depending of the task, they will explore it, learn it or analyse it, for
example. When ready-to-hand, the system becomes a tool and, if a good quality tool,
it disappears from the users’ immediate concerns.
Studies of flow often are not clear about this difference; as a result they have
interpreted the characteristics of flow in different ways (the challenges for example)

Towards an embodied view of flow 5
and therefore operationalised it in dissimilar forms. According to our view of flow,
studies should make clear whether the task is of a present-at-hand or a ready-to-hand
nature.
We are not the first ones to notice this difference in the focus of the task; the
Person-Artifact-Task (PAT) model of flow antecedents had already gone some way in
clearing this confusion [23]. However in this model the task and the artifact are
considered as alternatives for the users’ focus of attention. This is not strictly
speaking correct as users will always be engaged on a task, what is important is to
clarify whether the task is of a present-at-hand or a ready-to-hand nature.

A wholesome view of interaction
In our view of flow, the body plays a central role. However the importance of the
body does not lie on itself as a separate element, but “in the harmonious focusing of
physical and psychic energy” [14]. Of course not all activities require full-body
engagement, but the body has a critical role for any type of perception and action
[17], even for using computers. Paraphrasing Bayliss [24], human-computer
interaction has always consisted of embodied action, traditionally of small movements
of the hands on the keyboard and mouse but embodied action nevertheless. Also,
taking the body into account has a clear benefit for flow studies in movement
interaction. In practical terms, studies and models of flow should take into account
that the challenges and skills are multimodal composites, with physical, emotional
and cognitive components.
4 Conclusion and Future Work
We have presented a view of flow that attempts to characterise this state at a
conceptual level. This view is based on notions of embodied interaction and addresses
some of the conceptual inconsistencies and misunderstandings in the area of
computing studies of flow. The view stresses the importance of four main points:
effortless attention, the importance of the context where interaction takes place,
whether the task is directly concerned with the digital system or with any other aspect
of reality, and the body and its role in the interaction with the system. Further work
comprises developing models of flow and eventually user models that could be used
to predict the probability of users reaching flow as result of using a particular
application.
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