Darian F Stapleton
Darian F Stapleton
Graduate Research Assistant
Video Games, Creativity Development, Creativity Measurement, Psychology of the Arts, Digital Media, Children's Technology Use
I am a fifth year PhD student in the Play, Learning, Arts, and Youth Lab. Previously I got my bachelor's at Washington & Jefferson College with majors in Psychology and Studio Art, and an Art History minor. I also completed a summer internship at the Cognition, Affect, and Temperament Lab at Penn State University. My research focuses on the effects of video games on children's creativity, children's creativity within video games, and the use of video games for creativity measurement.
Current Research
Master's Thesis: Comparing different types of video games in their ability to prime creativity in young children, asking children to rate the creativity of other children's gameplay
Theoretical taxonomy of varying video game components for application in creativity research
Dissertation: Development of a machine learning model to rate the creativity of images from the video game New Pokemon Snap as well as comparing child and adult creativity ratings of game images
Selected Publications
Goldstein, T. R., Caruso, A. S., Stapleton, D., Fatty, L., (2024). Imagination, Creativity, and Child Development. In the Oxford Handbook on Philosophy of Imagination and Creativity. Eds. Kind, A., Langkau, J.
Grants and Fellowships
2024 – 2025 George Mason University Doctoral Research Scholar Fellowship $25,000
Assistantship Funding for Dissertation
2024 - 2025 George Mason University Psychology Graduate Student Grant $400
To Support Dissertation Project, PI.
2022 - 2023 George Mason University Psychology Graduate Student Grant $250
To Support Thesis Project, PI.
Courses Taught
Psychology 301 Research Methods Lab
Principles of Learning
Lifespan Development
Psychology of Intimate Relationships
Psychology of Creativity and Innovation
Education
M.A. from George Mason University
B.A. from Washington & Jefferson College
Recent Presentations
Stapleton, D., Goldstein, T.R. (2024, August). Kid-Friendly Creativity: An Exploration of the Consensual Assessment Technique in Video Games. Presented as part of the symposium, Advancing Methodology for Child Samples in Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, at the American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA.
Stapleton, D., Goldstein, T.R. (2023, August). Children's Understanding of Creativity: How Children Rate Creativity in Video Games. Poster presented at the American Psychological Association 2023 annual conference, Washington D.C.
Stapleton, D., Goldstein, T.R. (2023, March). The effects of game structure on video game and cognitive creativity in children. Presented as part of the symposium Building on divergent thinking: Expanding approaches to measuring children’s creativity, at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT.
Stapleton, D. (2022, August). Video Game Creativity in Sandbox and Narrative Games. Talk presented for the Division 10 Student Showcase at the American Psychological Association 2022 annual conference, Minneapolis, MN.
Stapleton, D., Cruz, K., Kanumuru, P., Thompson, B., Goldstein, T.R. (2021, April). The Role of Embodiment and Fantasy Judgments in Learning from Pretend Play. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.