Encoding Theory of Mind in Character Design for Pedagogical Interactive Narrative

Computer aided interactive narrative allows people to participate actively in a dynamically unfolding story, by playing a character or by exerting directorial control. Because of its potential for providing interesting stories as well as allowing user interaction, interactive narrative has been recognized as a promising tool for providing both education and entertainment. This paper discusses the challenges in creating interactive narratives for pedagogical applications and how the challenges can be addressed by using agent-based technologies. We argue that a rich model of characters and in particular a Theory of Mind capacity are needed. The character architect in the Thespian framework for interactive narrative is presented as an example of how decision-theoretic agents can be used for encoding Theory of Mind and for creating pedagogical interactive narratives

Causal inference in generalizable environments: systematic representative design

Causal inference and generalizability both matter. Historically, systematic designs emphasize causal inference, while representative designs focus on generalizability. Here, we suggest a transformative synthesis – Systematic Representative Design (SRD) – concurrently enhancing both causal inference and “built-in” generalizability by leveraging today’s intelligent agent, virtual environments, and other technologies. In SRD, a “default control group” (DCG) can be created in a virtual environment by representatively sampling from real-world situations. Experimental groups can be built with systematic manipulations onto the DCG base. Applying systematic design features (e.g., random assignment to DCG versus experimental groups) in SRD affords valid causal inferences. After explicating the proposed SRD synthesis, we delineate how the approach concurrently advances generalizability and robustness, cause-effect inference and precision science, a computationally-enabled cumulative psychological science supporting both “bigger theory” and concrete implementations grappling with tough questions (e.g., what is context?) and affording rapidly-scalable interventions for real-world problems

Requirements for a process model of appraisal from a social functional perspective

Research on computational models of human emotional processes has grown rapidly over the last decade and much of this work has relied on appraisal theories as the basis for the model. However, there is an ongoing debate as to whether appraisal theories, and by extension the computational models based on appraisal, do a good accounting of the social phenomenal that are integral to human emotional processes. We investigate this question using our own work on EMA, a computational process model of appraisal. We lay out the social critiques of appraisal models and use EMA as a frame against which we can assess their computational implications. Finally we conclude with a proposal for a social emotional appraisal process that addresses many of these requirements through incorporation of theory of mind reasoning