Play Scientists and Experts
Play is scientifically studied across a wide range of academic disciplines — ethology, psychology, brain science, educational psychology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience. We have assembled here a few brief profiles of leading lights across most of those disciplines, along with references to their most influential play-related work. This page is by no means comprehensive, but does indicate the wide range of research that has been and continues to be done to advance society’s objective knowledge about play — play science.
Stuart Brown
Dr. Stuart Brown began his studies of play by observing profound play deprivation among young men who had been imprisoned for homicides, beginning with the University of Texas Tower mass murderer. The evidence of the devastating damage of play deprivation prompted Dr. Brown’s lifelong interest in the topic, and over the course of his clinical career, he interviewed thousands of people to capture their play profiles. These carefully catalogued profiles demonstrated the active presence of play in the accomplishments of successful individuals, as well as the negative consequences that accumulated in play-deprived lives. He began an in-depth study of play science in the 1990s, pursuing fragmented research on human play, observing animal play in the wild, and becoming acquainted with some of the world’s foremost animal behaviorists who were studying play behaviors in mammals. His book exploring this research, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, was published in 2009. He founded the National Institute for Play to promote widespread understanding of play as a tool that can transform lives.
Most Influential Work:
- Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (New York: Penguin, 2009) traces the science of play from its earliest inception to the most recent neuroscientific breakthroughs, explaining the biological foundation of — and need for — human play.
- “Consequences of Play Deprivation”
Marc Bekoff
One of the world’s foremost ethologists and animal behaviorists, Marc Bekoff has spent decades observing animals in the wild, learning to understand their minds and discovering how and why they (and we) play. In 2001 he published a landmark paper with Marek Spinka and Ruth Newberry providing a new conceptual framework for the study of mammalian play as “training for the unexpected,” driven by complex neurological responses that are experienced as “having fun.” As of 2021, he is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, writes frequently on the subjects of play and compassionate conservation, and serves on a number of boards. One of his current projects is the Boulder Art Behind Bars program, which focuses on animal behavior and allows incarcerated students to express themselves through writing and art.
Most Influential Work:
- “Mammalian Play: Training for the Unexpected” (The Quarterly Review of Biology 76 (2): 141–68; with Marek Spinka and Ruth C. Newberry) provided an entirely new view of mammalian play as providing an evolutionary survival benefit. Bekoff also co-edited Animal Play: Evolutionary, Comparative, and Ecological Perspectives with John A. Byers, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
- Marc Bekoff’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Marc Bekoff on ResearchGate
Doris Bergen
Doris Bergen has promoted the value of play since seeing its effect on students during her days as an elementary school teacher and a pre-kindergarten program director. Her subsequent career in higher education focused primarily on the developmental effects of play, particularly pretend play, and the effects of play on education and classroom practice, technology-facilitated play, social interactions among autistic children, humor development in gifted children, and cross-cultural play. She has published twelve books as well as more than 60 refereed articles and book chapters on play. She served for eleven years as Educational Psychology Department Chair at Miami University in Ohio, where she also co-directed the Center for Human Development, Learning, & Technology.
Most Influential Work:
“The Role of Pretend Play in Children’s Cognitive Development” (Early Childhood Research & Practice, 2002).
- Doris Bergen’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Doris Bergen on ResearchGate
Jeffrey S. Burgdorf
After training with Jaak Panksepp, Jeff Burgdorf dedicated his research career to the neuroscience of emotions — particularly positive emotions — and their genetic expression. Working with Panksepp and others, he wrote several papers examining the vocalizations of rats before and during various activities and showing that at least some could be described in human terms as laughter. He also identified genes that grow neurons in the human brain and showed that play activates the expression of those genes; without play, they remain dormant. More recently, his research has examined molecular biology and gene activation specific to depression, ADHD, learning, memory, stress response, and similar issues, and explored ways that play therapy could support healthy brain activity. He is a Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Most Influential Work:
- “The Neurobiology of Positive Emotions,” written with Jaak Panksepp and published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2006, is widely cited.
