Exploring the role of embodiment on intimacy perception in a multiparty collaborative task

Abstract

During collaborative board games, cohesion represents a key aspect to define a well functionning group. From the success of the task to the developement of interpersonal relationship, this concept covers many aspects of group dynamics. The goal of our work is to investigate the factors that impact cohesion in a group, and specifically the relevant social skills that improve collaboration between multiple entities. In this article, we focus on the role of embodiement on different aspects of an interaction. We propose an experimental protocol, based on a collected corpus of humans playing a collaborative board game, to study how different agents' embodiment affect the perception of these agents and of the group as a whole. We conclude by presenting an outline of the problematics of the conception of the protocol and of multi-agent system related challenges.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Experimental setup used to observe groups of 4 humans playing the game Computer version of the "Mot Malin" board game. The graphical user interface is displayed on a tactile screen in the center of a table. The players are seated around the table, equidistant from the screen, with two keyboards on opposite corner, each shared between two players. Two cameras on the other corners record the interaction.
• Figure 2: Illustration of the 3 experimental conditions of the next experimental protocol, where 2 humans play the computer version of "Mot Malin" with : (a) ECA condition : 2 different looking ECA (b) Robot condition : 2 Furhat robots (c) Hybrid condition : 1 ECA and 1 Furhat robot.