Benchmark Framework for Virtual Students’ Behaviours

This paper demonstrates the integration and evaluation of different atmosphere models into Virtual Reality (VR) training for teacher education. We developed three behaviour models to simulate different levels of class discipline. We evaluated their performances using a combination of objective and subjective measurements. Our initial results suggest that the more believable and distinguishable classroom atmospheres are produced by creating more consistent behaviours across virtual students. Our results confirm the importance of similar behaviours to elicit a particular atmosphere

Modelling cultural dimensions and social relationships to create cultural synthetic characters

The work presented in this thesis investigates studies and theories of culture, social power and the relationship between culture and emotion studied by psychologists and anthropology. We operationalised a Cultural Dimension model, proposed by Hofstede, and Social Power and integrated them into an already existing architecture for autonomous agents called “FAtiMA”. The purpose of the adapted system is to generate culturally-specific behaviour in character interaction which is recognisably different to users. Two different experiments, with human participants, were conducted to investigate the perceived differences between two different groups of characters: with and without cultural parameters. The main result shows that users do recognise the differences in character behaviour between the two experimental cases, which demonstrates that our model is able to create culturally-specific synthetic characters

Affective reactions towards socially interactive agents and their computational modeling

Over the past 30 years, researchers have studied human reactions towards machines applying the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm, which contrasts reactions towards computers with reactions towards humans. The last 30 years have also seen improvements in technology that have led to tremendous changes in computer interfaces and the development of Socially Interactive Agents. This raises the question of how humans react to Socially Interactive Agents. To answer these questions, knowledge from several disciplines is required, which is why this interdisciplinary dissertation is positioned within psychology and computer science. It aims to investigate affective reactions to Socially Interactive Agents and how these can be modeled computationally. Therefore, after a general introduction and background, this thesis first provides an overview of the Socially Interactive Agent system used in this work. Second, it presents a study comparing a human and a virtual job interviewer, which shows that both interviewers induce shame in participants to the same extent. Thirdly, it reports on a study investigating obedience towards Socially Interactive Agents. The results indicate that participants obey human and virtual instructors in similar ways. Furthermore, both types of instructors evoke feelings of stress and shame to the same extent. Fourth, a stress management training using biofeedback with a Socially Interactive Agent is presented. The study shows that a virtual trainer can teach coping techniques for emotionally challenging social situations. Fifth, it introduces MARSSI, a computational model of user affect. The evaluation of the model shows that it is possible to relate sequences of social signals to affective reactions, taking into account emotion regulation processes. Finally, the Deep method is proposed as a starting point for deeper computational modeling of internal emotions. The method combines social signals, verbalized introspection information, context information, and theory-driven knowledge. An exemplary application to the emotion shame and a schematic dynamic Bayesian network for its modeling are illustrated. Overall, this thesis provides evidence that human reactions towards Socially Interactive Agents are very similar to those towards humans, and that it is possible to model these reactions computationally.In den letzten 30 Jahren haben Forschende menschliche Reaktionen auf Maschinen untersucht und dabei das “Computer sind soziale Akteure”-Paradigma genutzt, in dem Reaktionen auf Computer mit denen auf Menschen verglichen werden. In den letzten 30 Jahren hat sich ebenfalls die Technologie weiterentwickelt, was zu einer enormen Veränderung der Computerschnittstellen und der Entwicklung von sozial interaktiven Agenten geführt hat. Dies wirft Fragen zu menschlichen Reaktionen auf sozial interaktive Agenten auf. Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, ist Wissen aus mehreren Disziplinen erforderlich, weshalb diese interdisziplinäre Dissertation innerhalb der Psychologie und Informatik angesiedelt ist. Sie zielt darauf ab, affektive Reaktionen auf sozial interaktive Agenten zu untersuchen und zu erforschen, wie diese computational modelliert werden können. Nach einer allgemeinen Einführung in das Thema gibt diese Arbeit daher, erstens, einen Überblick über das Agentensystem, das in der Arbeit verwendet wird. Zweitens wird eine Studie vorgestellt, in der eine menschliche und eine virtuelle Jobinterviewerin miteinander verglichen werden, wobei sich zeigt, dass beide Interviewerinnen bei den Versuchsteilnehmenden Schamgefühle in gleichem Maße auslösen. Drittens wird eine Studie berichtet, in der Gehorsam gegenüber sozial interaktiven Agenten untersucht wird. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Versuchsteilnehmende sowohl menschlichen als auch virtuellen Anleiterinnen ähnlich gehorchen. Darüber hinaus werden durch beide Instruktorinnen gleiche Maße von Stress und Scham hervorgerufen. Viertens wird ein Biofeedback-Stressmanagementtraining mit einer sozial interaktiven Agentin vorgestellt. Die Studie zeigt, dass die virtuelle Trainerin Techniken zur Bewältigung von emotional herausfordernden sozialen Situationen vermitteln kann. Fünftens wird MARSSI, ein computergestütztes Modell des Nutzeraffekts, vorgestellt. Die Evaluation des Modells zeigt, dass es möglich ist, Sequenzen von sozialen Signalen mit affektiven Reaktionen unter Berücksichtigung von Emotionsregulationsprozessen in Beziehung zu setzen. Als letztes wird die Deep-Methode als Ausgangspunkt für eine tiefer gehende computergestützte Modellierung von internen Emotionen vorgestellt. Die Methode kombiniert soziale Signale, verbalisierte Introspektion, Kontextinformationen und theoriegeleitetes Wissen. Eine beispielhafte Anwendung auf die Emotion Scham und ein schematisches dynamisches Bayes’sches Netz zu deren Modellierung werden dargestellt. Insgesamt liefert diese Arbeit Hinweise darauf, dass menschliche Reaktionen auf sozial interaktive Agenten den Reaktionen auf Menschen sehr ähnlich sind und dass es möglich ist diese menschlichen Reaktion computational zu modellieren.Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaf

