Educational Scaffolding for Students Stuck in a Virtual World

Virtual worlds provide students with educational opportunities to explore and have experiences that are difficult to provide in reality. However, ensuring that students stay motivated and on task is important if the learning goals are to be achieved. Building on the findings of previous studies involving agent-based virtual worlds, adaptive collaborative learning and intelligent agents, we have designed an empathic intelligent virtual agent that provides educational scaffolding to encourage and support the students to understand what they are learning with less frustration. We have identified models of ‘stuck’ behaviour and corresponding empathic response patterns that we have incorporated into the behaviours of the intelligent virtual agents in the XXX Virtual World for science inquiry

Artificial and Human Intelligence in Mental Health

While technology has dramatically changed medical practice, various aspects of mental health practice and diagnosis remain almost unchanged across decades. Here we argue that artificial intelligence with its capacity to learn and infer from data the workings of the human mind may rapidly change this scenario. However, this process will not happen without friction and will promote an explicit reflection of the overarching goals and foundational aspects of mental health. We suggest that the converse relation is also very likely to happen. The application of artificial intelligence to a field that relates to the foundations of what makes us human our volition, our thoughts, our pains and pleasures may shift artificial intelligence back to its earliest days, when it was mostly conceived of as a laboratory to explore the limits and possibilities of human intelligence.Fil: Sigman, Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Slezak, Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Drucaroff, Lucas Javier. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sidarta, Ribeiro. No especifíca;Fil: Carrillo, Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación; Argentin

A randomised controlled test in virtual reality of the effects on paranoid thoughts of virtual humans’ facial animation and expression

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in the study and treatment of paranoia. This is based on the finding that people who mistakenly perceive hostile intent from other people also perceive similar threat from virtual characters. However, there has been no study of the programming characteristics of virtual characters that may influence their interpretation. We set out to investigate how the animation and expressions of virtual humans may affect paranoia. In a two-by-two factor, between-groups, randomized design, 122 individuals with elevated paranoia rated their perceptions of virtual humans, set in an eye-tracking enabled VR lift scenario, that varied in facial animation (static or animated) and expression (neutral or positive). Both facial animation (group difference = 102.328 [51.783, 152.872], p < 0.001, ηp2= 0.125) and positive expressions (group difference = 53.016 [0.054, 105.979], p = 0.049, ηp2= 0.033) led to less triggering of paranoid thoughts about the virtual humans. Facial animation (group difference = 2.442 [− 4.161, − 0.724], p = 0.006, ηp2= 0.063) but not positive expressions (group difference = 0.344 [− 1.429, 2.110], p = 0.681, ηp2= 0.001) significantly increased the likelihood of neutral thoughts about the characters. Our study shows that the detailed programming of virtual humans can impact the occurrence of paranoid thoughts in VR. The programming of virtual humans needs careful consideration depending on the purpose of their use

Credibility of Virtual Influencers: The Role of Design Stimuli, Knowledge Cues, and User Disposition

Virtual Influencers (VIs) are digital influencers that can look and behave like human beings but project themselves as “robots”. They influence people’s attitudes and behaviors through their presence and interaction. While human-like design can lead to acceptance, additional information about machine-like description (robot) can create conflict about the influencer’s identity and lead to unfavorable social responses. Social perceptions are also subjective. In this study, we examine the influence of human-like design, knowledge cues, and user disposition on user perceptions of VI credibility. In doing so, we present a case for the substitution of human influencers by “lesser human” counterparts in the context of social media

THE FRIENDLY CHATBOT: REVEALING WHY PEOPLE USE CHATBOTS THROUGH A STUDY OF USER EXPERIENCE OF CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS

Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular. However, little is known about the way chatbots should be designed. Whether the users should be informed or not beforehand that they are chatting with a chatbot is an open question. Similarly, questions related to the level of ‘humanistic’ tonality in interactions with chatbots are unanswered. In this paper, we present a controlled experiment in which 40 individuals participated. Their user experience was compared depending on whether they knew that they were chatting with chatbots before or afterwards. Two different versions of chatbots were tested (one with mechanical tonality and one with humanistic tonality). Our findings illustrate that: i) it is vital that the users enter the conversation knowing that they are chatting with a chatbot; ii) tonality matters, the way chatbots are designed is pivotal for the user experience, the ‘human-like’ and friendly chatbot was preferred over the mechanical, task-oriented chatbot

Adapting a virtual advisor’s verbal conversation based on predicted user preferences: A study of neutral, empathic and tailored dialogue

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Virtual agents that improve the lives of humans need to be more than user-aware and adaptive to the user’s current state and behavior. Additionally, they need to apply expertise gained from experience that drives their adaptive behavior based on deep understanding of the user’s features (such as gender, culture, personality, and psychological state). Our work has involved extension of FAtiMA (Fearnot AffecTive Mind Architecture) with the addition of an Adaptive Engine to the FAtiMA cognitive agent architecture. We use machine learning to acquire the agent’s expertise by capturing a collection of user profiles into a user model and development of agent expertise based on the user model. In this paper, we describe a study to evaluate the Adaptive Engine, which compares the benefit (i.e., reduced stress, increased rapport) of tailoring dialogue to the specific user (Adaptive group) with dialogues that are either empathic (Empathic group) or neutral (Neutral group). Results showed a significant reduction in stress in the empathic and neutral groups, but not the adaptive group. Analyses of rule accuracy, participants’ dialogue preferences, and individual differences reveal that the three groups had different needs for empathic dialogue and highlight the importance and challenges of getting the tailoring right

Designing and Testing an Experimental Framework of Affective Intelligent Agents in Healthcare Training Simulations

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe purpose of this study is to investigate how emotionally enabled virtual agents (VAs) in healthcare provision training simulations allow for a more effective level of understanding on how an emotionally enhanced scenario can affect different aspects of learning. This is achieved by developing virtual agents that respond to the user’s emotions and personality. The developed system also provides visual and auditory representations of the virtual agents’ state of mind. To enable the fulfilment of this purpose an experimental framework for incorporating emotional enhancements (concentrating on negative emotions such as stress, fear, and anxiety) into virtual agents in virtual training applications for healthcare provision is designed and implemented. The framework for incorporating emotional enhancements is designed based on previous research, on psychological theories (with input by experienced psychologists) and from input of experts in the area of healthcare provision. For testing the framework and answering the research question of this thesis the researcher conducted nine case studies. The participants were nursing students in the area of healthcare provision, and more specifically in the area of mental health, specialising in caring for patients with dementia. The results of the study showed that the framework and its implementation succeeded in providing a realistic learning experience, stimulated a better set of responses from the user, improved their level of understanding on how an emotionally enhanced scenario can affect the learning experience and helped them become more empathetic towards the person they cared for

XXIII Edición del Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación : Libro de actas

Compilación de las ponencias presentadas en el XXIII Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación (WICC), llevado a cabo en Chilecito (La Rioja) en abril de 2021.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic