Spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in dance performance

In this paper we present a study of spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in live dance performance. A multidisciplinary team comprising a choreographer, neuroscientists and qualitative researchers investigated the effects of different sound scores on dance spectators. What would be the impact of auditory stimulation on kinesthetic experience and/or aesthetic appreciation of the dance? What would be the effect of removing music altogether, so that spectators watched dance while hearing only the performers’ breathing and footfalls? We investigated audience experience through qualitative research, using post-performance focus groups, while a separately conducted functional brain imaging (fMRI) study measured the synchrony in brain activity across spectators when they watched dance with sound or breathing only. When audiences watched dance accompanied by music the fMRI data revealed evidence of greater intersubject synchronisation in a brain region consistent with complex auditory processing. The audience research found that some spectators derived pleasure from finding convergences between two complex stimuli (dance and music). The removal of music and the resulting audibility of the performers’ breathing had a significant impact on spectators’ aesthetic experience. The fMRI analysis showed increased synchronisation among observers, suggesting greater influence of the body when interpreting the dance stimuli. The audience research found evidence of similar corporeally focused experience. The paper discusses possible connections between the findings of our different approaches, and considers the implications of this study for interdisciplinary research collaborations between arts and sciences

Human Behavior Models for Agents in Simulators and Games: Part I: Enabling Science with PMFserv

This article focuses on challenges to improving the realism of socially intelligent agents and attempts to reflect the state of the art in human behavior modeling with particular attention to the impact of personality/cultural values and affect as well as biology/stress upon individual coping and group decision-making. The first section offers an assessment of the state of the practice and of the need to integrate valid human performance moderator functions (PMFs) from traditionally separated sub-fields of the behavioral literature. The second section pursues this goal by postulating a unifying architecture and principles for integrating existing PMF theories and models. It also illustrates a PMF testbed called PMFserv created for implementating and studying how PMFs may contribute to such an architecture. To date it interconnects versions of PMFs on physiology and stress (Janis-Mann, Gillis-Hursh, others); personality, cultural and emotive processes (Damasio, Cognitive Appraisal-OCC, value systems); perception (Gibsonian affordance); social processes (relations, identity, trust, nested intentionality); and cognition (affect- and stress-augmented decision theory, bounded rationality). The third section summarizes several usage case studies (asymmetric warfare, civil unrest, and political leaders) and concludes with lessons learned. Implementing and inter-operating this broad collection of PMFs helps to open the agenda for research on syntheses that can help the field reach a greater level of maturity. Part II presents a case study in using PMFserv for rapid scenario composability and realistic agent behavior

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Human Behavior Models for Agents in Simulators and Games: Part II Gamebot Engineering with PMFserv

Many producers and consumers of legacy training simulator and game environments are beginning to envision a new era where psycho-socio-physiologic models could be interoperated to enhance their environments\u27 simulation of human agents. This paper explores whether we could embed our behavior modeling framework (described in the companion paper, Part 1) behind a legacy first person shooter 3D game environment to recreate portions of the Black Hawk Down scenario. Section 1 amplifies the interoperability needs and challenges confronting the field, presents the questions that are examined, and describes the test scenario. Sections 2 and 3 review the software and knowledge engineering methodology, respectively, needed to create the system and populate it with bots. Results (Section 4) and discussion (Section 5) reveal that we were able to generate plausible and adaptive recreations of Somalian crowds, militia, women acting as shields, suicide bombers, and more. Also, there are specific lessons learned about ways to advance the field so that such interoperabilities will become more affordable and widespread