- Jeffrey Burgdorf’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Jeffrey Burgdorf on ResearchGate
Gordon Burghardt
Gordon Burghardt is a play scholar whose work is both rigorously scientific and startlingly original. The Genesis of Animal Play (MIT Press, 2005) is a comprehensive, detailed examination of play in a wide variety of species, including humans, and explores both the origins and the evolution of play behavior. He is a prolific author, publishing frequently on surprising topics like recognizing play in fish as well as broader studies of how play behaviors relate to overall animal behaviors and social systems. Recent studies include theories on the evolution of fair play behaviors and comparative studies of animal play. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in Biopsychology. He is an Alumni Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Most Influential Work:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
A legendary psychologist known for his research on creativity, happiness, and positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is most widely known for his theory of “flow” — a play state that involves intense absorption in a challenging and enjoyable activity. His 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, theorized that the flow state is the key to true happiness, and delved deeply into the defining characteristics, triggers, and effects of flow. Professor emeritus at Claremont Graduate University, he has PhDs in positive development psychology and human development from the University of Chicago and is regarded by some as the world’s leading researcher into positive psychology.
Most Influential Work:
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper Collins, 2008) explores the profound positive effects of flow states and explains how flow is activated.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on ResearchGate
Marian C. Diamond
One of the founders of modern neuroscience, famous for her discovery of definitive evidence of neuroplasticity, Marian C. Diamond revolutionized the study of the human brain and proved that play is fundamental to human learning. With her colleagues at University of California, Berkeley, she demonstrated the profound effect of rich play environments on brain growth and development — and, conversely, the detrimental effects of a deprived environment. Her early research supported the creation of the Head Start early childhood education program, and her findings on glial cells in Albert Einstein’s preserved brain completely changed the paradigm of neuroscience. One of the world’s most sought-after lecturers on human biology and comparative anatomy, she produced extensive scholarship demonstrating the importance of rich and varied environments and play experiences to human development, and proved that neuroplasticity — and thus, the beneficial effects of play — persists well into extreme old age.
Most Influential Work:
- Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Anatomy of the Brain (New York: Free Press, 1988) is a pivotal work in neuroscience, providing a deep dive into the ways environment influences the mammalian brain.
- Marian Diamond’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Marian Diamond on ResearchGate
Scott G. Eberle
Intellectual historian Scott Eberle tackled one of the most challenging aspects of play science with his 2014 article “The Elements of Play,” which proposed a definition for play that includes six basic elements and a foundation of fun. Formerly vice president for play studies of The Strong National Museum of Play, he developed scores of exhibits for the museum and was instrumental in establishing the American Journal of Play, which he edited for several years. He is currently coeditor of The Handbook of the Study of Play (New York: Oxford University Press) and has written and edited several other books on play and related subjects. He also serves on the New York State Council on the Arts and writes two popular blogs on play. Through his research and scholarship, he has helped foster awareness that a neuroscience of play is possible.
Most Influential Work:
- “The Elements of Play: Toward a Philosophy and a Definition of Play” (American Journal of Play 6 (2): 214–33), proposes six basic elements of play (anticipation, surprise, pleasure, understanding, strength, and poise), and argues for a view of play as evolutionary, beneficial, and above all, fun.
- Scott Eberle’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Scott Eberle on ResearchGate
David Elkind
Though he is most known professionally for his work on childhood stress and adolescent psychology, which extends the theories of Jean Piaget, Dr. David Elkind is recognized by the general public for his work popularizing the importance of play to children’s learning and healthy development. His contributions to child psychology include his widely influential work on egocentrism in adolescence. In 2007, he turned his attention to the effects of academic pressures and passive leisure. His book The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally argues that children need to lead their own creative play in order to live and learn well, and that children who are allowed to learn through play when they are young are better able to learn from teachers when they are older. He advocates for long recesses and free play, and for adults to model a play-filled, playful life. A respected speaker, he has also written more than 400 book chapters and articles (including several children’s stories), and consults for education departments, government agencies, and private foundations.
