Construção e efeito das relações com agentes em ambientes de realidade virtual

Abstract

Although Literature suggests that cognitive flexibility can influence social behaviors, including virtual reality agents, it offers no studies that attempt to confirm this possibility. With that in mind, this study seeks to explore cognitive construction of a complementary relationship with an agent in virtual reality through brief interaction. To this end, a sample comprising of 53 persons with or attending higher education was used, divided into a control group of 20, and two experimental groups, one of 20 and another of 13. The first experimental group interacted with a virtual agent, with the knowledge that it was a non-human character (NPC) that communicated verbally. The second group also interacted with the same virtual agent, but was informed that it was an avatar controlled in real-time by a human. All participants were evaluated with a neuropsychological assessment instrument for cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test), an observation task with dermal conductance measurement (using Open Signals and Super Lab), an instrument to evaluate relational models (Modes of Relationships Questionnaire) and two instruments were created to assess the complementary anthropomorphic projection of the virtual agent. The results confirm the hypotheses with cognitive flexibility having an effect on the anthropomorphic and complementary perception of NPCs and on the application of relational models towards NPCs, and the nature of the agents in the application of relational models being mediated by the complementary anthropomorphic projection of the agents. The previous interaction with the virtual agent showed greater dermal conductance in images with indication that it was an NPC rather than an avatar. The results contribute: (1) to the understanding of the impact of cognitive flexibility in the construction of projections and relationships with agents in virtual reality; (2) to the creation and use of virtual reality tools based on communication and with a function-led approach; (3) for a critical view of models and scales, with the production of a scale that allows assessing anthropomorphism and complementarity in virtual reality.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	JORGE ALEXANDRE GASPAR OLIVEIRA (Supervisor)