Abstract
In recent years, with the emergence of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technologies, it is now possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of human-to-human interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that, when participants believe they are interacting via a virtual interface with another human agent, they show different patterns of brain activity compared to when they know that their virtual partner is computer-controlled. The suggestion is that users adopt an “intentional stance” by attributing mental states to their virtual partner. However, it remains unclear how beliefs in the agency of a virtual partner influence participants’ behaviour and subjective experience of the interaction. We investigated this issue in the context of a cooperative “joint attention” game in which participants interacted via an eye tracker with a virtual onscreen partner, directing each other’s eye gaze to different screen locations. Half of the participants were correctly informed that their partner was controlled by a computer algorithm (“Computer” condition). The other half were misled into believing that the virtual character was controlled by a second participant in another room (“Human” condition). Those in the “Human” condition were slower to make eye contact with their partner and more likely to try and guide their partner before they had established mutual eye contact than participants in the “Computer” condition. They also responded more rapidly when their partner was guiding them, although the same effect was also found for a control condition in which they responded to an arrow cue. Results confirm the influence of human agency beliefs on behaviour in this virtual social interaction context. They further suggest that researchers and developers attempting to simulate social interactions should consider the impact of agency beliefs on user experience in other social contexts, and their effect on the achievement of the application’s goals.
Highlights
The development in recent years of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technology makes it possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of humanto-human interaction (Georgescu et al, 2014; Schroeder, 2002)
We found that the P350—a later response measured over centro-parietal sites—was sensitive to joint attention success only in the group who believed that the virtual character was human-controlled
The current study investigated the effect of human agency beliefs on behaviour during virtual joint attention interactions
Summary
The development in recent years of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technology makes it possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of humanto-human interaction (Georgescu et al, 2014; Schroeder, 2002). Unlike previous joint attention studies investigating the influence of human agency beliefs, this task created a context in which sometimes the participant found the burglar and had to ‘‘Initiate’’ joint attention, and other trials where they did not find the burglar, and had to ‘‘Respond’’ to their partner instead In addition to this ‘‘Social’’ task, participants completed a non-social ‘‘Control’’ task in which the virtual character’s eyes remained closed and participants completed the same sequence of eye-movements in response to geometric shape cues (circles and arrows). These findings can be interpreted in terms of the inferred mental states of the virtual partner When participants think their partner is human, they assume that he will intuitively know that they are looking at a location to initiate joint attention, even when eye contact is not first established to signal their own communicative intent. If these predictions were confirmed, they would provide the first direct evidence that beliefs about the human agency of virtual characters can influence user behaviour during virtual interactions
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