Nicole C. Krämer

A conversational agent as museum guide: design and evaluation of a real-world application

This paper describes an application of the conversational agent Max in a real-world setting. The agent is employed as guide in a public computer museum, where he engages with visitors in natural face-to-face communication, provides them with information about the museum or the exhibition, and conducts natural small talk conversations. The design of the system is described with a focus on how the conversational behavior is achieved. Logfiles from interactions between Max and museum visitors were analyzed for the kinds of dialogue people are willing to have with Max. Results indicate that Max engages people in interactions where they are likely to use human-like communication strategies, suggesting the attribution of sociality to the agent.

Social Comparison 2.0: Examining the Effects of Online Profiles on Social Networking Sites

Through their features--such as profile photographs or the personal vita--online profiles on social-networking sites offer a perfect basis for social comparison processes. By looking at the profile photograph, the user gains an impression of a persons physical attractiveness, and the users vita shows which career path the person is pursuing. Against the background of Festingers Social Comparison Theory, the focus of this research is on the effects of online profiles on their recipients. Therefore, qualitative interviews (N = 12) and two online experiments were conducted in which virtual online profiles of either physically attractive or unattractive persons (N = 93) and profiles of users with either high or low occupational attainment (N = 103) were presented to the participants. Although qualitative interviews did not initially give reason to expect online profiles to constitute a basis for comparison processes, results of the experiments proved otherwise. The first study indicates that recipients have a more negative body image after looking at beautiful users than persons who were shown the less attractive profile pictures. Male participants of the second study, who were confronted with profiles of successful males, showed a higher perceived discrepancy between their current career status and an ideal vita than male participants who looked at profiles of less successful persons.

An Experimental Study on Emotional Reactions Towards a Robot

Although robots are starting to enter into our professional and private lives, little is known about the emotional effects which robots elicit. However, insights into this topic are an important prerequisite when discussing, for example, ethical issues regarding the question of what role we (want to) allow robots to play in our lives. In line with the Media Equation, humans may react towards robots as they do towards humans, making it all the more important to carefully investigate the preconditions and consequences of contact with robots. Based on assumptions on the socialness of reactions towards robots and anecdotal evidence of emotional attachments to robots (e.g. Klamer and BenAllouch in Trappl R. (ed.), Proceedings of EMCSR 2010, Vienna, 2010; Klamer and BenAllouch in Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI-2010), Atlanta, GA. ACM, New York, 2010; Krämer et al. in Appl. Artif. Intell. 25(6):474–502, 2011), we conducted a study that provides further insights into the question of whether humans show emotional reactions towards Ugobe’s Pleo, which is shown in different situations. We used a 2×2 design with one between-subjects factor “prior interaction with the robot” (never seen the robot before vs. 10-minute interaction with the robot) and a within-subject factor “type of video” (friendly interaction video vs. torture video). Following a multi-method approach, we assessed participants’ physiological arousal and self-reported emotions as well as their general evaluation of the videos and the robot. In line with our hypotheses, participants showed increased physiological arousal during the reception of the torture video as compared to the normal video. They also reported fewer positive and more negative feelings after the torture video and expressed empathic concern for the robot. It appears that the acquaintance with the robot does not play a role, as “prior interaction with the robot” showed no effect.

Computer animated movement and person perception: Methodological advances in nonverbal behavior research

Impression effects of videotaped dyadic interactions were compared with 3D-computer animations based on movement transcripts of the same interactions to determine whether similar effects could be obtained. One minute sequences of movement behavior taken from three different dyadic interactions were transcribed using the Bernese Coding System (BCS). Descriptive data were converted into animation scripts for professional animation software. Original video documents and computer animations were shown to separate groups of observers and their socio-emotional impressions were assessed on a standard adjective checklist. Only marginal differences were found between the two presentation modes. On the contrary, the data point to remarkable similarities in the impression ratings in both conditions, indicating that most of the relevant social information available to observers in the video recordings was also conveyed by computer animations. Overall, the data suggest that the systematic use of computer animation techniques in nonverbal research deserves further scientific attention.

Another brick in the Facebook wall – How personality traits relate to the content of status updates

Abstract Status updates represent a new form of one-to-many communication which is widely used among members of social networking sites (SNS). The present study investigated the question of who in particular uses the self-presentational opportunities of this feature and which users engage in riskier self-disclosures than others. Combining questionnaire and content analysis, we related self-reports on users’ personality traits (extraversion, narcissism, self-efficacy, need to belong, need for popularity) to the actual use of Facebook status updates. Results showed that higher degrees of narcissism led to deeper self-disclosures and more self-promotional content within these messages. Users with higher need to belong disclosed more intimate information in status updates, while perceived efficacy of self-presentation was negatively related to the mass suitability of postings. Findings extend prior research on personality and SNS usage with regard to dynamic features and content differences in online self-presentation.

