The flow experience is a state in which people are completely concentrated and immersed in an activity. This positive psychology concept is relevant to both performance and subjective well-being in a range of activities, but it is difficult to measure: the usual methods of questionnaires and physiological measurements are inappropriate for many applied settings and may interfere with the flow state itself. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the feasibility of a third approach, observation-based flow measurement, by developing and validating the Flow Observational Grid (FOG). The FOG is composed of three dimensions scored by an independent observer: concentration, joy and frustration. The psychometric properties of the grid were assessed in a sample of 50 participants each playing nine short video game sessions. Recordings of the 450 video game sessions were coded by two observers with the FOG, and the convergence between FOG scores and a flow questionnaire was assessed. The FOG demonstrated very good inter-rater reliability, as well as convergent validity with the short version of the FSS. Our results show that it is possible to assess flow using observation-based methods as an alternative to more accurate measures, which may be useful in many contexts where physiological and self-reported measures are not practical.

流动体验是人们完全集中并沉浸在活动中的状态。这个积极的心理学概念与一系列活动中的表现和主观幸福感都相关，但是很难衡量：通常的问卷调查和生理测量方法不适用于许多应用环境，并且可能会干扰流动状态本身。本研究的目的是通过开发和验证流量观测网格（FOG）来展示第三种方法（基于观测的流量测量）的可行性。FOG由独立观察者打分的三个维度组成：专注，喜悦和沮丧。在每个参与者玩9个简短视频游戏会话的50名参与者的样本中评估了网格的心理测量特性。两名观察员使用FOG对450个视频游戏会话的记录进行了编码，并评估了FOG得分与流量调查表之间的一致性。FOG在短版FSS上显示出非常好的评估者间可靠性，以及收敛的有效性。我们的结果表明，可以使用基于观察的方法来评估流量，以替代更精确的措施，这在生理和自我报告的措施不可行的许多情况下可能有用。