Abstract
Simulations and games allow us to experience events as if they were really happening in a way that is safer and less expensive. Despite improvements in realism in these types of environments, one area that still presents a challenge is interpersonal interactions. The subtleties of what makes an interaction rich are difficult to define. As such, there is value in building on existing research into how individuals react to virtual characters to inform future investments.
Ultimately, the goal is to understand what might cause people to engage or disengage with virtual characters. To answer that question, it is important to establish metrics that would indicate when people believe their interaction partner is real, or has agency. This paper describes behavioral metrics explored as part of this research. The results provide valuable feedback on how users need to see and be seen by their interaction partner to ensure non-verbal cues provide context and additional meaning to the dialog. This study provides insight into areas of future research, offering a foundation of knowledge for further exploration and lessons learned.
This was a field study incorporating a novel approach to a real-life experience, a dialog with another individual. Two metrics are explored in this paper; gestural data and open-ended questions, which together provided insight into the information humans rely on and apply in these types of interactions to understand and be understood.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Maxwell, D.B., Griffith, T.S., Finkelstein, N.: The use of virtual worlds in the military services as part of a blended learning strategy. In: Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications, Second Edition, Orlando, CRC Press, pp. 959–999 (2014)
Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A., Swinth, K., Hoyt, C., Bailenson, J.N.: Immersive virtual environment technology as a methodological tool for social psychology. Psychol. Inquiry, 13, 103–124 (2002)
Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books, New Hork (1998)
Pearce, J.: Engaging the learner: how can the flow experience support e-learning?,” In: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (2005)
Shernoff, D.J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Schneider, B., Shernoff, E.S.: Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. In: Application of Flow in Human Development and Education, Dordrecht (2014)
Chang, C.-C., Liang, C., Chou, P.-N., Lin, G.-Y.: Is game-based learning better in flow experience and various types of cognitive loan than non-game based learning? Perspective from multimedia and media richness. In: Computers in Human Behavior (2017)
Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A.C., Swinth, K.R., Hoyt, C.L., Bailenson, J.N.: Immersive virtual environment technology as a methodological tool for social psychology. In: Psychological Inquiry (2002)
de Melo, C.M., Gratch, J.: Beyond believability: quantifying the differences between real and virtual humans. In: International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (2015)
Pena, J., Khan, S., Alexopoulos, C.: I am what I see: how avatar and opponent agent body size affects physical activity among men playing exergames. J. Comput.-Mediated Commun. (2016)
Heyselaar, E., Hagoort, P., Segaert, K.: In dialogue with an avatar, language behavior is identical to dialogue with a human partner. Behav. Res. Methods 49(1), 46–60 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0688-7
Blascovich, J.: A theoretical model of social influence for increasing the utility of collaborative virtual environments. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Collaborative Virtual Environments (2002)
de Melo, C.M., Gratch, J.: Beyone believability: quantifying the differences between real and virtual humans. In: International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, pp. 109–118 (2015)
Jacobs, N., Garnham, A.: The role of conversational hand gestures in a narrative task. J. Memory Lang. 291–303 (2006)
Alibali, M.W., Heath, D.C., Myers, H.J.: Effects of visibility between speaker and listener on gesture production; some gestures are meant to be seen. J. Memory Lang. 44, 169–188 (2001)
Ozyurek, A.: Do speakers design their cospeech gesture for their addressees? The effects of addressee location on representational gestures. J. Memory Lang. 46, 688–704 (2002)
Krauss, R.M., Dushay, R.A., Chen, Y., Rauscher, F.: The communicative value of conversational hand gestures. J. Experimental Soc. Psychol. 31, 533–552 (1995)
Rime, B.: The elimination of visible behavior from social interactions: effects on verbal, non-verbal and interpersonal variables. Euro. J. Soc. Psychol. 12, 113–129 (1982)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply
About this paper
Cite this paper
Griffith, T.S., Fidopiastis, C., Bockelman-Morrow, P., Johnston, J. (2020). Behavioral Indicators of Interactions Between Humans, Virtual Agent Characters and Virtual Avatars. In: Stephanidis, C., Chen, J.Y.C., Fragomeni, G. (eds) HCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Papers: Virtual and Augmented Reality. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12428. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59990-4_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59990-4_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59989-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59990-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)