Social responses to virtual humans

Zanbaka, Catherine; Ulinski, Amy; Goolkasian, Paula; Hodges, Larry F.

doi:10.1145/1240624.1240861

Cited by 74 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Perceiving human features like 'having a mind' in non-human agents has also been shown to induce social facilitation effects on human performance (Bartneck, 2003;cf. Hoyt et al, 2003;Woods et al, 2005;Park and Catrambone, 2007;Zanbaka et al, 2007;Riether et al, 2012;Hertz and Wiese, 2017), and to foster learning via social reinforcement (Druin and Hendler, 2000;Robins et al, 2005; see Figure 4). The facilitatory effect of the presence of an intentional robot on performance becomes even more prominent with an increasing degree of physical embodiment of the robot (Bartneck, 2003;Hoyt et al, 2003;Zanbaka et al, 2007).…”

Section: Positive Effects Of Mind Perception In Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robots as Intentional Agents: Using neuroscientific methods to make robots appear more social

Wiese¹,

Metta²,

Wykowska³

2019

Preprint

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Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to inter-act with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive users’ needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to the users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. Consequently, robots would eventual-ly be accepted as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is by using a system-atic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods, like mo-tion/eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), or functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) embedded in interactive human-robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain in-volved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive mecha-nisms involved in human-human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human-robot interaction by (a) fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b) enhancing performance on joint human-robot tasks. Lastly, we describe cir-cumstances under which attribution of intentionality to robot agents might be disadvantageous, and discuss challenges associated with designing social robots that are inspired by neuroscientific princi-ples.

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Section: Positive Effects Of Mind Perception In Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robots as Intentional Agents: Using neuroscientific methods to make robots appear more social

Wiese¹,

Metta²,

Wykowska³

2019

Preprint

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“…As an example that highlights the similarity between human-human and human-agent interaction, participants performed worse on a complex task when they were being observed regardless of whether it was by virtual humans or real humans (Zanbaka et al, 2007).…”

Section: Presentational Factors In Humanmachine Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies have investigated how computer-generated (CG) characters in conversational interfaces affect their human interlocutors' attitudes and performance (Dehn & van Mulken, 2000;Yee, Bailenson, & Rickertsen, 2007;Zanbaka, Ulinski, Goolkasian, & Hodges, 2007). It has also been established that aspects of a situation that seem to have no principled relevance to a decision *Correspondence to kmacdorm@indiana.edu.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Differences in the Impact of Presentational Factors in Human Character Animation on Decisions in Ethical Dilemmas

MacDorman¹,

Coram²,

Ho³

et al. 2010

Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments

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Simulated humans in computer interfaces are increasingly taking on roles that were once reserved for real humans. The presentation of simulated humans is affected by their appearance, motion quality, and interactivity. These presentational factors can influence the decisions of those who interact with them. This is of concern to interface designers and users alike, because these decisions often have moral and ethical consequences. However, the impact of presentational factors on decisions in ethical dilemmas has not been explored. This study is intended as a first effort toward filling this gap. In a between-groups experiment, a female character presented participants with an ethical dilemma. The character's human photorealism and motion quality were varied to generate four stimulus conditions: real human versus computer-generated character ϫ fluid versus jerky movement. The results indicate that the stimulus condition had no significant effect on female participants, while male participants were significantly more likely to rule against the character when her visual appearance was computer generated and her movements were jerky.

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“…The analysis showed that in the complex condition an avatar was able to produce a social inhibition effect when compared to the group that performed the task alone (and the group observed by the agent). In another study the display of the observer was manipulated (Zanbaka, Ulinski, Goolkasian, & Hodges, 2007). Eighty-five students were to assess the correctness of the math equations in the presence of a projected virtual human, a virtual human in HMD, a real person or alone.…”

Section: Social Facilitation Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Virtual Observers Affect Our Behavior? Social Facilitation in Virtual Environments: A Mini-Review

Sterna¹,

Strojny

Rębilas

2019

SPB

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The social facilitation effect describes the change in the performance of the task under the influence of the presence of observers. The effect itself consists of two components: social facilitation in simple tasks and social inhibition in complex tasks. In the context of the dynamic development of new technologies, the question of the possible influence on human behavior by virtual characters gains importance. We attempted to critically describe and summarize current research on social facilitation in order to answer the question of whether it occurs in virtual environments. We found 13 relevant studies, 3 of which demonstrated social facilitation, 4 social inhibition and 1 demonstrated the whole effect. The conclusions drawn from the analysis are ambiguous. Firstly, we identified that 12 out of 13 analyzed studies failed to show the whole effect. Secondly, we encountered several shortcomings of the summarized research that further complicated its interpretation. The shortcomings: presence of the researcher, unclear usage of “agent” and “avatar”, evaluation of activation, no pilot tests of observers and no description of how their characteristics are generated, among others, are discussed. Furthermore, we investigated the effect sizes and their variability. The average effect size for social facilitation was g = 0.18, CI [-0.28; 0.64] and for social inhibition g = -0.18, CI [-0.40; 0.04]. In social facilitation, a substantial level of heterogeneity was detected. Finally, we conclude that it is still too early to provide a definite answer to the question of whether social facilitation exists in Virtual Environments. We recommend limiting evaluation activation to the lowest possible level, conducting pilot tests prior to the experiment, avoiding the presence of the researcher in the experimental room and a clear distinction of “agent” and “avatar”, as measures to achieve a better quality in future research.

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Social responses to virtual humans

Cited by 74 publications

References 27 publications

Robots as Intentional Agents: Using neuroscientific methods to make robots appear more social

Robots as Intentional Agents: Using neuroscientific methods to make robots appear more social

Gender Differences in the Impact of Presentational Factors in Human Character Animation on Decisions in Ethical Dilemmas

Can Virtual Observers Affect Our Behavior? Social Facilitation in Virtual Environments: A Mini-Review

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