Why a Virtual Assistant for Moral Enhancement When We Could have a Socrates?

This article was written as a part of the research project Digital Ethics. Moral Enhancement through an Interactive Use of Artificial Intelligence (PID2019-104943RB-I00), funded by the State Research Agency of the Spanish Government. The author is very grateful for the helpful suggestions and comments given on earlier versions of this paper by Jon Rueda, Juan Ignacio del Valle, Blanca Rodriguez, Miguel Moreno and Jan Deckers.Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) be more effective than human instruction for the moral enhancement of people? The author argues that it only would be if the use of this technology were aimed at increasing the individual’s capacity to reflectively decide for themselves, rather than at directly influencing behaviour. To support this, it is shown how a disregard for personal autonomy, in particular, invalidates the main proposals for applying new technologies, both biomedical and AI-based, to moral enhancement. As an alternative to these proposals, this article proposes a virtual assistant that, through dialogue, neutrality and virtual reality technologies, can teach users to make better moral decisions on their own. The author concludes that, as long as certain precautions are taken in its design, such an assistant could do this better than a human instructor adopting the same educational methodology.State Research Agency of the Spanish Government PID2019-104943RB-I0

"Virtual Reality Training Simulation - A Patient’s Point of View: Teaching Providers Teamwork and Empathetic Communication Skills via Immersive Perspective Taking, Interaction and Narrative Transport"

This paper will first seek to develop the pedagogical framework for message design in virtual reality, noting its potential for promoting education and empathy. I discuss relevant communications theory and practice; namely, cognitive elaboration, narrative transport, spatial presence, perspective taking and interactivity; and describe how virtual reality can uniquely combine these tools to effectively connect with and move audiences. After establishing this pedagogical foundation, this paper presents a virtual reality project that employs the tools discussed, with the goal of providing education that elicits empathy and improves providers’ empathetic communication with trauma patients.Master of Art

The impact of interactive technology on prosocial behavior

Background. Behavior performed with the prosocial intent of helping others holds benefits not only for the recipient, but also for the prosocial actor and the community around them. Despite these pervasive benefits, there is relatively little research on how interacting with computing technology can be used to facilitate prosocial behavior. Understanding this relationship between technology usage and prosocial behavior and the psychological processes underlying this relationship is the aim of this doctoral thesis. To this goal, over the course of four manuscripts, we examined the impact of different technologies (in the form of video games, interactive narratives, and an interactive online platform) on their users' experiences and prosocial behavior. Methods. In each manuscript we followed a similar core structure; We experimentally manipulated a form of technology to examine its effects. We collected data on psychological processes we believed to be crucial to the effect of technology on prosocial behavior. Finally, in three of the four manuscripts, we assessed prosocial behavior after interacting with the technology. Based on the individual research questions, the experimental designs were supplemented with additional methodologies, such as interviews, surveys, and longitudinal data collection. Results. We found that interactivity in games and interactive text-based narratives can lead to increased prosocial behavior, but that this effect only occurred when interactivity lead to more meaningful experiences. We found that narrative choices can lead to meaningful experiences when they create moral dilemmas with clear consequences for oneself or others. We learned that sending reminders to track daily prosocial behavior for three weeks correlates with increases in belief in one's ability to help others in everyday contexts. The strongest predictor for using an interactive platform meant to support prosocial behavior over time was the belief in one’s ability to impact change and the enjoyment of the technology itself. Enjoyment was also related to the likelihood to continue using the interactive platform. One’s belief in one’s ability to help others in everyday contexts did not predict prosocial behavior over time, but one’s belief in one’s ability to impact change did. Conclusion. Interacting with technology is by far not a silver bullet to drastically impact prosocial behavior. However, when designed to be meaningful, interactivity can affect the way a narrative is perceived and to which extent prosocial behavior will be shown following the interaction. Interactive technology has the potential, particularly when enjoyable, to support performing prosocial actions and engagement over time. One’s belief in one’s abilities to perform everyday prosocial actions and one's belief in one's abilities to impact change both play roles within the relationship between technology usage and prosocial behavior. In order to correctly harness the potential of these technologies, however, the complex reality of the variability of users' everyday contexts, as well as their unique capabilities, opportunities, and motivations need to be taken into account. While some technology is more likely to lead to prosocial behavior when it is meaningful, others will be more likely be effective, particularly over time, when they are enjoyable. Future research should further examine the relationships between different forms of self-efficacy, experiences of enjoyment and meaningfulness, their relationship with sustained prosocial behavior, and how they are affected by interactive technology

