Using Perspective in Narrative Learning Environments
Ana Vaz and Ana Paiva
INESC-ID
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Summary Motivation question Approach followed Victec and the FearNot! demonstrator Perspective Filter Implementation in FearNot! Future work
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Motivation Question
How can we influence the emotional reactions of users of a virtual storytelling environment through the use of “perspective”?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’.
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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
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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.)
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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.
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Personality Traits of Victec Characters
Bully Victim Bully\Victim Assistant Defender Outsider
AggressionHot-temper Self-esteem ShynessAnxiety
HighNormalHighLowLow
LowLowLowHighHigh
HighHighLowLowHigh
HighNormalNormalLowLow
LowLowNormalNormalNormal
NormalNormalNormalNormalNormal
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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.
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Example in FearNot!
Walk with high confidence Walk with low confidence
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Without the Perspective Filter
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The Perspective of the Victim
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The Perspective of the Bully
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Future Work Improve the camera module, Influence speech, Evaluate the Perspective Filter; Include new parameters, such as sound.
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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.