Enhanced emotional responses during social coordination with a virtual partner.
Emotion and motion, though seldom studied in tandem, are complementary aspects of social experience. This study investigates variations in emotional responses during movement coordination between a human and a Virtual Partner (VP), an agent whose virtual finger movements are driven by the Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) equations of Coordination Dynamics. Twenty-one subjects were instructed to coordinate finger movements with the VP in either inphase or antiphase patterns. By adjusting model parameters, we manipulated the 'intention' of VP as cooperative or competitive with the human's instructed goal. Skin potential responses (SPR) were recorded to quantify the intensity of emotional response. At the end of each trial, subjects rated the VP's intention and whether they thought their partner was another human being or a machine. We found greater emotional responses when subjects reported that their partner was human and when coordination was stable. That emotional responses are strongly influenced by dynamic features of the VP's behavior, has implications for mental health, brain disorders and the design of socially cooperative machines.
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Mengsen
M
Zhang
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA; Institut Pasteur, Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions Unit, Paris, France; CNRS UMR3571 Genes, Synapses and Cognition, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions, Paris, France.
Guillaume
G
Dumas
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA; Intelligent System Research Centre, Ulster University, Derry ~ Londonderry, N. Ireland.
J A Scott
JA
Kelso
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Emmanuelle
E
Tognoli
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
Coordination Dynamics; Emotion; Human machine interaction; Skin potential response; Social interaction; Virtual Partner