Human-like Avatars Research Articles

The impact of different conversational generative AI chatbots on EFL learners: An analysis of willingness to communicate, foreign language speaking anxiety, and self-perceived communicative competence

Based on the Interaction Hypothesis, the study investigates the impact of different conversational Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) chatbots on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC), foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA), self-perceived communicative competence (SPCC) and speaking performance. Three groups of Chinese undergraduate students were recruited: a control group (CG, N = 33) and two experimental groups (EG1, N = 33; EG2, N = 33). The CG interacted with the teacher and classmates during the speaking class. In contrast, EG1 interacted with a text- and voice-based conversational GenAI chatbot called Typebot, while EG2 engaged with a conversational GenAI chatbot that featured both text and voice interaction along with human-like avatars named D-ID Agent. Quantitative analysis using multilevel modelling revealed that EG2 showed significant improvements in WTC and SPCC and a notable reduction in FLSA levels compared to CG. However, the pre- and post-speaking test results showed no significant differences in speaking performance across the groups. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews supported these findings, highlighting the immersive learning experience and emotional support provided by the human-like avatars. These results suggest that visually embodied GenAI chatbots can effectively enhance the emotional experience during the language learning. The study provides practical insights for language educators on integrating GenAI technologies in language teaching, emphasising the benefits of human-like avatars in fostering a more engaging and supportive learning environment.

Do realistic avatars make virtual reality better? Examining human-like avatars for VR social interactions

Do realistic avatars make virtual reality better? Examining human-like avatars for VR social interactions

Interactions with virtual therapists during motor rehabilitation in immersive virtual environments: a systematic review

Introduction: Virtual Reality applications for rehabilitation are increasing in popularity. In traditional as well as virtual rehabilitation, the guidance of an occupational therapist through physical and verbal interaction is often required. Several studies have attempted to implement a virtual therapist or assistant in immersive virtual environments for rehabilitation.Objective: This research aims to systematically review these studies, understanding the therapist’s role and how they are represented in the virtual environment, how the virtual therapist and patient interact and the experience of users. Our goal is to provide guidance for virtual therapist implementations into fully immersive virtual reality environments.Method: The researchers systematically reviewed the literature on virtual therapists in immersive virtual environments for motor rehabilitation (protocol prospectively registered with PROSPERO ID: CRD42022357369).Results and Conclusion: Seven studies were identified, with findings showing that virtual therapists are often human-like avatars that guide patients, requiring them to mimic the therapist’s movements. Visual, haptic, or one-direction audio feedback from the therapist to the patient was provided in five studies. The selected studies were all newly developed custom-made systems, with five systems developed using the same game engine. Studies carrying out user testing utilised several methods to understand user experience, evidencing a positive attitude from therapists and motivated and satisfied patients.Future Research: The roles of virtual therapists for motor rehabilitation needs to be explored further in rigorous empirical studies to gather data on patient and therapist user experience. Considerable potential was identified in the development of virtual therapists and therapeutic alliance in the virtual environment. Future systems should reduce manual input from therapists and include personalisation and individualised patient feedback.Systematic Review Registration: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=357369], PROSPERO ID [CRD42022357369].

Can non-humanlike avatars induce the Proteus effect? The roles of avatar identification and embodiment in influencing social participation

In virtual environments, people tend to behave in line with the virtual avatars they embody. For example, when an individual embodies an attractive and physically fit avatar, they might show an increase in self-esteem. This phenomenon is called the Proteus effect. While prior research shows support for this effect with humanlike avatars, it is unclear whether non-humanlike avatars can also induce it. In this study, we examine the Proteus effect in the context of non-humanlike avatars and test whether the level of attractiveness of a non-humanlike avatar affects social participation. Two underlying mechanisms of the Proteus effect are considered: the mediating role of avatar identification and the moderating role of level of embodiment. To test our hypotheses, a 2 x 2 between-subjects lab experiment (N = 134) was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two non-humanlike avatars differing in level of attractiveness (attractive vs. unattractive) and one of two levels of embodiment (head-mounted display VR vs. desktop). The results showed that participants embodying the attractive non-humanlike avatar perceived higher levels of avatar identification via self-similarity, which increased social participation. Also, this study found that level of embodiment did not moderate the effect of attractiveness of the non-humanlike avatar on social participation.

Teams moving more synchronously are perceived as socially dominant

Characteristics indicative of individual and group power can be used to judge social dominance. The present study investigated whether observers use movement synchrony to judge the dominance of teams during a social conflict. How synchronously individuals move together has been found to influence judgments of team effectiveness and the formidability of groups. Across four experiments, the present study examined whether movement synchrony is also used as a cue of team dominance. Experiment 1 provided evidence that teams of animated characters with higher movement synchrony were judged as more likely to win a competition and were rated as more dominant. A similar effect of synchrony on teams winning a competition was observed in Experiment 2 with different types of movement. Experiment 3 replicated the effects of the prior experiments: teams that moved more synchronously were judged as more likely to win a competition and rated as more socially dominant. These effects were extended in Experiment 4 with a new set of stimuli, human-like avatars performing complex dance actions, replicating synchrony-effects with different types of characters. This research indicates that human observers use movement synchrony to judge the social dominance of teams. This expands the types of behavioral cues that are used to predict the power of teams when social conflicts occur.

Combining wearable fNIRS and immersive virtual reality to study preschoolers' social development: a proof-of-principle study on preschoolers' social preference.

A child's social world is complex and rich, but has traditionally been assessed with conventional experiments where children are presented with repeated stimuli on a screen. These assessments are impoverished relative to the dynamics of social interactions in real life, and can be challenging to implement with preschoolers, who struggle to comply with strict lab rules. The current work meets the need to develop new platforms to assess preschoolers' social development, by presenting a unique virtual-reality set-up combined with wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). As a proof-of-principle, we validated this platform by measuring brain activity during self-guided social interaction in 3-to-5-year-olds, which is under-investigated, yet crucial to understand the basis of social interactions in preschoolers. 37 preschoolers chose an interaction partner from one of 4 human-like avatars of different gender and age. We recorded spontaneous brain fluctuations from the frontal and temporoparietal regions (notably engaged in social-categorization and preference) while children played a bubble-popping game with a preferred and an assigned avatar. 60% of the participants chose to play with the same-gender and same-age avatar. However, this result was driven by females (>80% vs. 50% in males). Different fronto-temporoparietal connectivity patterns when playing with the two avatars were observed, especially in females. We showed the feasibility of using a novel set-up to naturalistically assess social preference in preschoolers, which was assessed at the behavioural and functional connectivity level. This work provides a first proof-of-principle for using cutting-edge technologies and naturalistic experiments to study social development, opening new avenues of research.

Assessing Inhibitory Control in the Real World Is Virtually Possible: A Virtual Reality Demonstration.

Executive functions are the key ingredient for behaviour regulation. Among them, inhibitory control is one of the main exponents of executive functions, and in the last decades, it has received a good amount of attention thanks to the development of chronometric tasks associated with paradigms that allow exploring human behaviour when the inhibitory component is needed. Among the different paradigms typically used, the Simon and flanker tasks are probably the most popular ones. These have been subjected to modifications in order to assess inhibitory control from different perspectives (e.g., in different samples or in combination with different research techniques). However, its use has been relegated to classical presentation modalities within laboratory settings. The accessibility of virtual reality (VR) technology has opened new research avenues to investigate inhibition control with a high ecological validity while retaining tightly controlled lab conditions and good measurement accuracy. We present two cutting-edge modifications of the standard Simon and flanker tasks that have been adapted to real-world settings using VR and human-like avatars as target stimuli. Our findings show that virtual reality is a credible tool for testing inhibitory control with a high degree of transferability and generalizability to the real world.

