Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents

IVA 2017: Intelligent Virtual Agents pp 170–183Cite as

Negative Feedback In Your Face: Examining the Effects of Proxemics and Gender on Learning

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10498))

Abstract

While applications of virtual agents in training and pedagogy have largely concentrated on positive valenced environments and interactions, human-human interactions certainly also involve a fair share of negativity that is worth exploring in virtual environments. Further, in natural human interaction as well as in virtual spaces, physical actions arguably account for a great deal of variance in our representations of social concepts (e.g., emotions, attitudes). Proxemics, specifically, is a physical cue that can elicit varying perceptions of a social interaction. In the current paper, we explore the combined and individual effects of proxemic distance and gender in a specifically negative feedback educational context. We pursue this with a 2 (Proxemic Distance) \(\times \) 2 (Virtual Instructor Gender) between subject design, where participants actively engage in a learning task with a virtual instructor that provides harsh, negative feedback. While this study demonstrates some anticipated negative reactions to negative feedback from a close distance, such as external attribution of failure, we also observe some unexpected positive outcomes to this negative feedback. Specifically, negative feedback from a close distance has raises positive affect and effort, particularly among male participants interacting with a male virtual professor. Objective measures (head movement data) corroborate these same-gender effects as participants demonstrate more engagement when interacting with a virtual professor of their same gender. The results of the present study have broad implications for the design of intelligent virtual agents for pedagogy and mental health outcomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bailenson, J.N., Blascovich, J., Beall, A.C., Loomis, J.M.: Equilibrium theory revisited: Mutual gaze and personal space in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 10(6), 583–598 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bailenson, J.N., Blascovich, J., Beall, A.C., Loomis, J.M.: Interpersonal distance in immersive virtual environments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29(7), 819–833 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bar-Tal, D.: Attributional analysis of achievement-related behavior. Review of Educational Research 48(2), 259–271 (1978)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Baylor, A.L.: Promoting motivation with virtual agents and avatars: role of visual presence and appearance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 364(1535), 3559–3565 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. 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. Psychological Inquiry 13(2), 103–124 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, P., Levinson, S.C.: Politeness: Some universals in language use (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Campbell, J.D., Tesser, A.: Motivational interpretations of hindsight bias: An individual difference analysis. Journal of Personality 51(4), 605–620 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Carver, C.S.: Resilience and thriving: Issues, models, and linkages. J. of Social Issues 54(2), 245–266 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Dweck, C.S.: The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 31(4), 674 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Dweck, C.S., Davidson, W., Nelson, S., Enna, B.: Sex differences in learned helplessness: Ii. the contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and iii. an experimental analysis. Developmental Psychology 14(3), 268 (1978)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Edney, J.J., Walker, C.A., Jordan, N.L.: Is there reactance in personal space? The Journal of Social Psychology 100(2), 207–217 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Feng, D., Jeong, D.C., Krämer, N.C., Miller, L.C., Marsella, S.: Is it just me?: Evaluating attribution of negative feedback as a function of virtual instructor’s gender and proxemics. In: AAMAS 2017, pp. 810–818. IFAAMAS (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Frieze, I.H.: Women’s expectations for and causal attributions of success and failure. In: Women and achievement, pp. 158–171 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Gockley, R., Forlizzi, J., Simmons, R.: Natural person-following behavior for social robots. In: HRI 2007, pp. 17–24. ACM (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hall, E.T.: The hidden dimension (1966)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hattie, J., Timperley, H.: The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research 77(1), 81–112 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Heidig, S., Clarebout, G.: Do pedagogical agents make a difference to student motivation and learning? Educational Research Review 6(1), 27–54 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Hoffmann, L., Krämer, N.C., Lam-chi, A., Kopp, S.: Media equation revisited: do users show polite reactions towards an embodied agent? In: Ruttkay, Z., Kipp, M., Nijholt, A., Vilhjálmsson, H.H. (eds.) IVA 2009. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5773, pp. 159–165. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04380-2_19

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Ilies, R., Judge, T.A.: Goal regulation across time: the effects of feedback and affect. Journal of Applied Psychology 90(3), 453 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Johnson, W.L., Lester, J.C.: Face-to-face interaction with pedagogical agents, twenty years later. Int. J. of AI in Education 26(1), 25–36 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kim, Y., Baylor, A.L.: Research-based design of pedagogical agent roles: a review, progress, and recommendations. Int. J. of AI in Education 26(1), 160–169 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Klein, O., Licata, L.: Explaining differences between social groups: The impact of group identification on attribution. Swiss Journal of Psychology/Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Revue Suisse de Psychologie 60(4), 244 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kluger, A.N., DeNisi, A.: The effects of feedback interventions on performance: a historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin 119(2), 254 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kolkmeier, J., Vroon, J., Heylen, D.: Interacting with virtual agents in shared space: single and joint effects of gaze and proxemics. In: Traum, D., Swartout, W., Khooshabeh, P., Kopp, S., Scherer, S., Leuski, A. (eds.) IVA 2016. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 10011, pp. 1–14. Springer, Cham (2016). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47665-0_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Krämer, N.C., Bente, G.: Personalizing e-learning. the social effects of pedagogical agents. Educational Psychology Review 22(1), 71–87 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Krämer, N.C., Karacora, B., Lucas, G., Dehghani, M., Rüther, G., Gratch, J.: Closing the gender gap in stem with friendly male instructors? on the effects of rapport behavior and gender of a virtual agent in an instructional interaction. Computers & Education 99, 1–13 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Llobera, J., Spanlang, B., Ruffini, G., Slater, M.: Proxemics with multiple dynamic characters in an immersive virtual environment. TAP 8(1), 3 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. McMahan, I.D.: Relationships between causal attributions and expectancy of success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 28(1), 108 (1973)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Schroeder, N.L., Adesope, O.O., Gilbert, R.B.: How effective are pedagogical agents for learning? a meta-analytic review. J. of Educational Computing Research 49(1), 1–39 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Vallerand, R.J., Reid, G.: On the causal effects of perceived competence on intrinsic motivation: A test of cognitive evaluation theory. J. of Sport Psychology 6(1), 94–102 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Wang, N., Gratch, J.: Rapport and facial expression. In: ACII, pp. 1–6. IEEE (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wang, N., Johnson, W.L., Mayer, R.E., Rizzo, P., Shaw, E., Collins, H.: The politeness effect: Pedagogical agents and learning outcomes. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 66(2), 98–112 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Weiner, B., Russell, D., Lerman, D.: Affective consequences of causal ascriptions. New Directions in Attribution Research 2, 59–90 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Wilcox, L.M., Allison, R.S., Elfassy, S., Grelik, C.: Personal space in virtual reality. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP) 3(4), 412–428 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    David C. Jeong & Lynn C. Miller

  2. Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Dan Feng & Stacy Marsella

  3. University Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    Nicole C. Krämer

Authors
  1. David C. Jeong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dan Feng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nicole C. Krämer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lynn C. Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Stacy Marsella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David C. Jeong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jonas Beskow

  2. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Christopher Peters

  3. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ginevra Castellano

  4. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

    Carol O'Sullivan

  5. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Iolanda Leite

  6. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Stefan Kopp

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Jeong, D.C., Feng, D., Krämer, N.C., Miller, L.C., Marsella, S. (2017). Negative Feedback In Your Face: Examining the Effects of Proxemics and Gender on Learning. In: Beskow, J., Peters, C., Castellano, G., O'Sullivan, C., Leite, I., Kopp, S. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10498. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67401-8_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67401-8_19

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67400-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67401-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation