Communication 166/266
Virtual People
Spring, 2010-2011
Tues/Thurs 12:50pm-2:05pm
Professor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Phone:
Email:
Jeremy Bailenson
344 McClatchy Hall
Thursday, 2:00-4:00 PM
723-0701
Bailenson@stanford.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:
Kathryn Segovia, Eunsun Lee
3rd Floor, McClatchy Hall
TBA
kathrynr@stanford.edu, elee4@stanford.edu
Course Description
Topics include defining the concept of virtual people (i.e., digital human representations),
discussing methods of constructing and utilizing virtual people, methodological
approaches to understanding interactions with and among virtual people, and exploring
current applications of virtual people. This class examines virtual people from the
viewpoint of various disciplines, including popular culture (how are virtual people
defined in literature and film?), engineering (how are virtual people actually
constructed?), behavioral science (how do actual people respond to virtual people during
interaction?), computer science (what types of algorithms drive the behaviors of virtual
people?), and communication (how can virtual people change the way people interact
with one another?).
Readings
Two books and additional readings posted on Coursework are assigned for the course.
The first book, available in the bookstore, is:
William Gibson, Neuromancer. Ace Books, 1984.
The second book will be available in the bookstore on April 5th. There are no readings
assigned from it before that date.
Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, Infinite Reality, Harper Collins, 2011.
Course Requirements
Final grades will be based on an in-class mid-term examination (30%), an in-class final
examination (40%), participation in lecture and section (25%), and completion of 5
experiment hours (5%).
The mid-term examination will be in class on Thursday, April 28, 2011. The final
examination will be during the time indicated on Axess. Exams will cover readings and
lectures. Typically, the lectures will not cover the specific information provided in the
readings, so it is wise to do the reading and attend the lectures. The final exam will be
comprehensive. Both exams will consist of multiple choice items and written short
answer items. Students may not move the date of the examination to facilitate their
departure from Stanford. Having plane tickets will not be an excuse for moving the date
of the examination.
All students will be required to be participants in experiments conducted in the
Communication Department. Each student will be assigned to complete a prescreening
survey in the first two weeks of class and then five hours of experiments (not five
experiments). The exact amount will be determined by fate; thus, the number will likely
vary, sometimes considerably, from student to student. Students who do not wish to
participate as subjects in experiments have the option of writing a term paper.
Electronic devices such as computers and smart phones are not allowed in class. A
student whose cell phone rings in class will lose one third of a letter on their final grade
(i.e., an “A-“ will become a B+).
Course Calendar and Readings
Tuesday, March 29th
Course Introduction
Part I: Introduction, what is a virtual person?
Thursday, March 31st
Psychological Relativity (Guest Lecture Jim
Blascovich)
Tuesday, April 5th
Media = People (Guest Lecture Grace Ahn)
Reeves, B., & Nass, C. (1998). The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television
and New Media Like Real People and Places. New York: SCLI, Chapter 1.
Thursday April 7th
Homuncular Flexibility (Guest Lecture Kathryn
Segovia)
Bailenson, J. N. & Blascovich, J. (2004). Avatars. In W.S. Bainbridge’s (Eds.) Encyclopedia of
Human-Computer Interaction, Berkshire Publishing Group, 64-68.
Infinite Reality, Chapter 1,Dream Machines
Tuesday, April 12th
Neuromancer
Neuromancer.
Part II: Engineering Virtual People
Thursday, April 14th
Natural Language Processing
AI Magazine. Building Watson: An Overview of the DeepQA Project.
Schank, R. Abelson, P. (1977). Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding: an Inquiry into Human
Knowledge Structures (Chap. 1-2), L. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ
Tuesday, April 19th
Personality Capture and Social Algorithms
Braitenberg, V. (1984) Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press
Infinite Reality, Chapter 9, Eternal Life
Thursday, April 21st
Embodiment
Gratch, J., Rickel, J., André, E., Badler, N., Cassell, J., and Petajan, E. (2002), "Creating Interactive
Virtual Humans: Some Assembly Required," IEEE Intelligent Systems, July/August 2002, pp. 54-63.
Infinite Reality, Chapter 4, Winning Virtual Friends and Influencing Virtual People
Tuesday, April 26th
Tracking People
Infinite Reality, Chapter 3, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Infinite Reality, Chapter 10, Digital Footprints
Thursday, April 28th
Midterm
Part III: Behavioral Science and Virtual People
Tuesday, May 3rd
Social Influence
Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A., Swinth, K., Hoyt, C., & Bailenson, J.N. (2002). Immersive
virtual environment technology as a methodological tool for social psychology. Psychological
Inquiry, 13, 103-124.
Infinite Reality, Chapter 5, The Virtual Laboratory
Thursday, May 5th
Presence and Social Presence
Lee, K., M. (2004). Presence, Explicated. Communication Theory, 14, 27-50.
Biocca, F. (1997, September). The cyborg's dilemma: Progressive embodiment in virtual
environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2). Retrieved Octcber 7, 2003 from
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue2/biocca2.html
Tuesday, May 10th
The Effect of Avatars on the Self
Infinite Reality, Chapter 6, Who Am I?
Infinite Reality, Chapter 7, Re-creating Yourself
Thursday, May 12th
The Effect of Avatars on Others
Infinite Reality, Chapter 8, Street Smarts
Part IV: Applied Uses of Virtual People
Tuesday, May 17th
Broad Applications
Infinite Reality, Chapter 12,Virtually Useful
Reeves, B., Malone, T.W., O’Driscoll, T. (2008, in press) Leadership’s Online Labs. Harvard
Business Review
Thursday, May 19th
Online Gaming (James Scarborough guest lecture)
Paper to be distributed on coursework
Tuesday, May 24th
Interfaces and Voice (Clifford Nass guest lecture)
Readings TBA
Thursday, May 26th
Ying and Yang
Infinite Reality, Chapter 11, The Virtual “Jones”
Infinite Reality, Chapter 13, Virtual Yin and Yang
Tuesday, May 31st
Conclusions/Experimental Debriefing/Wrap-up