Entertaining Media Use and the Satisfaction of Recovery Needs: Recovery Outcomes Associated With the Use of Interactive and Noninteractive Entertaining Media

Recent research has linked the enjoyment of entertaining media to the satisfaction of intrinsic human needs (Tamborini, Bowman, Eden, Grizzard, & Organ, 2010; Tamborini, Grizzard, et al., in press). The present investigation addressed the satisfaction of recovery needs through the use of interactive and noninteractive entertaining media stimuli and the resulting recovery outcomes. In an experiment (N = 160), participants were first exposed to a working task to elicit the need for recovery and then randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: 1) a video game, 2) a video recording of a game, 3) an animated video clip, or 4) the control condition. The results demonstrate that interactive and noninteractive media stimuli elicit different patterns of recovery experience. Furthermore, recovery experience was significantly related to enjoyment as well as subjective (energetic arousal) and objective (cognitive performance) recovery outcomes. Enjoyment mediated the relationship between recovery experience and energetic arousal. The results demonstrate that the effects of need satisfaction associated with the use of entertaining media go beyond enjoyment and may affect recovery and psychological well being. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research on the recovery effects of entertaining media and for current needs-based approaches to media enjoyment.

Serious games for health: An empirical study of the game “Balance” for teenagers with diabetes mellitus

Abstract In addition to a broad range of different application areas, health games differ in the level of abstraction of the game’s message or goal and the way to achieve game benefits. Most games focus on teaching knowledge or prevention topics. Furthermore, some games focus on strengthening motivation of patients to attend a specific medication or to change their daily behavior in order to live healthier. In this paper we present the health game “Balance”, developed to optimize the self-management of teenagers with diabetes mellitus type-I. Two versions of the game were implemented: A version explicitly referring to diabetes and an implicit version of “Balance” with no diabetes content in order to reduce diabetes related reactance among juveniles. In a between-subjects experimental study with a clinical sample the two versions were compared. Results demonstrate, contrary to expectations, that the explicit game version yielded higher game enjoyment than the implicit version.

THEORY OF COMPANIONS: WHAT CAN THEORETICAL MODELS CONTRIBUTE TO APPLICATIONS AND UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION?

Because it becomes more and more feasible that artificial entities like robots or agents will soon be parts of our daily lives, an essential challenge is to advance the sociability of artifacts. Against this background, a pivotal goal of the Sera project was to develop a theoretical framework for sociable companions as well as for human-artifact interaction. In discussing several levels of sociability from a theoretical point of view, we will critically reflect whether human-companion interaction has to build on basic principles of human-human interaction. Alternative approaches are presented. It is discussed whether a “theory of companions” is necessary and useful and what it should be able to explain and contribute.

Smile and the world will smile with you-The effects of a virtual agent's smile on users' evaluation and behavior

Recent studies have demonstrated that people show social reactions when interacting with human-like virtual agents. For instance, human users behave in a socially desirable way, show increased cooperation or apply human-like communication. It has, however, so far not been tested whether users are prone to mimic the artificial agents behavior although this is a widely cited phenomenon of human-human communication that seems to be especially indicative of the sociality of the situation. We therefore conducted an experiment, in which we analyzed whether humans reciprocate an agents smile. In a between-subjects design, 104 participants conducted an 8-min small-talk conversation with an agent that either did not smile, showed occasional smiles, or displayed frequent smiles. Results show that although smiling did not have a distinct impact on the evaluation of the agent, the human interaction partners themselves smiled longer when the agent was smiling.

Media Equation Revisited: Do Users Show Polite Reactions towards an Embodied Agent?

In human-computer interaction social behavior towards computers like flattery, reciprocity, and politeness have been observed [1]. In order to determine whether the results can be replicated when interacting with embodied conversational agents (ECA), we conducted an experimental study. 63 participants evaluated the ECA Max after a 10-minute conversation. The interview situation was manipulated in three conditions: Being questioned by Max himself, being questioned by paper-and-pencil questionnaire in the same room facing Max, and being questioned by means of a paper-and-pencil questionnaire in another room. Results show that participants were more polite to the ECA in terms of a better evaluation when they were questioned by Max himself compared to when they were questioned more indirectly by paper-and-pencil questionnaire in the same room. In contrast to previous studies [2] it was ruled out that some participants thought of the programmer when they were asked to evaluate the ECA. Additionally, user variables (e.g. gender, computer literacy) show an impact on the on the evaluation of the ECA.