Construction and effect of relationships with agents in a virtual reality environment

Recent studies have been investigating behavior (of approach and avoidance) toward the interaction with agents in virtual reality. This paper aims to explore the cognitive construction of a complementary relationship with agents in virtual reality through a brief interaction in a virtual task. A sample of 53 adult participants with or attending higher education was studied, divided into a control group of 20, and two experimental groups, one of 20 and another of 13 participants. The experimental groups interacted with a virtual agent, one group knowing that it was a non-human character (NPC) that communicated verbally, and the second group being informed that it was an avatar controlled in real-time by another person. The results confirmed an effect of cognitive flexibility on the anthropomorphic and complementary perception of NPCs and the application of relational models toward NPCs. An effect of the nature of the agents (NPC vs. Avatar) in the application of relational models was mediated by the complementary anthropomorphic projection of the agents. The previous interaction with the virtual agent, perceived as an NPC, provided faster skin conductance responses with images of the NPC. These findings contribute to: (1) understanding the impact of cognitive flexibility, a neuropsychological construct, in the construction of projections and relationships with agents in virtual reality; (2) creation and use of virtual reality tools based on communication in a function-led approach; (3) critical view of social models, for the development of a scale that allows assessing anthropomorphism and complementarity in virtual reality.