Systemic Lisbon battery: Definição de problema, requisitos e solução

A presente investigação assume um caracter experimental e longitudinal, que visou o levantamento e resolução de problemas da Systemic Lisbon Battery, com recurso a um processo Design Science Research com Focus Groups. Foram constituídas duas equipas para grupos focais, uma com utilizadores e outra com a totalidade da equipa técnica, as quais assumiram uma relação interativa ao longo do processo, que englobou uma sessão de Definição de Problema, uma de Definição de Requisitos, uma de Definição da Solução e uma de Avaliação do Artefacto. O primeiro pacote da solução apresentada foi, posteriormente, desenvolvido e a sua eficácia testada com uma amostra de utilizadores com neuropatologia. Para a inerente avaliação, anterior e posterior à intervenção, utilizou-se, tanto num grupo experimental como num grupo de controlo, o Montreal Cognitive Assessment e a Frontal Assessment Battery. Os resultados sugerem que o processo de Design Science Research com Focus Groups permitiu alcançar grande consenso, quer à utilidade do processo, quer face à solução encontrada para a Systemic Lisbon Battery. Ao nível desta solução, identifica-se um levantamento de problemas e respostas aos mesmos, destacando a validade ecológica adjacente na sua abordagem function-led, e a relevância de Virtual Reality e de NonPlayer Characters ao nível do treino cognitivo, com possibilidade de extensão, mediante tranposição adaptada, a outros âmbitos e contextos.The present investigation assumes an experimental and longitudinal character, which aimed at surveying and solving Systemic Lisbon Battery problems, using a Design Science Research process with Focus Groups. Two teams were created for Focus Groups, one with users and the other with the entire technical team, who assumed an interactive relationship throughout the process, this included several sessions: Problem Definition, Requirements Definition, Solution Definition and Artifact Evaluation. The first package of the introduced solution was subsequently developed, and its effectiveness tested with a sample of users with neuropathology. For the inherent evaluation, before and after the intervention, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Frontal Assessment Battery were used in both experimental and control groups Results suggest that the Design Science Research process with Focus Groups allowed greater consensus to be reached, both in terms of the usefulness of the process and in view of the solution found for the Systemic Lisbon Battery. A set of problems and responses to them is identified, at the solution level, highlighting the adjacent ecological validity in its function-led approach, and the relevance of Virtual Reality and Non-Player Characters in terms of cognitive training, with the possibility of extension, through adapted transposition, for other scopes and contexts

“SEU NOME ERA GISBERTA”: PROJETO DE UM NON-FICTION VR COM EXERCÍCIOS DE TOMADA DE PERSPETIVA

Podemos definir livremente a Realidade Virtual (RV) como uma ferramenta/tecnologia de novos media e das tecnologias imersivas, que permite aos seus utilizadores a possibilidade de imersão e/ou interação dentro de ambientes virtuais simulados. O seu potencial, como tecnologia de desenvolvimento humano (Rose, 2018), tem alterado a maneira como utilizamos os media, assim como a qualidade de vida das pessoas, ao oferecer presença e imersividade. No decorrer das últimas décadas, com o objetivo de potencializar a experiência humana, a RV tem vindo a ser aplicada como uma ferramenta/tecnologia em múltiplos contextos e investigações científicas em áreas como a educação, o entretenimento, o turismo, o cinema de ficção e documental, o jornalismo, a saúde e bem-estar e a psicologia, entre outras. Os Non-Fiction VR (VRNF) são uma terminologia dos media imersivos que procura incorporar as diferentes produções de não ficção (e.g. Documentários) em RV onde, por exemplo, se engloba o Jornalismo Imersivo idealizado por Nonny de la Peña. O potencial dos VRNF para contar histórias de interesse humano (McRoberts 2018), através da sensação de presença (Slater & Sanchez-Vives, 2016), do testemunho imersivo (Nash, 2018), do RAIR (De la Peña et al., 2010) e de outros fenómenos, tem permitido que estes sejam utilizados para potencializar uma resposta empática (Martingano et al., 2021) nos utilizadores/participantes. Esta é considerada “the ultimate empathy machine” (Chris Milk, 2015) motivando uma alteração do seu comportamento pró-social, especialmente em questões de justiça social (McRoberts, 2018). Deste modo, surge a criação da primeira experiência de não-ficção em RV em Portugal sobre transfobia, “Seu nome era Gisberta”. Este VRNF parte da história de vida de Gisberta Salce, uma vítima de um crime de ódio e Transfobia, ocorrido em 2006 na cidade do Porto, que espoletou o nascimento do movimento trans nacional (Saleiro, 2013) e impulsionou diversos movimentos LGBTQIA+ em Portugal. Este VRNF aplicará exercícios mediados de tomada de perspetiva (Van Loon et al., 2018 -VRPT), possibilitando a experiência de corporificar diferentes perspetivas à medida que estamos imersos na sua história. Através de relatos e de um extenso levantamento jornalístico, produzimos uma experiência imersiva que leva o utilizador/participante a conhecer a história de Gisberta com recurso à animação num vídeo em 360º. Neste documento iremos apresentar o processo de construção desta experiência imersiva, desde a sua base teórica fundamental até às suas escolhas estéticas, técnicas e conceptuais. Pretende-se com este projeto explorar e partilhar, novas ferramentas para fomentar a educação e intervenção social, não só para a humanização e redução do preconceito contra pessoas Trans, mas também para estimular novos criadores/investigadores a trabalhar questões de importância social e de ativismo nesta tipologia de produções