Accepting Human-like Avatars in Social and Professional Roles

Humans report perceptions of unease or eeriness as humanoid/android robots and digital avatars approach human-like physical resemblance, a phenomenon alluded by the Uncanny Valley theory. This study extends the discussions on interactions and acceptance of digital avatars with findings from three experiments. In the first, perceptive evaluation of actors in clips from computer-generated animation and a live-action version of the same movie was examined. In the second experiment, we considered short clips with highly realistic digital avatars to measure recognition ability, the extent of eeriness, and specific physical features identified as unreal. The fixation area and pupil size variation recorded using an eye tracker were analyzed to infer attention to the body, face, and emotional response, respectively. Building on these findings, the third experiment looked at acceptance in roles requiring human skill, empathy, and cognitive ability. The results show that based on perceptions from physical attributes, the eeriness scores diverge from the uncanny valley theory as human-likeness increases. The realistic CGI and mocap technology could have helped cross the valley. Visual attention inferred from gaze behavior was similar for live-action and CGI. At the same time, we observe pupil size changes reflecting emotions like eeriness when the avatars either talked or smiled. Proficiency and acceptance scores were lower for roles requiring complex social cognition processes, such as friends and judicial decision-making. Interestingly, real-life stereotypes of gender roles were transferred to digital avatars too. The findings suggest an ambiguity in accepting human-like avatars in social and professional interactions, emphasizing the need for a multi-dimensional approach when applying the uncanny valley theory. A detailed and contextual examination is imperative as technological advancements have placed humans closer to co-existing with digital or physical android/humanoid robots.

Psychological and physiological evidence for an initial \u2018Rough Sketch\u2019 calculation of personal space

Personal space has been defined as “the area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort”. However, the precise relationship between discomfort (or arousal) responses as a function of distance from an observer remains incompletely understood. Also the mechanisms involved in recognizing conspecifics and distinguishing them from other objects within personal space have not been identified. Accordingly, here we measured personal space preferences in response to real humans and human-like avatars (in virtual reality), using well-validated “stop distance” procedures. Based on threshold measurements of personal space, we examined within-subject variations in discomfort-related responses across multiple distances (spanning inside and outside each individual’s personal space boundary), as reflected by psychological (ratings) and physiological (skin conductance) responses to both humans and avatars. We found that the discomfort-by-distance functions for both humans and avatars were closely fit by a power law. These results suggest that the brain computation of visually-defined personal space begins with a ‘rough sketch’ stage, which generates responses to a broad range of human-like stimuli, in addition to humans. Analogous processing mechanisms may underlie other brain functions which respond similarly to both real and simulated human body parts.

To Be or Not Be Human-Like in Virtual World

The main objective is a double one. First and foremost, it is a question of showing that foot-in-the-door as a proven behavioral influence technique in offline interactions maintains its efficiency in online interactions. It is then a question of exploring the impact of the anthropomorphism versus the non-anthropomorphism of the requester avatar on the efficiency of this technique. Foot-in-the-door is based on a simple principle: you start by asking for a little in a first step to increase the probability of obtaining a lot in a second step. The research was conducted in the SecondLife virtual world. In a control condition (n = 200), a requester avatar directly proposed the target request. In a foot-in-the-door condition (n = 200), the requester avatar started by presenting a preparatory request before proposing the target request. According to the conditions, the requester avatar was human-like (female or male), or non human-like (flower, balloon, cube). As expected, our results show that overall the foot-in-the door-technique remains efficient in the virtual world; they also show that this efficiency depends on the human-like form of the requester avatar. This last result is interpreted as a reference to the theory of social presence. Non human-like avatars could generate a weak social presence, to the point where the mechanisms of self-perception and commitment underlying the foot-in-the-door effect may not be automatically initiated. Player avatars would in this way be freed from the rules of social interaction occurring in offline interactions.

