Empathy in Empathy in Educational Synthetic Educational Synthetic Agents: a first Agents: a first glimpseglimpse

Ana PaivaAna Paiva

Vienna June 2003

Why empathy?

Vienna June 2003

Empathy

Def. "An observer reacting emotionally because he perceives that another is experiencing or about to experience an emotion“ (Stotland 1978)

Def 2 “The capacity of participating in or vicarious experiencing of another’s feeling, volitions, or ideas and sometimes another’s movements to the point of executing bodily movements resembling his.

Vienna June 2003

Constructs of Empathy The first is the mediation of empathy (how

does empathy occur?) and the second the outcome of the empathic process (what does it lead to?).

Elements: Observer (experiences empathy) and the Target (the perceived person)

Vienna June 2003

Constructs of Empathy: Mediation

(1) via the situation- the observer concludes the emotional state of the target from the situation the target is dealing with.

(2) via emotional expressions - the observer interprets the behaviour of the target, like for example, when a target cries means that he/she is probably sad.

Vienna June 2003

Constructs of Empathy: Outcome

cognitive or affective(Davis, 1994). • cognitive outcome involves cognitive activity of

the observer, like obtaining more information about the target, or helping the target.

• affective outcomes (which is the one we normally consider as empathy) means that the observer experiences an emotion because of his/her perception of the target.

Vienna June 2003

Empathic Synthetic Agents

User’s experience Empathic emotions

Character’s show empathy towards users and other

characters

"empathic synthetic agent" as "empathic synthetic agent" as "an agent that is able"an agent that is able

to perceive and have an to perceive and have an internal representation of the internal representation of the other agent's emotions and/or other agent's emotions and/or experiencing an appropriate experiencing an appropriate emotion as a consequenceemotion as a consequence

"empathic synthetic agent" empathic synthetic agent" as "an agent that is able to, by itsas "an agent that is able to, by itsbehaviour and features, allow the behaviour and features, allow the

users to build an empathicusers to build an empathicrelation with it"relation with it"

Vienna June 2003

Empathy and Synthetic Charactares

First-order Empathic Characters- to build characters that, by their behaviours, they are able to show empathy (or not) for other characters and thus become more believable; and

Relational Empathic Characters- to build characters that, by their appearance, situation, and behaviour, are able to trigger empathic emotions in the user.

Vienna June 2003

First Problem:First Problem: How build a synthetic character that is

perceived as empathic?

Vienna June 2003

Cha

ract

ers

that

sho

w e

mpa

thy

First Problem:First Problem: How build a synthetic character that is

perceived as empathic?

Look at the outcomes of empathy…• Cognitive (design of the behaviour of the

character and the situation)• Affective (through emotional expressions in

face, body, gestures and voice).

Vienna June 2003

Cognitive aspects/behaviour

Behaviour/ architecture of the agent Emotion (need to have emotional

processing) Modeling of others’ emotions (and of

the user) Familiarity with the others (and the

user)Cha

ract

ers

that

sho

w e

mpa

thy

Vienna June 2003

Affective

In order for the Empathic Agent to show empathy which is perceived by the others and the user:

1. Facial Expression (expressive facial expressions that include emotions and communication signals)

2. Voice

3. Body expression, posture and gesturesC

hara

cter

s th

at s

how

em

path

y

Vienna June 2003

Educational Context: the Empathic Synthetic Tutor

Vienna June 2003

Educational Context: the Empathic Synthetic Tutor

Open Warm Relaxed Good-humored Explains how things work without criticizing Smiles frequently Has lots of eye contact Has an expressive face which shows emotions Tries to reflect the other's emotions Gives clear directions Supportive Animated Moves around Listens carefully Elicits understanding Uses humor Knows the user interest and is aware of individual differences Forms a "personal" relationship with the user

Cha

ract

ers

that

sho

w e

mpa

thy

Vienna June 2003

2nd Problem:How to trigger empathy?

Vienna June 2003

2nd Problem:How to trigger empathy?

Via the situations: by creating situations that the user can perceive the emotional state of the characters.

Via emotional expression: by giving the characters affective expressions, through face, voice, body, sound.

Vienna June 2003

VICTEC: Empathy for Personal and Social Education

Bullying (a constant and very frequent problem in schools…)• Direct physical bullying (hitting, kicking,

punching…)• Verbal bullying including name calling, cruel

teasing, taunting and threatening• Relational/indirect bullying related to social

exclusion, malicious rumour spreading and deliberate withdrawal of friendship

Vienna June 2003

VICTEC: Bullying Victimisation rates in the rate of 8% to 46% and

bullying others from 3% to 23% Consequences involve conduct disorder,

hyperactivity, physical health problems, sickness, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

Vienna June 2003

Triggering Empathy in VICTEC

Building a Virtual Storytelling environment where children are confronted with bullying situations.

Characters must be empathic (relational empathic).

The aim is to both trigger empathy in children and to make them aware for the problem.