Most Influential Work:
- The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally (Berkeley, CA: Perseus, 2007) makes a compelling case for free play as one of the necessary elements of a full, healthy life.
- David Elkind’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- David Elkind on ResearchGate
Robert M. Fagen
Robert “Bob” Fagen’s primary research interest is the biology of animal play. His book Animal Play Behavior is the definitive text on the subject. His scholarly work describes, explains, and interprets play in the animal world and explores its meaning from ethological and evolutionary standpoints. Previous research includes a ten-year, in-depth field study of play in brown bears on Admiralty Island, Alaska, which demonstrated that play behavior in brown bears is related to their long-term survival. This effect seems to exist in the young of other species as well. He has also studied play behavior in birds, horses, domestic dogs, and other mammals. In addition to his scholarly research, he works with students local to Juneau, Alaska, and online.
Most Influential Work:
- Animal Play Behavior (Oxford University Press, 1981) is the definitive text on animal play and is still a standard reference.
“Juvenile survival and benefits of play behavior in brown bears, Ursus arctos” (PDF)
Robert Fagen’s publications (via Google Scholar)
Joe L. Frost
Joe Frost dedicated the bulk of his academic and professional career to the creation and widespread adoption of safe play environments for children of all ages and abilities, fighting against entrapment areas, unsafe surfaces and installations, and hazards like hot metal slides. A pioneer in play science, he wrote or co-wrote more than 20 books and many academic articles, and directed the University of Texas at Austin’s Play and Playgrounds Research Program — a nearly 40-year research project on play and play environments that included observing children at play and designing safe, innovative playgrounds. He also consulted for the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and numerous public and private organizations concerned with safe and accessible children’s play. His collection of more than 500 volumes of play-related publications resides in the Joe L. Frost Children’s Play and Play Environments Research Collection at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.
Most Influential Work:
- A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement (New York: Routledge, 2010) traces the history of children’s play and play environments, discusses the consequences of play deprivation, and advocates for prioritizing play in childhood.
- Play and Child Development (New York: Pearson, 2011; with Sue Wortham and Stuart Reifel), now in its fourth edition, is a popular textbook.
Joe Frost’s publications (via Google Scholar)
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
From her earliest research into how infants learn language, Dr. Roberta Golinkoff has been passionate about helping the public understand the science of child development and learning. She has written 16 books and hundreds of publications, including the award-winning Einstein Never Used Flash Cards (Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2004). In 2005 she co-organized the Play=Learning research conference at Yale University with Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Dr. Dorothy Singer, which was followed in 2006 by their book Play=Learning. Her latest project, Playful Learning Landscapes, installs activities in parks, playgrounds, and other everyday gathering places to inspire playful learning. Dr. Golinkoff directs the University of Delaware Child’s Play, Learning, and Development Laboratory, consults for a variety of public and private organizations, writes extensively, and lectures worldwide. She has received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, among others. She is a coauthor of the influential American Academy of Pediatrics paper on play.
Most Influential Work:
- A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008; with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Laura E. Berk, and Dorothy Singer) makes practical recommendations for reintroducing play in preschool classrooms that have been increasingly focused on academic learning.
- Roberta Michnick Golinkoff’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Roberta Michnick Golinkoff on ResearchGate
Peter Gray
Peter Gray has spent decades advocating for play and self-directed education. In his popular Psychology Today blog, “Freedom to Learn,” he shares research and insights into the profound positive benefits of unstructured play for children’s mental health and education. An evolutionary developmental psychologist and author of a foundational introductory psychology text, his research focuses on evolutionary aspects of play and its role in child development, especially self-education. In Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013), he argues that children are naturally driven to learn through unsupervised play and exploration, and that modern structured educational systems are “pushing the limits of children’s adaptability.” His analysis makes a compelling case for self-directed, mixed-age learning and explains the long-term benefits of regularly achieving a playful state of mind. In addition to his work in play and education, he has published widely in other branches of psychology, as well as neuroendocrinology, ethology, and anthropology. He is a research professor at Boston College and past chair of its Psychology Department. Peter’s Website on Play, Child Development, and Education
Most Influential Work:
- Psychology (Macmillan Learning – 8th edition 2018; with David F. Bjorklund) This rigorous yet accessible introductory textbook is a widely respected classroom favorite that invites and stimulates students to investigate the big ideas in psychological science.
- Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013) argues that in order to foster children who will thrive in a constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development.
- Peter Gray’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Peter Gray on ResearchGate
Jane Goodall
The world’s leading expert on chimpanzees and one of the world’s most famous scientists, Jane Goodall changed the world by discovering that chimpanzees make and use tools. But her in-depth studies of our primate cousins also revealed a lot about play and the effects of play deprivation. She described play behavior among chimps — roughhousing, tickling, and chasing games — and showed that chimps deprived of play became hostile and even homicidal. In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which “promotes understanding and protection of chimpanzees and other great apes along with their habitats.” In addition to her continuing work as a researcher, speaker, and author, she serves as a Board member for the National Institute for Play. She has received many honors and awards, including the Kyoto Prize, the UNESCO 60th Anniversary Medal, the Medal of Tanzania, the French Legion of Honor, and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence, and is a UN Messenger of Peace.
Most Influential Work:
- Tool-Using and Aimed Throwing in a Community of Free-Living Chimpanzees (Nature, 1964). This publication upended the scientific understanding of what it means to be human, and of our relationships to our primate cousins.
In the Shadow of Man (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1971) documents the first years of Dr. Goodall’s extraordinary long-term study of the chimpanzees of the Gombe. It is a landmark scientific work and a major turning point in modern ethology, primatology, and anthropology.
Jane Goodall’s Books and Films (via the Jane Goodall Institute UK)
- Jane Goodall on ResearchGate
Alison Gopnik
By studying how children learn and play, Alison Gopnik believes we can unlock the secrets of the human mind, and even answer some of our deepest philosophical questions. Her groundbreaking research helped establish “theory of mind” and the “theory theory” of children’s development. Through her work at the Cognitive Development and Learning Lab at the University of California at Berkeley, she explores how children develop causal models of the world. She is the author or co-author of numerous academic and popular books, and is widely published in scientific journals and the popular press. Her TED Talk “What Do Babies Think?” has been viewed almost 5 million times. She is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Most Influential Work:
- The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn (New York: William Morrow, 1999, with Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl) presented evidence that children’s play shows a sophisticated understanding of their world.
- Alison Gopnik’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Alison Gopnik on ResearchGate
Thomas S. Henricks
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Contrasting with the common view of play as “kid’s stuff,” Thomas Henricks has studied the sociology of play among adults for over 40 years. He argues that play is not just an individual but a communal activity, and one of four fundamental activities that adults engage in (the others being work, ritual, and “communitas,” or civic engagement). His play-related research focuses on the nature of play and how it serves as a vehicle for human expression, experience, and self-awareness. He received his doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, and as of 2021 is the J. Earl Danieley Professor of Sociology and a Distinguished University Professor at Elon University.
Most Influential Work:
- Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006) examines play in adult life through the lens of classic sociologists such as Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Goffman.
- Play and the Human Condition (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2015) discusses different contexts and factors affecting play and examines how play informs our sense of self.
- Thomas Henricks’s publications (via Google Scholar)
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek is unequivocal about the importance of unstructured play for children to learn and thrive. Her research examines the development of early language and literacy as well as the role of play in learning. Together with her longtime colleague Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, she has written hundreds of articles and 14 books, including several for the general public, examining the importance of play and advocating to preserve unstructured playtime as an essential element of children’s education. She is currently the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and in 2021 was elected to the National Academy of Education. She is co-director of Temple University’s Infant and Child Laboratory.