The role of demographic similarity in people's decision to interact with online anthropomorphic recommendation agents: Evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study

Abstract Recommendation agents (or decision aids) are prevalent in technology-mediated environments. Evidence suggests that people prefer to interact with anthropomorphic recommendation agents with human-like interfaces (avatars) that are demographically similar to them in terms of ethnicity and gender. Several competing theories in the literature have tried to explain why demographic similarity matters, most commonly similarity-attraction theory and dissimilarity-repulsion theory. We compare and contrast these theories by examining the neural bases of why demographic (ethnicity and gender) similarity matters when subjects decided to interact with the human-like avatars of online recommendation agents using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The fMRI results showed that men prefer to interact with online anthropomorphic recommendation agents whose avatar matches their ethnicity, while women tend to avoid interacting with online anthropomorphic agents of the opposite gender. Interestingly, the activation levels in the identified brain areas predict the product recommendation of the online recommendation agent from which subjects choose to purchase. Implications for theory, managerial practice, and the design of online anthropomorphic recommendation agents are discussed.

Avatars in Pain: Visible Harm Enhances Mind Perception in Humans and Robots.

Previous research has shown that when people read vignettes about the infliction of harm upon an entity appearing to have no more than a liminal mind, their attributions of mind to that entity increased. Currently, we investigated if the presence of a facial wound enhanced the perception of mental capacities (experience and agency) in response to images of robotic and human-like avatars, compared with unharmed avatars. The results revealed that harmed versions of both robotic and human-like avatars were imbued with mind to a higher degree, irrespective of the baseline level of mind attributed to their unharmed counterparts. Perceptions of capacity for pain mediated attributions of experience, while both pain and empathy mediated attributions of abilities linked to agency. The findings suggest that harm, even when it appears to have been inflicted unintentionally, may augment mind perception for robotic as well as for nearly human entities, at least as long as it is perceived to elicit pain.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Human-Like Avatars in Advertisements: The Effect of Category Knowledge and Imagery

ABSTRACTDespite the importance and the growing use of avatars in online and offline advertising, investigations on the effectiveness of avatar-based advertising remains scant. This article attempts to narrow this gap by examining several factors that influence consumers’ evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. Based on mental schema theory, the authors theorize that avatars elicit categorization tension, a feeling of incongruence between avatar and expected human features. This tension is reflected in negative attitudes toward the ad and low purchase intention. Two experiments supported these contentions and demonstrated how product category knowledge and imagery moderate these effects. This investigation contributes to theory by employing a mental schema framework to explain and predict how and when consumers form positive evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. The research findings also offer several recommendations for advertising professionals. The findings suggest that human-like avatars are more likely to generate negative evaluations among novice or less knowledgeable consumers. To minimize this effect, advertisers can encourage consumers to imagine the consumption experience.

Human Decisions in Moral Dilemmas are Largely Described by Utilitarianism: Virtual Car Driving Study Provides Guidelines for Autonomous Driving Vehicles.

Ethical thought experiments such as the trolley dilemma have been investigated extensively in the past, showing that humans act in utilitarian ways, trying to cause as little overall damage as possible. These trolley dilemmas have gained renewed attention over the past few years, especially due to the necessity of implementing moral decisions in autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs). We conducted a set of experiments in which participants experienced modified trolley dilemmas as drivers in virtual reality environments. Participants had to make decisions between driving in one of two lanes where different obstacles came into view. Eventually, the participants had to decide which of the objects they would crash into. Obstacles included a variety of human-like avatars of different ages and group sizes. Furthermore, the influence of sidewalks as potential safe harbors and a condition implicating self-sacrifice were tested. Results showed that participants, in general, decided in a utilitarian manner, sparing the highest number of avatars possible with a limited influence by the other variables. Derived from these findings, which are in line with the utilitarian approach in moral decision making, it will be argued for an obligatory ethics setting implemented in ADVs.

