Using Perspective in Narrative Learning Environments

Ana Vaz, Ana Paiva

INESC-ID

June 2005

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

June 2005

Motivation Question

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

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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.

June 2005

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’.

June 2005

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

June 2005

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.)

June 2005

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.

June 2005

Personality Traits of Victec Characters

Bully Victim Bully\Victim Assistant Defender Outsider

AggressionHot-temper Self-esteem ShynessAnxiety

HighNormal

HighLowLow

LowLowLowHighHigh

HighHighLowLowHigh

HighNormalNormal

LowLow

LowLow

NormalNormalNormal

NormalNormalNormalNormalNormal

June 2005

Relation between Personality Traits and Actions in Victec

Negative (or non-prestigious) Actions: Cry – Anxiety, Self-esteem; Drop – Aggression, Anxiety; Kick – Aggression, Hot-temper; Mock – Aggression, Shyness; Punch – Aggression, Hot-temper; Push – Aggression, Hot-temper.Neutral Actions: Walk – Self-esteem, Shyness; Pick – Aggression.

June 2005

Example in FearNot!

Walk with high confidence Walk with low confidence

June 2005

Future Work Implementation of the camera module. Evaluation of the Perspective Filter; Include new parameters, such as sound.

June 2005

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.