Most Influential Work:
- In 2005 she organized the Play=Learning research conference at Yale with Dr. Golinkoff and Dr. Dorothy Singer; the following year, they published Play = Learning (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), which translates that research for the general public and argues persuasively for the lifelong importance of childhood play to physical and emotional health and academic achievement.
- Kathy Hirsh-Pasek’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Kathy Hirsh-Pasek on ResearchGate
Elisabetta Palagi
The development of play behavior in young chimpanzees and in human children is similar in form, trajectory, and preference of partners. This is one of the exciting discoveries made by Elisabetta Palagi, an associate professor of ethology at the University of Pisa in Italy, who conducts naturalistic studies of social behavior and empathy in primates. Her research explores the development of play in juveniles, and the adult use of play to manage stress and conflict. A prominent theme in her work is the use of play signals to ensure all participants understand intent during play sessions. She has written for the popular press as well as for numerous scientific journals, and is currently an editor of the journals Behavior, Primates, and PLoS ONE.
Most Influential Work:
- Her 2011 article with Giada Cordoni, “Ontogenetic Trajectories of Chimpanzee Social Play: Similarities with Humans” (PLoS ONE 6 (11): e27344), was the first study to compare play development in humans and chimpanzees in a standardized way.
- Elisabetta Palagi’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Elisabetta Palagi on ResearchGate
Jaak Panksepp
Jaak Panksepp’s pioneering studies of human and animal emotions demonstrated that play behaviors are part of the subcortical wiring of the brain, indicating a very early evolutionary origin and fundamentally changing views on the science of play behavior. He coined the term “affective neuroscience” in the early 1990s, and his 1998 text on that topic became a core text in a new field of psychology. His book detailed primary processes of brain and mind that enable and drive emotion. Over his career, he published more than three hundred articles in scientific books and journals. His studies explored the primal functions of emotion and the importance of play to successful learning and optimal brain development. Some of his most intriguing studies discuss his observations of rats “laughing” during play bouts, the identification of play deprivation as a driving force like hunger or thirst, and the ways play helps build social bonds. He also explored the possibility that play could help manage ADHD symptoms. His work has been extended by Sergio Pellis, Jeffrey Burgdorf, Steve Siviy, and others.
Most Influential Work:
- Affective Neuroscience (Oxford University Press, 2004), originally published in 1998, is now a core psychology text.
- Jaak Panksepp’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Jaak Pankseep on ResearchGate
Anthony D. Pellegrini
One of A. D. Pellegrini’s missions as a researcher is to define what play is (intrinsically motivated activity) and what it isn’t (directed activities such as gamified school lessons). His PhD dissertation on how preschool children talk to themselves during problem-solving launched a lifelong interest in early childhood development and educational psychology, particularly the development of play. His work emphasizes the importance of recess to children’s social development, learning, and engagement in school. A frequent speaker and prolific author, he has published more than 20 books, nearly 100 book chapters, and hundreds of journal articles on the importance of play and the intersection of play, recess, language and learning. He is currently a professor emeritus of psychology at the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota.
Most Influential Work:
- The Role of Play in Human Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) is an authoritative overview of play research and theories.
- His 1993 article with Peter K. Smith, “School Recess: Implications for Education and Development” (Review of Educational Research 63, (1): 51–67) explores the role of recess in school in terms of educational achievement, classroom behavior, and social competence.
- Anthony D. Pellegrini’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Anthony D. Pellegrini on ResearchGate
Sergio Pellis
Building on the work of Jaak Panksepp, Sergio Pellis has done pioneering neuroscience research into the evolution of play behavior, how it works, and how it builds and improves executive function skills. Focusing on peer-to-peer play, he has demonstrated the influence of social play on development of the prefrontal cortex, and extensively researched the differences in rough-and-tumble play in species as varied as rats, deer, and great apes. He also treats topics such as the effects of play deficits and the effects of play on learning and socialization.
