Abstract
Humans have the ability to efficiently decode human and human-like cues. We explore whether a virtual agent’s facial expressions and gaze can be used to guide attention and elicit amplified processing of task-related cues. We argue that an emphasis on information processing will support future development of assistance systems, for example by reducing task load and creating a sense of reliability for such systems. A pilot study indicates subjects’ propensity to respond to the agent’s cues, most importantly gaze, but to not yet rely on them completely, possibly leading to a decreased performance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Monsell, S.: Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(3), 134–140 (2003)
McFarlane, D.: Comparison of Four Primary Methods for Coordinating the Interruption of People in Human-Computer Interaction. Human-Computer Interaction 17, 63–139 (2002)
Lieberman, H.: Autonomous interface agents. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 67–74. ACM, New York (1997)
Mayer, R.E., DaPra, C.S.: An embodiment effect in computer-based learning with animated pedagogical agents. Journal of Experimental Psychology 18(3), 239–252 (2012)
Pourtois, G., Schettino, A., Vuilleumier, P.: Brain mechanisms for emotional influences on perception and attention: What is magic and what is not. Biological Psychology 92(3), 492–512 (2012)
Yantis, S.: Goal-directed and stimulus-driven determinants of attentional control. In: Monsell, S., Driver, J. (eds.) Attention and Performance XVIII, pp. 73–103. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)
Smith, M.L., Cottrell, G.W., Gosselin, F., Schyns, P.G.: Transmitting and Decoding Facial Expressions. Psychological Science 16(3), 184–189 (2005)
Kahneman, D.: Attention and effort. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1973)
Thornton, M.A., Conway, A.R.A.: Working memory for social information: Chunking or domain-specific buffer? NeuroImage 70, 233–239 (2013)
Friesen, C.K., Kingstone, A.: The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 5(3), 490–495 (1998)
Langton, S.R., Bruce, V.: Reflexive visual orienting in response to the social attention of others. Visual Cognition 6(5), 541–567 (1999)
Chopra-Khullar, S., Badler, N.I.: Where to look? Automatic attending behaviors of virtual human characters. In: Etzioni, O., Müller, J.P., Bradshaw, J.M. (eds.) Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Autonomous Agents, pp. 16–23. ACM, New York (1999)
Peters, C., Asteriadis, S., Karpouzis, K.: Investigating shared attention with a virtual agent using a gaze-based interface. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces 3(1–2), 119–130 (2010)
Lee, J., Marsella, S.C., Traum, D.R., Gratch, J., Lance, B.: The Rickel gaze model: A window on the mind of a virtual human. In: Pelachaud, C., Martin, J.-C., André, E., Chollet, G., Karpouzis, K., Pelé, D. (eds.) IVA 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4722, pp. 296–303. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Mutlu, B., Shiwa, T., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Hagita, N.: Footing in human-robot conversations: How robots might shape participant roles using gaze cues. In: HRI 2009 Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, pp. 61–68. ACM, New York (2009)
Shell, J.S., Selker, T., Vertegaal, R.: Interacting with groups of computers. Communications of the ACM 46(3), 40–46 (2003)
Posner, M.I., Petersen, S.E.: The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience 13(1), 25–42 (1990)
Martinez, S., Sloan, R., Szymkowiak, A., Scott-Brown, K.: Using virtual agents to cue observer attention. In: CONTENT 2010: The Second International Conference on Creative Content Technologies, pp. 7–12. International Academy, Research, and Industry Association (2010)
Pelachaud, C., Poggi, I.: Subtleties of facial expressions in embodied agents. The Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation 13(5), 301–312 (2002)
van Welbergen, H., Reidsma, D., Kopp, S.: An Incremental Multimodal Realizer for Behavior Co-Articulation and Coordination. In: Nakano, Y., Neff, M., Paiva, A., Walker, M. (eds.) IVA 2012. LNCS, vol. 7502, pp. 175–188. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Mojzisch, A., Schilbach, L., Helmert, J.R., Pannasch, S., Velichkovsky, B.M., Vogeley, K.: The effects of self-involvement on attention, arousal, and facial expression during social interaction with virtual others: A psychophysiological study. Social Neuroscience 1(3–4), 184–195 (2006)
Wickens, C.D., Carswell, C.M.: Information processing. In: Salvendy, G. (ed.) Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, pp. 111–149. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kulms, P., Kopp, S. (2013). Using Virtual Agents to Guide Attention in Multi-task Scenarios. In: Aylett, R., Krenn, B., Pelachaud, C., Shimodaira, H. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8108. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40415-3_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40415-3_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40414-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40415-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)