Applying the appraisal theory of emotion to human -agent interaction

When people interact with one another, there is a series of conscious and unconscious evaluations used to judge the situation in order to determine an emotional response. This research examines whether the emotional appraisals that individuals use when interacting with other humans, can be applied to human-agent interactions, and whether the attributes of the non-human agent affect the nature of these appraisals. Participants work with one of three non-human teammates to accomplish a series of tasks. These agents are a real dog, a robotic dog (Sony AIBO), and a nondescript robot (Lego NXT). Participants' emotional reaction is measured through subjective questionnaires, physiological data (EKG & galvanic skin response), and vocal analysis. Taken together this set of measurements forms a detailed picture of how humans react emotionally to agents during their task interaction. It is predicted that agent form will influence participants' appraisals and emotional reactions.