ABC-EBDI: A cognitive-affective framework to support the modeling of believable intelligent agents.

El Grupo de Investigación de Interfaces Avanzadas (AffectiveLab), es un grupo reconocido por el Gobierno de Aragón (T60-20R) cuya actividad se enmarca en el área de la Interacción Humano-Computadora (IHC). Su actividad investigadora se ha centrado, en los últimos años, en cuatro temas principales: interacción natural, informática afectiva, accesibilidad e interfaces basadas en agentes inteligentes, siendo esta última en la que se enmarca esta tesis doctoral. Más concretamente, la realización de esta tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro de los proyectos de investigación nacionales JUGUEMOS (TIN2015-67149-C3-1R) y PERGAMEX (RTI2018-096986-B-C31). Una de sus líneas de investigación se centra en el desarrollo de arquitecturas cognitivo-afectivas para apoyar el modelado afectivo de los agentes inteligentes. El AffectiveLab tiene una sólida experiencia en el uso de agentes de interfaz incorporados que exhiben expresiones afectivas corporales y faciales (Baldassarri et al., 2008). En los últimos años, se han centrado en el modelado del comportamiento de los agentes inteligentes (Pérez et al., 2017).La definición de agente inteligente es un tema controvertido, pero se puede decir que es una entidad autónoma que recibe información dinámica del entorno a través de sensores y actúa sobre el medio ambiente a través de actuadores, mostrando un comportamiento dirigido a un objetivo (Russell et al., 2003). El modelado de los procesos cognitivos en los agentes inteligentes se basa en diferentes teorías (Moore, 1980; Newell, 1994; Bratman, 1987) que explican, desde diferentes puntos de vista, el funcionamiento de la mente humana. Los agentes inteligentes implementados sobre la base de una teoría cognitiva se conocen como agentes cognitivos. Los más desarrollados son los que se basan en arquitecturas cognitivas, como Soar (Laird et al., 1987), ACT-R (Anderson, 1993) y BDI (Rao and Georgeff, 1995). Comparado con Soar y otras arquitecturas complejas, BDI se destaca por su simplicidad y versatilidad. BDI ofrece varias características que la hacen popular, como su capacidad para explicar el comportamiento del agente en cada momento, haciendo posible una interacción dinámica con el entorno. Debido a la creciente popularidad del marco BDI se ha utilizado para apoyar el modelado de agentes inteligentes (Larsen, 2019; (Cranefield and Dignum, 2019). En los últimos años, también han aparecido propuestas de BDI que integran aspectos afectivos. Los agentes inteligentes construidos en base a la arquitectura BDI que también incorporan capacidades afectivas, se conocen como agentes EBDI (Emotional BDI) y son el foco de esta tesis. El objetivo principal de esta tesis ha sido proponer un marco cognitivo-afectivo basado en el BDI que sustente el modelado cognitivo-afectivo de los agentes inteligentes. La finalidad es ser capaz de reproducir un comportamiento humano creíble en situaciones complejas donde el comportamiento humano es variado y bastante impredecible. El objetivo propuesto se ha logrado con éxito en los términos descritos a continuación:• Se ha elaborado un exhaustivo estado del arte relacionado con los modelos afectivos más utilizados para modelar los aspectos afectivos en los agentes inteligentes.• Se han estudiado las arquitecturas de BDI y las propuestas previas de EBDI. El estudio, que dio lugar a una publicación (Sánchez-López and Cerezo, 2019), permitió detectar las cuestiones abiertas en el área, y la necesidad de considerar todos los aspectos de la afectividad (emociones, estado de ánimo, personalidad) y su influencia en todas las etapas cognitivas. El marco resultante de este trabajo doctoral incluye también el modelado de la conducta y el comportamiento comunicativo, que no habían sido considerados hasta ahora en el modelado de los agentes inteligentes. Estos aspectos colocan al marco resultante entre EBDI los más avanzados de la literatura. • Se ha diseñado e implementado un marco basado en el BDI para soportar el modelado cognitivo, afectivo y conductual de los agentes inteligentes, denominado ABC-EBDI (Sanchez et al., 2020) (Sánchez et al., 2019). Se trata de la primera aplicación de un modelo psicológico muy conocido, el modelo ABC de Ellis, a la simulación de agentes inteligentes humanos realistas. Esta aplicación implica:o La ampliación del concepto de creencias. En el marco se consideran tres tipos de creencias: creencias básicas, creencias de contexto y comportamientos operantes. Las creencias básicas representan la información general que el agente tiene sobre sí mismo y el entorno. Las conductas operantes permiten modelar la conducta reactiva del agente a través de las conductas aprendidas. Las creencias de contexto, que se representan en forma de cogniciones frías y calientes, se procesan para clasificarlas en creencias irracionales y racionales siguiendo las ideas de Ellis. Es la consideración de creencias irracionales/racionales porque abre la puerta a la simulación de reacciones humanas realistas.o La posibilidad de gestionar de forma unificada las consecuencias de los acontecimientos en términos de consecuencias afectivas y de comportamiento (conducta). Las creencias de contexto racionales conducen a emociones funcionales y a una conducta adaptativa, mientras que las creencias de contexto irracionales conducen a emociones disfuncionales y a una conducta maladaptativa. Este carácter funcional/disfuncional de las emociones no se había utilizado nunca antes en el contexto del BDI. Además, el modelado conductual se ha ampliado con el modelado de estilos comunicativos, basado en el modelo Satir, tampoco aplicado previamente al modelado de agentes inteligentes. El modelo de Satir considera gestos corporales, expresiones faciales, voz, entonación y estructuras lingüísticas.• Se ha elegido un caso de uso, "I wish a had better news" para la aplicación del marco propuesto y se han realizado dos tipos de evaluaciones, por parte de expertos y de usuarios. La evaluación ha confirmado el gran potencial del marco propuesto para reproducir un comportamiento humano realista y creíble en situaciones complejas.<br /

