Page 70 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Chapter 6

INCREASING SIA ARCHITECTURE REALISM BY
MODELING AND ADAPTING TO AFFECT AND
PERSONALITY

Eva Hudlicka
Psychometrix Associates, Inc.

Abstract The ability to exhibit, recognize and respond to different affective states is a key
aspect of social interaction. To enhance their believability and realism, socially
intelligent agent architectures must be capable of modeling and generating be-
havior variations due to distinct affective states on the one hand, and to recognize
and adapt to such variations in the human user / collaborator on the other. This
chapter describes an adaptive user interface system capable of recognizing and
adapting to the user’s affective and belief state: the Affect and Belief Adaptive
Interface System (ABAIS). ABAIS architecture implements a four-phase adap-
tive methodology and provides a generic adaptive framework for exploring a
variety of user affect assessment methods and GUI adaptation strategies. An
ABAIS prototype was implemented and demonstrated in the context of an Air
Force combat task, using a knowledge-based approach to assess and adapt to the
pilot’s anxiety level.

1. Introduction

A key aspect of human-human social interaction is the ability to exhibit and
recognize variations in behavior due to different affective states and personal-
ities. These subtle, often non-verbal, behavioral variations communicate criti-
cal information necessary for effective social interaction and collaboration. To
enhance their believability and realism, socially intelligent agent architectures
must be capable of modeling and generating behavior variations due to distinct
affective states and personality traits on the one hand, and to recognize and
adapt to such variations in the human user / collaborator on the other. We have
been pursuing these goals along two lines of research: (1) developing a cogni-