Modeling emotion for anthromorphic agents

Emotions should play an important role in the design of interfaces since human beings interact with machines as if they were social actors. To investigate if and how machines can express emotions, it is necessary to investigate human-human interaction. Facial expressions are one of the most powerful, natural and immediate means by which human beings communicate their emotions and intentions. Face-to-face communication is inherently natural and social for human-human interactions. There is substantial evidence that suggests this may also be true for humancomputer interactions. In other words, human beings regard computers as social agents with whom “face-to-interface” interaction may be most easy and efficacious. Based on Ekman’s theory, SIX (6) universal emotion expressions that do not change too much from culture to culture were adopted in this study. The six emotion expressions are happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, surprise and fear. In addition, based on these six universal expressions, the AeMotion system was developed using Visual Basic 6.0. The Sony Digital Handycam video camcorder was used to capture the facial expressions. The system provides meaningful information for emotion detection through human facial expression. The final result of pixelization can be transferred into the set of processing array for emotion recognition purpose. The pixel formation provides indirect information for emotion (sad, anger, disgust, happy, fear and surprise) cues such as “brows lowered and drawn together” portrays action of disgust. The study demonstrates that the human facial expressions were successfully captured and pre-process to represent image-based emotions.The study also demonstrates that the image-based parameters could be used to interpret the facial affect space. In addition, the results also demonstrate that there is a need for both basic and applied research contributions to the rapid developing field of affective computing. Currently, experiments are still being conducted to see the impact of a variety of compressed image conditions has on affect space

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2008 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences, our sixth Book of Abstracts that features the scholarship conducted in the college by our students in collaboration with faculty mentors. In the above quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson goes on to say the following: “The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself.” Indeed, the high level of scholarship reflected in this book is a testament to the students’ development as scholars and the effective mentorship provided by the Winthrop faculty as they share in the practice of their disciplines.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/undergradresearch_abstractbooks/1006/thumbnail.jp

Do Emotions Have an Effect on Brand Versus Non Branded Cold Green Tea Drinks?

Introduction The objectives were to assess consumers’ emotional valence in response to drinking canned green tea, and assess effects of brand identification. Corollary objectives were to determine triangulated relationships across qualitative and quantitative approaches. Methods 61 panelists evaluated identical tea samples: 27 were informed of the brand, 34 received tea without branding. Responses of panelists were assessed by self-report with the EsSense25 emotional profile tool, instrumental FaceReader, and qualitative open-ended interviews. Results For FaceReader (0-1 scale), top mean scores were: Happy (0.98), Surprised (.59) and Disgusted (.50). When controlling for age and gender, branded has a significant positive association with FaceReader Happy (p=.032). The top 3 (Likert 1-5) mean descriptive scores for EsSense25 emotional valences were: Good (3.56), Satisfied (3.47) and Pleasant (3 .42). Strongest significant correlations among EsSense25 and FaceReader were negative associations between FaceReader’s measurement of Happy with the EsSense25 measurements of Aggressive (p=.004), Wild (p=.022), and Worried (p=.030). Five thematic elements uncovered from interviews potentially elucidated quantitative findings; 70% of branded participants recalled Memories (n=19) versus 38% of unbranded participants recalled memories (n=13). The interviews also revealed 64.7% of branded participants associated the product with its Flavor (n=22) versus 67% of branded participants (n=19). Responses from 22% of the branded group addressed canned green tea associations with Cost or pricing (n=6); the unbranded group were excluded from Cost questioning because these participants were blinded from knowing the actual product and had no arbitrary statements about costs recorded from interviews with this group. In Can Imagery, 37% of only the branded group (n=10) commented on the can; non-branded participants were blinded to the green tea product and references about other drinks (not used in the study) were excluded from the imagery theme. One of the interesting qualitative findings was 0% or (n=0) branded group participants mentioned the Health benefits of the product, while 26% of unbranded participants (n=9) mentioned the health benefits of the green tea. Discussion and Conclusion The results from FaceReader from both branded and unbranded group participants suggest that the visualization of green tea produced ambivalence. FaceReader was able to uncover a significant positive association when controlling for age and gender in the branded group with FaceReader “Happy”. This age and gender group suggests that there is an emotional connection with the flavor and memorable experience that motivates consumers’ choices. The EsSense25 results showed strong positive emotional scores of Good, Satisfied and Pleasant for both groups that they were satisfied with the green tea product as a whole. The significant inverse relationship between FaceReader Happy” outputs and self-reported outputs of Aggressive , Wild , and Worried in EsSense25 may provide elucidation of the nuances of the emotional outputs recorded by FaceReader. The qualitative thematic elements demonstrated that nostalgia influences product appreciation; branding, at least in the present study, had no effect on taste other than being (satisfied) overall; the brand product was associated with being cheap; the can affected consumer desire for the product; and only unbranded tea was associated with health