E-Leadership or “How to Be Boss in Instant Messaging?” The Role of Nonverbal Communication

Doing leadership in the virtual realm has now become a routine part of many leaders’ daily work, yet our understanding of how leadership is enacted in mediated contexts—especially in text-only channels—is very limited. By applying micro-level analysis to naturally occurring instant message conversations, this article exposes the strategies leaders employ to achieve a range of complex communication goals: to get the work done while fostering informality and collegiality and creating the sense of a real—and not virtual—collaboration between team members. The findings further our understanding in two domains: They provide empirical grounding for e-leadership theories by exposing practices from real-life interactions, and they contribute to discursive leadership literature by addressing nonverbal communication practices. The findings of the article could form the basis for management and leadership training by drawing attention to the linguistic and semiotic resources digital leaders have at their disposal in virtual work environments

Self-Awareness And Therapeutic Alliance In The Treatment Of Traumatic Brain Injury

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-awareness and therapeutic alliance in dyads of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and their clients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although both topics have been independently associated with treatment outcomes in individuals with TBI, there is little research that investigates how these elements interact as they relate to client and SLP behavior. A mixed-methods approach was used to examine the interaction between these elements. Research questions targeted the communicative-behavioral manifestations of SLP self-awareness and the ratings of client self-awareness related to the client’s perception of therapeutic alliance. Additionally, the findings were discussed with respect to clinical implications for the field. Nineteen dyads of SLP and TBI clients participated in this study. Procedure included a three-part process: (1) baseline assessments of self-awareness and therapeutic alliance, (2) participation in a video-taped therapy task, and (3) completion of a follow-up assessment by the SLP during a post-task video review. Results indicated that therapeutic alliance is correlated to specific intentions that drive SLP behavior; these intents were to convey receptiveness and to explain, judge, or label the other’s experiences or behavior. Therapeutic alliance was not correlated to the frequencies of SLP verbal or nonverbal behaviors, but was negatively correlated to longer periods of time post-injury, time from DOI to rehabilitation admission, length of rehabilitation, and the number of speech treatment sessions. Client self-awareness was not associated with ratings of therapeutic alliance. Impairments in client self-awareness were associated with a greater number of speech treatment sessions, and the frequency of SLP verbal behaviors correlated to the clients’ motor/sensory self-awareness. The key clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are that self-awareness can be qualitatively measured by both internal intentions and external behaviors, in addition to being objectively measured by performance-based or self-other rating scales. Additional research is needed to (a) clearly identify which clinical behaviors and intents have efficacious results on client self-awareness and therapeutic alliance, and (b) further examine the relationship between self-awareness and therapeutic alliance. Finally, based on the results of this study, SLPs should use a collaborative, open, and receptive approach to their clients when providing cognitive-communicative rehabilitation in preference over the more traditional, verbally-didactic teacher/student approach

A sensorimotor control framework for understanding emotional communication and regulation

JHGW and CFH are supported by the Northwood Trust. TEVR was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship (1088785). RP and MW were supported by the the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders (CE110001021)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Expressive social exchange between humans and robots

Thesis (Sc.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-264).Sociable humanoid robots are natural and intuitive for people to communicate with and to teach. We present recent advances in building an autonomous humanoid robot, Kismet, that can engage humans in expressive social interaction. We outline a set of design issues and a framework that we have found to be of particular importance for sociable robots. Having a human-in-the-loop places significant social constraints on how the robot aesthetically appears, how its sensors are configured, its quality of movement, and its behavior. Inspired by infant social development, psychology, ethology, and evolutionary perspectives, this work integrates theories and concepts from these diverse viewpoints to enable Kismet to enter into natural and intuitive social interaction with a human caregiver, reminiscent of parent-infant exchanges. Kismet perceives a variety of natural social cues from visual and auditory channels, and delivers social signals to people through gaze direction, facial expression, body posture, and vocalizations. We present the implementation of Kismet's social competencies and evaluate each with respect to: 1) the ability of naive subjects to read and interpret the robot's social cues, 2) the robot's ability to perceive and appropriately respond to naturally offered social cues, 3) the robot's ability to elicit interaction scenarios that afford rich learning potential, and 4) how this produces a rich, flexible, dynamic interaction that is physical, affective, and social. Numerous studies with naive human subjects are described that provide the data upon which we base our evaluations.by Cynthia L. Breazeal.Sc.D

Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Social Eye Gaze

Social interactions are characterised by exchanges of a variety of social signals to communicate with other people. A key feature in real-life interactions is that we are in the presence of other people who can see us (audience), and we modulate our behaviour to send and receive signals (audience effect). Although social neuroscience research has traditionally examined how we respond to pictures and videos of humans, second-person neuroscience suggests that interactions with pre-recorded versus live people recruit distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. The aim of this thesis was to investigate which cognitive and neural mechanisms underlie changes in behaviour when being watched, particularly focusing on eye gaze, facial displays and prosocial behaviour as social signals. Using a novel ecologically valid paradigm, the first study showed that the opportunity to signal good reputation is a key modulator of eye gaze and prosocial behaviour. Using the same paradigm, the second study found no evidence to support the hypothesis that audience effects are mediated by an increase in self-referential processing. The third study focused on the time-course of eye gaze and facial displays patterns in relation to speech, both in typical and autistic individuals: contrary to what was expected both groups modulated eye gaze and facial displays according to the belief in being watched and speaker/listener role. Finally, the fourth study tested the role of reciprocity in live interactions: sharing information with a partner modulated eye gaze, facial displays, and brain activity in regions related to mentalising and decision-making. I discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and set out a cognitive model of gaze processing in live interactions. Finally, I outline directions for future research in social neuroscience

Interpreting in a community of practice : a sociolinguistic study of the signed language interpreter's role in workplace discourse

This thesis explores the role of signed language interpreters (SLIs) in the workplace, a setting which presents challenges in terms of role, boundaries and interaction with deaf and hearing employees. The key research aims were to determine how primary participants understand the role of the SLI, and how this influences the dynamics of everyday interaction. Specific attention was paid to norms of discourse and shared repertoires within a workplace Community of Practice (CofP). A detailed description of the interpreting process was thus generated, enabling a deeper appreciation of workplace dialogue where the SLI is an active third participant. The research takes a linguistic ethnographic approach to examining signed language interpreting within the workplace. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires, practitioner journals, video-recorded interpreted interaction gathered in workplace settings, and video playback interviews. Findings show that the SLI has a considerable impact on the ways in which members of a CofP interact, specifically in relation to small talk, humorous exchanges and participation in the collaborative floor. The SLI’s management of these aspects of workplace discourse influences the extent to which collegial relations can be established between employees. These findings have significance in relation to the training and education of SLIs, as well as their practice in this domain. The findings also demonstrate the need for all participants to re-evaluate their understanding of interpreted workplace discourse, moving towards a collaborative approach

Affective Computing

This book provides an overview of state of the art research in Affective Computing. It presents new ideas, original results and practical experiences in this increasingly important research field. The book consists of 23 chapters categorized into four sections. Since one of the most important means of human communication is facial expression, the first section of this book (Chapters 1 to 7) presents a research on synthesis and recognition of facial expressions. Given that we not only use the face but also body movements to express ourselves, in the second section (Chapters 8 to 11) we present a research on perception and generation of emotional expressions by using full-body motions. The third section of the book (Chapters 12 to 16) presents computational models on emotion, as well as findings from neuroscience research. In the last section of the book (Chapters 17 to 22) we present applications related to affective computing

Mind the gap: gap factors in intercultural business communication : a study of German-Indian semi-virtual tech/engineering teams

While the affordances of technology have facilitated virtual modes of global collaboration, cultural variances and a geographically-dispersed environment can also lead to impaired group communication in team interaction. This qualitative study draws on data gathered from four organizations to investigate the miscommunication and cognitive dissonances reported by virtual German-Indian engineering/tech communities of practice. The study argues that it is not so much the performance or doing of a communicative act that creates dissonances, but the gaps, i.e., the absence or not-doing of certain communicative actions expected in a collaborative context. The gap factors are experienced as unfulfilled reciprocal expectations, and are classified and explored against three parameters: 1) the culture of a technological community of practice, 2) the power relations between the interactants, and 3) the consequences of virtual communication. The findings indicate a complementary divergence between the two groups regarding the nature of gaps. While the German teams report gaps in communicative efficiency and content caused e.g., by non-disclosure, euphemistic language and a deficiency in push communication, the Indian teams perceive gaps in relationality and affective signaling. At the same time, they are two sides of the same coin, with the divergences arising from the way in which the intersecting structural parameters are viewed as being salient in interaction. The study concludes with implications and suggestions for organizational practice

Gender and emotion in tourism : do men and women tour leaders differ in their performance of emotional labour?

This study aims to explore the extent of gender differences among Chinese tour leaders’ roles and the relationship of such differences to emotional labour, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. The findings revealed surface acting and deep acting to be the two major strategies of emotional labour. Gender difference is found in performing surface acting strategies. Further analysis of gender differences showed that women tour leaders perform better with more care from organisation and rewards. Men tour leaders perform better with more supervisors’ care, concern, recognition and appreciation; and job training and facilitation