5th International Conferences on Geological,Geographical, Aerospaces and Earth Sciences 2017 (5th AeroEarth 2017)

1. Professor Dr Ah-Hwee TanProfessor of Computer Science Associate Chair (Research) School of Computer Science and Engineering Nanyang Technological University - SingaporeTitle: Biologically-inspired Machine Learning Theory for Knowledge Discovery:Machine learning and knowledge discovery are two critical intertwined functions in next generation intelligent information systems. This talk will present a family of self-organizing neural networks, collectively known as fusion Adaptive Resonance Theory (fusion ART), for building intelligent knowledge-based systems with real-time learning capabilities. By extending the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) models, consisting of a single input pattern field, into a multi-channel architecture, fusion ART unifies a number of important neural network designs developed over the past decades. Based on a universal set of neural encoding and adaptation principles, fusion AT supports a myriad of machine learning paradigms, notably unsupervised learning, supervised learning, and reinforcement learning. In addition, domain knowledge in the form of symbolic rules can be inserted into fusion ART and subsequently refined as part of the network's dynamics, which maximizes exploitation of the existing knowledge while retaining the plasticity of exploring new solutions. Case studies will be presented, illustrating how such self-adaptive intelligent systems may be used as autonomous Non-Player Characters (NPC) in first-person shooting games, Computer Generated Forces (CGF) in air combat simulation, and human-like avatars in 3D virtual environment.Biography:Dr Ah-Hwee Tan received Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Systems from Boston University, Master of Science and Bachelor of Science (First Class Honors) in Computer and Information Science from the National University of Singapore. He is currently a Professor of Computer Science and the Associate Chair (Research) at the School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCE), Nanyang Technological University. Prior to joining NTU, he was a Research Manager at the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), heading the Text Mining and Intelligent Agents research programmes. His current research interests include cognitive and neural systems, brain-inspired intelligent agents, machine learning, and text mining. Dr. Tan has published ten edited books/proceeding volumes and over 200 technical papers in major international journals and conferences of his fields. He holds two US patents, five Singapore patents, and has spearheaded several A*STAR projects in commercializing a suite of knowledge management and text mining software. He serves as Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member of several journals, including IEEE Access, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning, and IEEE Transactions on SMC Systems. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Member of Web Intelligence (WI) Technical Committee and Web Intelligence (WI) Conference Steering Committee, and Vice Chair of IEEE CIS Task Force on Towards Human-Like Intelligence.2. Professor Dr. Ida Ayu Dwi GiriantariTitle: The role of Geothermal Energy in Indonesia: Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal energy of the Earth's crust originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials (in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions). The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface.In the 20th century, demand for electricity led to the consideration of geothermal power as a generating source. Indonesia Power Electricity tested the first geothermal power generator on 4 July 1978, at the same dry steam field where geothermal acid extraction began. It successfully lit four light bulbs. Later, in 1990, the Indonesia's first commercial geothermal power plant was built.Short Bio:Ida Ayu Dwi Giriantari is Professor in Electrical Engineering Udayana University. She hold PhD from The University of New South Wales in 2003. Her research areas are in Power Plant, Renewable Energy and Power Transformers.She is Head of Magister Program of Electrical Engineering, Udayana University.

I See Myself through My Avatar: Evidence from East Asia and North America for Acculturated Effects on Virtual Representation Preference

In the present research we argue that avatars, as identity containers, can mirror people’s self-concepts. Research in cultural psychology suggests that East Asians tend to be more tolerant of contradictions and that they more easily adjust their self-concepts in accordance with changing contexts compared to North Americans (see Heine 2001). We therefore assume that preferred forms of avatars among East Asians and North Americans are different because of this self-concept variability across cultures. We conducted a quasi-experiment to explore how people in the two cultures differently evaluate two forms of avatars, human-like and cartoon-like avatars, in terms of likeability and preference. We found that East Asians rated cartoon-like avatars more favourably than North Americans. Moreover, compared to North Americans, East Asians preferred cartoon-like avatars to human-like avatars for their hypothetical avatars to play games. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.

Is it the real deal? Perception of virtual characters versus humans: an affective cognitive neuroscience perspective.

