Using Perspective in Narrative Learning Environments

Ana Vaz and Ana Paiva

INESC-ID

AIED'05

Summary Motivation question Approach followed Victec and the FearNot! demonstrator Perspective Filter Implementation in FearNot! Future work

AIED'05

Motivation Question

How can we influence the emotional reactions of users of a virtual storytelling environment through the use of “perspective”?

AIED'05

Perspective in Narrative

[Branigan92]:

Narrative level – represents the events that occur in a story;

Changing the perspective implies altering the events and therefore the story.

Narration level – how the story is presented.

Different perspectives of the same story can be provided through the presentation.

AIED'05

Approach Followed Introduce “perspective” without changing

the actions of the characters (i.e., influencing the narration level);

Exaggeration. Leads to more impact, which leads to different perceptions of the same events.

AIED'05

Victec and the Bullying Problem

[Paiva04]:

Goal: the prevention of bullying behaviour.

Approach: • Virtual Learning Environment;• Simulate bullying situations;• Induce empathic relations between the child

and the characters.

AIED'05

FearNot![Dias05]: Demonstrator of the ideas proposed by Victec; Software program aimed at children from 8 to 12; Interactive environment with intelligent

autonomous agents; Emergent narrative is a consequence of

characters’ behaviour (which is generated using an emotional model);

Episodic narrative.

AIED'05

Perspective Filter Allows the generation of perspective in a

narrative environment; Filters the visualisation of the story as it

unfolds, which means it can be used with emergent narratives;

Main concepts:• Perspective types;• Character roles and personality traits;• Perspective parameters.

AIED'05

Perspective Filter (cont.) Determines the focalizor [Bal85,

Branigan92]; Receives an instruction to an action and

looks at:• who performs it;• what his relationship with the focalizor is;• his personality traits (to see what is expected

from him). Returns the appropriate perspective

parameters.

AIED'05

Perspective TypesSelf-perspective – the focalizor emphasises his own

actions.

Friendly perspective – the focalizor enhances positive/neutral actions of his ‘friends’.

Unfriendly perspective - the focalizor enhances negative actions of his ‘enemies’.

AIED'05

Character Roles and Personality Traits

Characters are identified with their functional roles;

Each role is defined by a pattern in the 5 personality traits (Aggression, Hot-temper, Self-esteem, Shyness and Anxiety);

Relationships between the roles are established, either friendly or unfriendly. Eg.: bully and victim → unfriendly

bully and assistant → friendly

AIED'05

Perspective Parameters

Camera Information: shot, angle, target.

Allows:• to give more or less detail;• to change the level of impact on the

participant.

Action Intensity: shapes the perception of intentionality. (E.g., we can see slight push or a violent one.)

AIED'05

Implementing in FearNot!

The agents’ control module communicates with the world module;

The Perspective Filter ‘sees’ the changes that will affect the world and generates the appropriate parameters, that he send to the world module.

AIED'05

Personality Traits of Victec Characters

Bully Victim Bully\Victim Assistant Defender Outsider

AggressionHot-temper Self-esteem ShynessAnxiety

HighNormalHighLowLow

LowLowLowHighHigh

HighHighLowLowHigh

HighNormalNormalLowLow

LowLowNormalNormalNormal

NormalNormalNormalNormalNormal

AIED'05

Relation between Personality Traits and Actions in Victec

Negative (or non-prestigious) Actions: Cry – Anxiety, Self-esteem; Mock – Aggression, Shyness; Punch – Aggression, Hot-temper; Push – Aggression, Hot-temper. Slap – Aggression, Hot-temper; Swipe – Aggression, Anxiety;

Neutral Actions: Walk – Self-esteem, Shyness; Pick – Aggression.

AIED'05

Example in FearNot!

Walk with high confidence Walk with low confidence

AIED'05

Without the Perspective Filter

AIED'05

The Perspective of the Victim

AIED'05

The Perspective of the Bully

AIED'05

Future Work Improve the camera module, Influence speech, Evaluate the Perspective Filter; Include new parameters, such as sound.

AIED'05

Some References[Bal85] M. Bal. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of

Narrative. University of Toronto Press Inc., 1985. [Branigan92] E. Branigan. Narrative Comprehension and Film.

Routledge, 1992. [Dias05] J. Dias. Fearnot!: Creating emotional autonomous

synthetic characters for empathic interactions. Master’s thesis, Instituto Superior Técnico, March 2005.

[Paiva04] A. Paiva, J. Dias, D. Sobral, R. Aylett, P. Sobreperez, S. Woods, C. Zoll, and L. Hall. Caring for agents and agents that care: Building empathic relations with synthetic agents. In Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2004). ACM Press, July 2004.