title: EMOTION RECOGNITION OF VIRTUAL AGENTS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND EMOTION INTENSITY.
abstract: People make determinations about the social characteristics of an agent (e.g., robot or virtual agent) by interpreting social cues displayed by the agent, such as facial expressions. Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted investigating age-related differences in emotion recognition of human faces (e.g., Sullivan, & Ruffman, 2004), the effect of age on emotion identification of virtual agent facial expressions has been largely unexplored. Age-related differences in emotion recognition of facial expressions are an important factor to consider in the design of agents that may assist older adults in a recreational or healthcare setting. The purpose of the current research was to investigate whether age-related differences in facial emotion recognition can extend to emotion-expressive virtual agents. Younger and older adults performed a recognition task with a virtual agent expressing six basic emotions. Larger age-related differences were expected for virtual agents displaying negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear. In fact, the results indicated that older adults showed a decrease in emotion recognition accuracy for a virtual agent's emotions of anger, fear, and happiness.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Jenay M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Beer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Arthur D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Fisk
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Wendy A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Rogers