Recent developments in neuroimaging research support the increased use of naturalistic stimulus material such as film, avatars, or androids. These stimuli allow for a better understanding of how the brain processes information in complex situations while maintaining experimental control. While avatars and androids are well suited to study human cognition, they should not be equated to human stimuli. For example, the uncanny valley hypothesis theorizes that artificial agents with high human-likeness may evoke feelings of eeriness in the human observer. Here we review if, when, and how the perception of human-like avatars and androids differs from the perception of humans and consider how this influences their utilization as stimulus material in social and affective neuroimaging studies. First, we discuss how the appearance of virtual characters affects perception. When stimuli are morphed across categories from non-human to human, the most ambiguous stimuli, rather than the most human-like stimuli, show prolonged classification times and increased eeriness. Human-like to human stimuli show a positive linear relationship with familiarity. Secondly, we show that expressions of emotions in human-like avatars can be perceived similarly to human emotions, with corresponding behavioral, physiological and neuronal activations, with exception of physical dissimilarities. Subsequently, we consider if and when one perceives differences in action representation by artificial agents versus humans. Motor resonance and predictive coding models may account for empirical findings, such as an interference effect on action for observed human-like, natural moving characters. However, the expansion of these models to explain more complex behavior, such as empathy, still needs to be investigated in more detail. Finally, we broaden our outlook to social interaction, where virtual reality stimuli can be utilized to imitate complex social situations.

Social organization in virtual settings depends on proximity to human visual aspect

Virtual environments are inherently social spaces, in which humans interact through avatars. However, the parameters which favor inter-individual social structuring in those settings are still far to be understood. Particularly, the putative influence of anthropomorphic similarity of visual aspect on social organization of avatars is a key issue to understand the cognitive processes used to form social interactions in virtual worlds. Using the highly popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft as a model of socially-active virtual setting, we analyzed the social behavior of 11,649 avatars as a function of their visual aspect. Our results show that social structuring in virtual settings depends on proximity to human visual aspect. Social groups formed by human-like avatars display more homogeneity than what the optimal use of the interface would predict, while this effect is not observed for social groups formed by non-human avatars. Thus, immersion in virtual environments depends more on visually-triggered social dynamics (role-play) than on optimal use of the interface (game-play). Furthermore, social aspect may override the immediate reward of interface optimization, thus representing a major factor of immersion in virtual environments.

VR-Based Conversation Training Program for Patients with Schizophrenia: A Preliminary Clinical Trial

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness and is characterized by hallucinations and delusions as well as social skills deficits. Generally, social skills training designed to help patients develop social skills includes role-playing, but this form of training has typical shortcomings, which are largely due to a trainer's difficulties to project emotion. Virtual reality (VR)-based techniques have the potential to solve these difficulties, because they provide a computer-generated but realistic three-dimensional world and humanlike avatars that can provide emotional stimuli. In this paper, we report on a method of implementing virtual environments (VEs) in order to train people with schizophrenia to develop conversational skills in specific situations, which could overcome the shortcomings of or complement conventional role-playing techniques. The paper reports the efficacy of the proposed approach in a preliminary clinical trial with 10 patients with schizophrenia.

An interrogative visualization environment for large-scale engineering simulations

An interrogative visualization environment is described for the interactive display and querying of large datasets. The environment combines a web-based intelligent agent facility with a visualization engine. The intelligent agent facility (IAF) incorporates a rule-based expert system for natural-language understanding, voice and text input facilities, a hierarchical clickable command list, an interface for multimodal devices such as menu-based wireless handheld devices and gesture recognition devices, and human-like avatars acting as virtual assistants. The IAF interacts with, and controls, the visualization engine through a TCP/IP network socket interface. The environment enables multiple users using a variety of interaction modes and devices to effectively browse through large amounts of data, focus on and query interesting features, and more easily comprehend and make use of the data. Application of the environment to the visualization of engineering simulations is described.