Dr. Pellis received his PhD in Zoology and Ethology from Monash University in Australia. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Monash University, followed by training in animal movement analysis at Tel Aviv University, and then a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also served as an assistant research scientist at the University of Florida before joining the faculty at the University of Lethbridge.
He has been a professor at the University of Lethbridge since 1990.
Most Influential Work:
- The Playful Brain: Venturing to the Limits of Neuroscience (with Vivien Pellis; Simon & Schuster, 2009) explores and synthesizes decades of research into play behaviors to create a groundbreaking integrated study.
- Sergio Pellis’s publications (via Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge)
- Sergio Pellis on ResearchGate
Jean Piaget
Decades after his death in 1980, Jean Piaget’s pioneering work in child development still reverberates in the fields of psychology, education, epistemology, and cognitive development. Over his career he published dozens of books and hundreds of articles. In 1955, he founded the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Switzerland to pursue research into the biology of cognitive development. As part of his four-stage theory of child development, he theorized three progressive stages in the development of children’s play (functional, symbolic, and rule-based) and promoted play as an important part of and indicator of children’s cognitive development, as well as a crucial contributor to the development of mature adult thought and knowledge acquisition.
Read about Jean Piaget on Wikipedia
Most Influential Work:
- Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood (New York: Norton, 1962), a longitudinal study of cognitive development and the development of play behaviors, was made by observing his own children as well as through studies at the Institut J.J. Rousseau at the University of Geneva.
Allan N. Schore
It is almost impossible to overstate Allan Schore’s influence on the fields of developmental neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis — “the study of the early development of the unconscious mind,” as he describes it in the acknowledgments of the 2015 reissue of his classic text. Sometimes described as “the American John Bowlby,” his groundbreaking research and clinical work has had far-reaching effects on the study of play, brain science, and human lived experience. Dr. Schore’s synthesis of key work in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, biology, neuroscience, among others, helped explain how early life experiences, especially emotional experiences, shape the function and structure of brain and mind development. His work scaffolded the emerging field of infant mental health, and may help prevent mental illnesses later in life through interventions in early life. He has served on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine since 1996, and maintains a private clinical practice.
Read about Allan Schore on Wikipedia
Most Influential Work:
- Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self (Taylor & Francis, 2015; originally published in 1994), is the foundational text on “the neurobiology of emotional development” and the cornerstone of all his subsequent paradigm-shifting work.
- Allan Schore’s publications
- Allan Schore on ResearchGate
Stephen M. Siviy
Since his PhD studies at Bowling Green University, Stephen M. Siviy has worked for over 20 years to extend Jaak Panksepp’s research in affective neuroscience. Now chairperson of the Psychology Department at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, he runs a “rat lab” there that studies the neuroscience and biology of rough-and-tumble social play in mammals. His primary interest is in “identifying neurobiological substrates of mammalian playfulness,” and he has published co-authored articles on that topic in journals such as Behavioural Brain Research, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, and Journal of Comparative Psychology. He has also held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Sydney and UCLA.
Most Influential Work:
- “In Search of the Neurobiological Substrates for Social Playfulness in Mammalian Brains” (Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 35 (9): 1821–30), published in 2011 with Jaak Panksepp, describes a “primary-process executive circuit for play in the rat.”
- His 2016 paper “A Brain Motivated to Play” (Behavior 153 (6–7): 819–44) provides an updated review of research on the “the neurobiological substrates of play.”
