Virtual proximity and facial expressions of computer agents regulate human emotions and attention

Abstract

Emotion-and attention-related subjective and physiological responses to virtual proximity and facial expressions of embodied computer agents (ECA) were studied. Thirty participants viewed female and male characters with a neutral, unpleasant, or pleasant facial expression. Agents' size was used to simulate three levels of proximity. Participants' electrical facial muscle and heart activity were registered, and subjective ratings of emotional and attentional experiences collected. Unpleasant and large (i.e., closer) agents were more alerting (i.e., unpleasant, arousing, and dominating) and attracted more stimulus-driven attention than neutral, pleasant, and smaller (i.e., further away) agents. Pleasant agents attracted more voluntary attention than neutral and unpleasant agents. Heart rate (HR) responded to agent proximity, while the valence of the agent affected electrical facial muscle activity. Thus, the imitation of human social emotional cues in embodied computer agents (ECAs) could be used to regulate human-computer interaction.

Voluntary facial activations regulate physiological arousal and subjective experiences during virtual social stimulation

“…One of the strongest cues of distance is the retinal size of the visual object, that is, larger images appear to be closer [Loftus and Harley 2005]. In general, large images or images that appear to approach the person have been found to accentuate both subjective and physiological arousal [Reeves et al 1999;Codispoti and De Cesarei 2007;Vanhala et al 2010]. In particular, closer distance to a feared object (e.g., a snake) accentuates the subjective (e.g., self-reported level of fear) and physiological (e.g., heart rate) responses to the stimulus [Teghtsoonian and Frost 1982].…”

“…For example, simulated distance to a virtual human-like character has been found to affect how dominant the character appears to the participants [Partala et al 2004;Vanhala et al 2010]. In another recent study, virtual characters approached participants who were instructed to stand still in the virtual environment [Llobera et al 2010].…”

Affective engagement to emotional facial expressions of embodied social agents in a decision‐making game

“…Recently, there has been an increase in the development of embodied social agents that express emotional facial expressions . Prior studies have shown that emotional facial expressions affect human decision making in human–agent interactions .…”