Cross-Border Collaboration in Disaster Management

Wenn sich eine Katastrophe ereignet, ist eine schnelle und koordinierte Reaktion der verschiedenen Krisenmanagementakteure unerlässlich, um die vorhandenen Ressourcen bestmöglich einzusetzen und somit ihre Auswirkungen zu begrenzen. Dieses Zusammenspiel wird erschwert, wenn die Katastrophe mehrere Länder betrifft. Neben den unterschiedlichen Regelungen und Systemen spielen dann auch kulturelle Einflüsse wie Sprachbarrieren oder mangelndes Vertrauen eine entscheidende Rolle. Obwohl die Resilienz von Grenzgebieten von fundamentaler Bedeutung ist, wird diese in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur immer noch unterschätzt. Im ersten Teil dieser Arbeit wird ein agentenbasiertes Modell zur Untersuchung der organisationsübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit bei Katastropheneinsätzen in einer Grenzregion vorgestellt. Indem Kommunikationsprotokolle aus der Literatur auf den Kontext der grenzüberschreitenden Kooperation erweitert werden, analysiert das Modell die globale Dynamik, die aus lokalen Entscheidungen resultiert. Ein szenariobasierter Ansatz zeigt, dass höheres Vertrauen zwar zu signifikant besseren Versorgungsraten führt, der Abbau von Sprachbarrieren aber noch effizienter ist. Insbesondere gilt dies, wenn die Akteure die Sprache des Nachbarlandes direkt sprechen, anstatt sich auf eine allgemeine Lingua franca zu verlassen. Die Untersuchung der Koordination zeigt, dass Informationsflüsse entlang der hierarchischen Organisationsstruktur am erfolgreichsten sind, während spontane Zusammenarbeit durch ein etabliertes informelles Netzwerk privater Kontakte den Informationsaustausch ergänzen und in dynamischen Umgebungen einen Vorteil darstellen kann. Darüber hinaus verdoppelt die Einbindung von Spontanfreiwilligen den Koordinationsaufwand. Die Koordination über beide Dimensionen, zum einen die Einbindung in den Katastrophenschutz und zum anderen über Grenzen hinweg, führt jedoch zu einer optimalen Versorgung der betroffenen Bevölkerung. In einem zweiten Teil stellt diese Arbeit ein innovatives empirisches Studiendesign vor, das auf transnationalem Sozialkapital und Weiners Motivationstheorie basiert, um prosoziale Beziehungen der Menschen über nationale Grenzen hinweg zu quantifizieren. Regionale Beziehungen innerhalb der Länder werden dabei als Vergleichsbasis genommen. Die mittels repräsentativer Telefoninterviews in Deutschland, Frankreich und der deutsch-französischen Grenzregion erhobenen Daten belegen die Hypothese, dass das Sozialkapital und die Hilfsbereitschaft über die deutsch-französische Grenze hinweg mindestens so hoch ist wie das regionale Sozialkapital und die Hilfsbereitschaft innerhalb der jeweiligen Länder. Folglich liefert die Arbeit wertvolle Erkenntnisse für Entscheidungsträger, um wesentliche Barrieren in der grenzüberschreitenden Kooperation abzubauen und damit die grenzüberschreitende Resilienz bei zukünftigen Katastrophen zu verbessern. Implikationen für die heutige Zeit in Bezug auf Globalisierung versus aufkommendem Nationalismus sowie Auswirkungen von (Natur-) Katastrophen werden diskutiert

