Inducing perspective sharing between a user and an embodied agent by a thought balloon as an input form

Abstract

Accepting the perspectives of others often provides people with novel cues for discovering and solving problems. However, human cognitive limitations and differences in attitude between people make this difficult. In this study, a psychological experiment was conducted to examine how blank thought balloons emitted from an embodied agent; encourages perspective sharing between a user and an embodied agent. In the experiment, participants (N = 39) were asked to do one of these tasks: reading a thought balloon emitted from an embodied agent, or filling in a speech balloon, or a thought balloon with predicting its content. It is suggested that filling in a blank thought balloon promoted the user to accept the perspective of the embodied agent from the experimental results. Embodied agent technologies for perspective sharing between a user and others are discussed through comparison between the experimental environment; and practical problems, and degree of participants' understanding of experimental environment. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.