Psychological Characteristics on Communication with a Conversational Agent

- A Study on Schema and Embodiment -

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to capture characteristics of human-agent interactions in a collaborative environment. The goal was to explore the following three issues: (1) Whether the user's emotional state is more stimulated when the user has a human schema, as opposed to a computer agent schema; (2) Whether the user's emotional state is more stimulated when the user interacts with a human-like interface, as opposed to a non human-like interface; and (3) Whether the user's cognitive state is more stimulated when the user interacts with a familiar representation, as opposed to an unfamiliar representation. Results obtained in the experiment suggest that: (a) Participants with a human schema produce higher ratings, compared to those with a computer agent schema, on the emotional (interpersonal stress and affiliation emotion) scale of communication; (b) A human-like interface is associated with higher ratings, compared to the cases of a non-representational interface, on the emotional (interpersonal stress and affiliation emotion) scale of communication; (c) A familiar interface is associated with higher ratings, compared to the cases of an unfamiliar interface, on the cognitive (information propagation) scale of communication.