Vienna June 2003

Designing Characters in VICTEC: Mediating empathy through proximity

Based on characters that children already know and interact with (“proximity” aspect)

Vienna June 2003

Designing Characters in VICTEC: Mediating empathy though facial expression

Vienna June 2003

Designing Characters in VICTEC: Mediating empathy though body expression

Vienna June 2003

Building Characters in VICTEC: Mediating empathy though exaggeration

Through animationThrough posture

and facial expression

Vienna June 2003

Believable behaviour for the agents: emotional aspects

Approach: using an adaptation of Scherer’s theory

“Emotion is defined as an episode of temporary synchronization of all major subsystems of organismic functioning in response to the evaluation of an internal or external stimulus event as relevant to central concerns of the organism” (Scherer)

• Emotion is a continuous process• Emotion is a dynamic process• Emotion involves the interaction of dynamic and continuous

processes

Process modelling approach: VERY ambitious!

Vienna June 2003

Stimulus Evaluation Checks Scherer suggests a minimal set of criteria for

appraisal, the SECs. Four appraisal objectives:

• Relevance• Implications• Coping Potential• Normative Significance

Each SEC may have several sub-checks

Vienna June 2003

Architecture

SNS

CNS

Cognitive Component

Subjective Feeling Component

RelevanceNovelty

Intrisic Pleasantness

Goal Relevance

ImplicationCause Agent

Cause Motive

Outcome Probability

Expectation/Discrepancy

Conductiveness

Urgency

Coping Potential

Control

Power

Adjustment

Normative Significance

Internal Standards

External Standards

Attention

Memory

Motivations

Reasoning

Self

ANS

Sympathetic System

Parasympathetic System

Sensory-motor Level Schematic Level Conceptual Level

InternalOrgans

Nonskeletalmuscles

Glands

SensoryOrgans

SkeletalMuscles

Motor System

Sensory system

Vienna June 2003

Example (1) Luke’s aggresion to John – Luke’s appraisal Assessment of Coping Potential check: control

and high power.• ANS:

- Increase in depth of respiration- Slight heart rate decrease- Increased blood flow to head, chest and hands- Papilary consctrictions

• SNS:- Balanced tone- Tension increase in head and neck

Vienna June 2003

Example (2) Visible manifestations:

• Voice:- Chest register phonations – “full voice”

• Body:- Agonistic hand/arm movements

- Erect postures

- Body lean forward

- Approach locomotion

Vienna June 2003

Building Situations and Episodes in VICTEC

Mediating empathy through situations

Inspired in “real” bullying situations Teachers workshop and constant interaction with

children of selected schools. Tested using Kartouche. Using ChildLine situations.

Vienna June 2003

Building Situations and Episodes in VICTEC: Goal- Emergent Narrative

Episodes are described as “constraints” determining the “type of event” and the outcome.

The actions of the characters are determined by their architecture and are not scripted.

The episode itself emerges from the actions of the characters (taking the constraints imposed).

A stage manager determines episode by episode, which characteristics are the nest for the next episode, taking into account certain heuristics.

Vienna June 2003

Building Situations and Episodes in VICTEC: architecture of the system

Vienna June 2003

Episodes Episodes are constraints on

the actions of the characters.

Episodes are used by the episode sequencer to…..

<Episode><Name>Playground hassle</Name><Type>Conflict</Type><Preconditions></Preconditions><Constraints>

<Locale>Playground</Locale><Character>Victim</Character><Character>Bully</Bully>

</Constraints><Postconditions> <IsTrue>Hit(Bully, Victim)</IsTrue>

</Postconditions></Episode>

Vienna June 2003

1st (Very Draft) Demonstrator

Built on top of Wild Tangent

Use of the INESC-ID framework for building synthetic agents in Virtual worlds.

Runs on as an applet on Explorer.

Vienna June 2003

Some initial tests Conducted at the ChildLine conference in London 25th of March. Using a questionnaire (8 sections measured according to a 5 point

Likert scale)• Section1. Cartoon versus real. And which character they liked• Section2. Voices, and content of conversation• Section 3 Character’s movements and realism• Section 4 Nature of school environment (attractiveness of the environment)

and adequacy to the characters• Section 5. Storyline• Section 6. Feelings after the demo• Usability

76 questionnaires (19 male and 55 female). Age from 10 to 55.

Vienna June 2003

Some initial results 51% favoured cartoons and 49% realistic Younger age group preferred cartoons 70.6%

compared with 36.8% 46% attractive environment (15% negative views) No character preferred. Significant bias towards

not preferring Luke (age 8-12). No preference reported with Martinha. Older group (+40) 50% preferred Luke whilst 22.7

preferred John.

Vienna June 2003

Interaction issues Episodes must have their narrative impact

(creating empathy), thus children must see them as a whole!

Interaction occurs between episodes (the child is the invisible friend of the victim)

Does Interactivity lead to more empathy???? Trying to use physical devices (SenToy) to see the

impact in empathy and relation with the characters…

Vienna June 2003

SenToy

Vienna June 2003

The teamVICTEC Partners• Prof. Ruth Aylett (in Salford), UK• Sarah Woods, Kerstin Dautenhahn in Hertsforshire, UK• Carsten Zoll, Bamberg, Germany

INESC-ID People• Isabel Machado,• Catarina Gouveia, • Daniel Sobral, • Nuno Otero    • Raquel César• Rui Ferreira• Fernando Rebelo• Marco Costa• Rui Prada• Marco Vala

Vienna June 2003

Final comments