Abstract Digital transmission of traditional cultural heritage faces challenges of insufficient user engagement and superficial dissemination. Using the Cizhou kiln as a case study, this research proposes the “Creation-as-Transmission” design paradigm, which transcends traditional unidirectional display models by transforming users from cultural consumers to cultural co-creators. This paradigm systematically integrates situated cognition theory and co-creation theory, achieving deep cultural learning and socialized transmission through AI collaborative creation. Empirical studies ( N = 200) demonstrate that compared to traditional methods, this paradigm significantly enhances cultural cognition (74% improvement) and the proportion of spontaneous sharing on social media (82.6% sharing rate). More importantly, this research provides the first quantification of causal mechanisms between creative behaviors and cultural cognition, establishing a predictive model explaining 73.1% of cognitive variance and offering mechanistic evidence for situated learning theory’s application in cultural heritage transmission. The research contributions have threefold value: theoretically, it expands HCI understanding of the relationship between “design behaviors and cognitive effects”; methodologically, it provides a transferable implementation framework for other intangible cultural heritage; practically, it opens new pathways for digital technologies to promote sustainable cultural transmission.
Cui et al. (Thu,) studied this question.