To boldly go… : designing an agent-based intercultural training tool

People from all over the world must live and work together in today’s society. Such integration is not always a smooth process, and interactions with people from other cultures may lead to misunderstandings or even outright conflicts. In the last few years, researchers and practitioners have been working on creating digital tools that can be used to mediate these misunderstandings and conflicts. These tools typically involve interactions with so-called intelligent agents, i.e. virtual characters that are able to take decisions autonomously, that behave as if they are from another culture. The aim of these interactions is to make potential trainees experience how misunderstandings can shape interactions with and perceptions of people from other cultures. In this work, we take the first steps in the design of a digital culture-general training tool to help young adults deal with misunderstandings or conflicts due to differences in culture, through interactions with intelligent agents. We have posed the following design research questions and found the following answers: Which concepts are required to describe the design of a digital culture-general training tool involving agents that show culturally varying behaviour? The answer to this question can be found in the glossary, which presents the key concepts that have been used in this work to create agents that show culturally varying behaviour and to create scenarios that incorporate these agents to increase the intercultural competence of trainees. Can we use theories of culture to create scripted scenarios in which virtual characters behave appropriately for a given culture? To answer this question we designed scripted scenarios in which virtual characters show culturally varying behaviour based on a theory of culture. To ensure that the behaviours of these virtual characters were representative of real-life cultural differences, we conducted an evaluation with people from a wide range of cultures. The results show that the dimensions of culture can be used to generate culturally varying behaviour in agents, but that extensive (pre)testing is required to ensure that the underlying intention of the characters’ behaviour aligns with the users’ interpretation of that behaviour. Can we identify requirements for sociocultural agents that can help them to make sense of their social world? To answer this question we focused on describing important concepts of social interactions based on theories from sociology and psychology. These concepts are incorporated into a conceptual model for socio-cultural agents that can be used to describe their social world. The model differentiates between three levels of analysis: the interaction, the group, and the society. These levels range from being more specific, and thus more visible, to more abstract, and thus less visible, and help us to understand how each level affects interpretation and behaviour. Can we create intelligent agents that can vary their behaviour depending on the culture to be simulated? To answer this question we described the creation of intelligent agents that show culturally varying behaviour. We use an existing model to create believable social interactions, in which agents attribute, claim, and confer social importance in their interactions with other agents and users. Social importance is a way to measure the importance of a certain individual in the eyes of others. The strength of attribution, claims, and conferrals was varied using cultural modifiers. The generated behaviour of the agents was then evaluated to ensure that the intelligent agents showed behaviour representative of a given culture. The results suggest that it is possible to create intelligent agents that can act out appropriate culturally varying behaviour for a given culture. Can we create critical incidents, involving intelligent agents that show appropriate behaviour for given cultures, through which potential trainees become more sensitive to and knowledgeable about differences across cultures? To answer this question we focused on applying different methods of intercultural training in the design of a digital culture-general training tool. These methods were incorporated into critical incidents, in which users can interact with intelligent agents. To ensure that the critical incidents led to an attribution of perceived differences in behaviour to specific differences in culture and to (potential) trainees becoming less judgemental of inappropriate behaviours by people from different cultures, the tool was evaluated by two groups of students. The results suggest that it is possible to create agent-based critical incidents to make potential trainees more knowledgeable about differences across cultures. Contributions The findings to our design research questions represent a set of important contributions to the field. First, we have identified and structured important concepts to better understand the design and implementation of socio-cultural agents and the design of critical incidents that involve these agents for intercultural training. Second, we have described and used models that help to define the simulated world of the agents and help them to navigate through that world. Third, we have attempted to systematize the process of creating scenarios involving agents that show culturally varying behaviour through a set of guidelines that need to be met to ensure that the behaviour of socio-cultural characters is properly evaluated. Fourth, besides conceptual elements, we have also created practical implementations that can freely be used and modified by others. In our work, we have only taken the first steps in designing a digital culture-general training tool. Additional work on the generalization and validation of the critical incidents and the behaviours of the agents is still required; however, we believe that our results show our approach to be viable. We believe that future work will have to focus on three fields: understanding how trainees can be emotionally engaged in the scenarios, systematizing the process of using model-driven approaches to generate socio-cultural behaviour, and using the design outputs in different contexts and with different people from different cultures.</p