Inducing perspective sharing between
a user and an embodied agent by a
thought balloon as an input form
SUZUKI Satoshi V.
DCISS, IGSSE, Tokyo Institute of Technology /
National Institute of Informatics
TAKEDA Hideaki
National Institute of Informatics /
The University of Tokyo
http://www-kasm.nii.ac.jp/~ssv/
ssv@ntt.dis.titech.ac.jp
This Study Is About...
Embodied Agent
What is he thinking?
A blank thought balloon
as a prompt of perspective sharing
between the user and the agent
User
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 2
Agenda
User's learning about agents
Blank speech balloons as a prompt to let a user learn about
the agents
Experiment
Discussion
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 3
User's Learning about Agents
Human-agent mutual adaptation (Yamada & Yamaguchi,
2004)
Not only learning by an agent with machine learning, user
modelling, etc.
But learning by a human interactant is important
How can the user learn about the agent?
Peer relationship between the user and the agent is
important to maintain smooth interaction (Reeves & Nass,
1996)
Body-orientation correspondence (Suzuki & Takeda,
2006)
Perspective sharing with blank thought balloons
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 4
Balloons in User Interface
History of balloon expression
European religious pictures in the Middle Ages (Blanchard,
1974)
Comics (Harrison, 1981)
Speech balloons and thought balloons
Common in expression of utterance/reflection of a
character over cultures (cf. Wikipedia:en, ja, fr, de)
Balloons in user interface
Comic chat (Kurlander et al, 1996)
ComicDiary (Sakamoto et al, 2001)
Function of blank thought balloons has not been focused
on in previous studies!
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 5
Function of Thought Balloons
Containing self-disclosure (Derlega et al, 1993), i.e. what the
person is really thinking
What is deep self-disclosure?
According to Altman & Taylor (1973), information about
self including
General topics rather than specific topics
Original
Invisible topics rather than visible topics
Weak sides of a discloser
Socially undesirable response
Strong emotion
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 6
Experimental Setting
No Balloon
Input (NBI)
Speech Balloon
Input (SBI)
Thought Balloon
Input (TBI)
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 7
Experiment
Participant
39 Japanese undergraduate and graduate students
Mean of age: 22.9 (SD3.56), 20 males and 19 females
Experimental Environment
Interface
Laptop PC, USB mouse
Macromedia Flash (full screen mode)
Participants solved object searching tasks (Wick, 2003), i.e.,
they searched 4 items indicated from 4 pictures with advice
from 2 agents: partner agent (PA) and non-partner agent
(NPA)
In the NBI condition, they read NPA's response; in the other
conditions, they filled in the blank balloon for each picture
They distributed 15 points as reward for agents' advice
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 8
Demo
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 9
Hypothesis
Hypothesis
A user should share perspective with the agent which emits
blank thought balloons to be filled in, and change attitude
so that he/she accept the agent's perspective
Prediction
P1 The participant should fill in the blank thought balloon
longer and deeper than the blank speech balloon
P2 The participant should evaluate the NPA higher than PA
after filling in the blank thought balloon
Measures
Length (number of words) of filled in the blank balloons
Depth of content filled in the blank balloons
(mean value of two judges' evaluation in 5-point scale
based on the definition of Altman & Taylor (1973))
Reward for the NPA
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 10
Result
Median (quartile deviation in parentheses) of length/depth of balloon content
Pictures
SBI cond. (n = 13)
TBI cond. (n = 13) Wilcoxon rank sum test
length
depth
length
depth
length
depth
1st
5.0 (1.50) 2.0 (0.25) 9.0 (2.00) 2.5 (0.50)
30.0
36.0
2nd
5.0 (1.00) 2.0 (0.50) 5.0 (1.50) 3.5 (1.00)
80.5
38.5
3rd
6.0 (0.50) 2.0 (0.25) 6.0 (1.50) 3.0 (1.00)
78.5
37.0
4th
6.0 (1.00) 2.0 (0.25) 6.0 (1.50) 3.0 (1.00)
89.0
41.0
Bold: p < .01; Oblique: p < .05
Significant difference in length and depth of balloon
content was observed between the SBI condition and TBI
condition (SBI < TBI)
P1 was supported
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 11
Result
Mean (SD in parentheses) values of reward for the NPA
Pictures NBI cond. (n=13) SBI cond. (n=13) TBI cond. (n=13) F(2,36)
1st
8.38 (3.07)
7.00 (3.08)
8.08 (2.47) 0.825
2nd
7.38 (2.06)
7.85 (2.23)
7.15 (3.26) 0.244
3rd
7.77 (2.20)
8.54 (2.30)
6.92 (2.90) 1.37
4th
7.23 (1.36)
8.23 (1.42)
6.77 (1.59) 3.40
Oblique: p < .05, Magenta: p < .05 in multiple comparison
Only the significant difference between the SBI condition
and the TBI condition was found with one-way ANOVA
Moreover, reward for the NPA in the SBI condition was
higher than that in the TBI condition
P2 was contradicted with this result
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 12
Lessons Learned
Content filled in the blank thought balloons was longer and
deeper than that filled in the blank speech balloon
It is suggested that the blank thought balloon
functioned as a prompt to share perspective between
the user and the agent
Influence of verbal instruction (answer/think) should be
considered
However, participant's attitude toward the NPA got worse
after filling in the blank thought balloons
The participant should became to regard the NPA as
his/her “enemy”
Social relationships between a user and an agent which
emits blank thought balloons should be considered
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 13
Conclusion
It is suggested that filling in blank thought balloons emitted
from an embodied agent prompted perspective sharing
between the user and the agent
Detailed cognitive mechanism of how and why the user
accept and reflect agent's perspective is still to be discovered
Construction of human-agent social relationships (current
work)
Application to real problem solving should be attempted
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 14
Thank You!
If you have interests in my study, do not hesitate to contact me
(ssv@ntt.dis.titech.ac.jp)
Further investigation of influence of human-agent social
interaction
Embodied agents in mobile/ubiquitous environment
(e.g. inter-device agent, mobile display)
Perspective-taking environment to "Think different"
Possible application with human-agent social interaction
Computer-supported learning environment to keep
learner's motivation
Decision making environment to let a user deeply
consider information
CIA2006 (2006-09-11) ― p. 15