- Stephen M. Siviy’s publications (via Google Scholar)
Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith was arguably America’s most prolific and influential play scholar, and was widely regarded as the world’s foremost play theorist. His tireless scholarship helped legitimize play and children’s folklore as topics of scholarly interest and produced more than 50 books and 350 articles on play theory, children’s folklore, and children’s games, as well as encyclopedic literature reviews and longitudinal studies of play behavior. A 1952 Fulbright Scholar, he received the first PhD in educational psychology ever awarded in his native New Zealand in 1954. Soon after, he immigrated to the United States, where he taught at Bowling Green University, at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, and finally at the University of Pennsylvania. His many honors include Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Folklore Society and the Association for the Study of Play, which he helped found, and awards from toy companies BRIO and LEGO. He also consulted for several beloved children’s programs and networks, such as Captain Kangaroo and Nickelodeon, and for toy companies and children’s museums. The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, retains his collected papers and library in its Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play.
Read about Brian Sutton-Smith on Wikipedia
Most Influential Work:
- His 1997 book The Ambiguity of Play (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2001 paperback) theorized seven play rhetorics to describe play behaviors in children and adults.
- His 2008 autobiographical article for the American Journal of Play, “Play Theory: A Personal Journey and New Thoughts,” reviews his lifetime of work, discusses his three major theories, and suggests new research directions.
Louk Vanderschuren
Louk J. M. J. Vanderschuren, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at Utrecht University, researches the relationship between brain function and behavior, especially social play. He is also heavily involved in researching the neurology of addiction and impulse control. His interest in positive emotions and cognitive control led him to explore the neurobiology of these behaviors and the relationships between social play, impulsiveness, and addiction, and he has published well over 150 articles on these subjects. In addition to his position at Utrecht University, where he is part of the “Healthy Play, Better Coping” hub, he is also editor-in-chief of Behavioural Pharmacology and past president of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society.
Most Influential Work:
- His 1997 review The Neurobiology of Social Play Behavior in Rats is widely cited, and presents strong evidence that social play is a separate behavior, not an extension or precursor of adult behavior patterns.
- He is also a coauthor on the 2018 paper “Healthy Play, Better Coping,” which explores the vital importance of providing play opportunities to chronically ill children.
- Louk Vanderschuren’s publications (via Google Scholar)
- Louk Vanderschuren on ResearchGate
Jill Vialet
Social entrepreneur Jill Vialet has spent more than 30 years using play to help millions of children live better and learn better, first through the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in Oakland, California, which she co-founded in 1988, and more recently through Playworks, her non-profit elementary education program. Founded in 1996, Playworks makes school playgrounds safer and more inclusive so children can spend more time in play state, which in turn supports improved classroom behavior and academic achievement. She has been awarded several fellowships, most recently at Stanford’s d.school in 2015–2016. In addition to her service on the National Institute For Play board, she is on the advisory board for UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute, writes extensively on the benefits of play, and is a frequent public speaker (for example, her speech “The Power of Play” at TEDMED).
Read more about Jill Vialet on Wikipedia
Most Influential Work:
- Her third book, Why Play Works (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2021), was written to support parents, educators, and schools in promoting safe and healthy play as a necessary aspect of children’s education.
- Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience (Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2021; with Amanda von Moos)
- Recess Rules (Oakland, CA: Playworks, 2013)
Lev S. Vygotsky
Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky began work on his social development theory in the early 20th century. Today he is most widely known for the concept of the “zone of proximal development” — the space between problems someone can already solve and problems that are still too hard even with help. Within that zone, Vygotsky said, children learn through independent problem-solving guided by a “more knowledgeable other.” This guidance, which he called “scaffolding,” could be direct help (an adult helping a child tie a shoe), guided discussion and exploration, or just the chance to watch peers while they solve a similar problem (jumping rope). Vygotsky believed that learning requires social interaction and the freedom to try solving a problem independently. He also theorized that culture was a profound influence on both what and how children learn, and that pretend play helps children master abstract thinking.
Most Influential Work:
- Originally translated into English in 1962, Thought and Language (Revised and Expanded edition; Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012) is still a foundational text in cognitive science and child development.
- Lev Vygotsky’s publications (via Google Scholar)
