在本文中,我们提出了一项研究,目的在于了解人工代理的具体体现和人性化是否会影响人们对其面部表情的自发和指导模仿。该研究遵循混合实验设计,并围绕情感识别任务进行。参与者被随机分配到一个人性化水平(受试者间变量:人性化,像字符一样,或改变人工代理的面部纹理),并观察了三个实施例不同的人工代理显示的面部表情(受试者内变量:视频记录的机器人,物理机器人,和虚拟代理)和人类(控制)。为了研究自发和指导的面部模仿,我们将实验会议分为两个阶段。在第一阶段,我们要求参与者观察和识别由代理显示的情绪。在第二阶段,我们让他们看一下特工的面部表情,尽可能紧密地复制它们的动态,然后识别观察到的情绪。在这两种情况下,我们使用自动行动单元(AU)强度检测器评估参与者的面部表情.与我们的假设相反,我们的结果揭示了被认为是最不不可思议的特工,最拟人化的,讨人喜欢,并共同存在,是自发模仿最少的人。此外,他们表明,指示的面部模仿对自发的面部模仿有负面影响。进一步的探索性分析显示,当参与者对他们识别的情绪不太确定时,就会出现自发的面部模仿。因此,我们假设,情感识别目标可以翻转面部模仿的社会价值,因为它将一个讨人喜欢的人造代理转变为干扰者。需要进一步的工作来证实这一假设。然而,我们的发现揭示了人类-主体和人类-机器人模仿在情感识别任务中的功能,并帮助我们解开面部模仿之间的关系,喜欢,和融洽。
In this paper, we present a study aimed at understanding whether the embodiment and humanlikeness of an artificial agent can affect people\'s spontaneous and instructed mimicry of its facial expressions. The study followed a mixed experimental design and revolved around an emotion recognition task. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of humanlikeness (between-subject variable: humanlike, characterlike, or morph facial texture of the artificial agents) and observed the facial expressions displayed by three artificial agents differing in embodiment (within-subject variable: video-recorded robot, physical robot, and virtual agent) and a human (control). To study both spontaneous and instructed facial mimicry, we divided the experimental sessions into two phases. In the first phase, we asked participants to observe and recognize the emotions displayed by the agents. In the second phase, we asked them to look at the agents\' facial expressions, replicate their dynamics as closely as possible, and then identify the observed emotions. In both cases, we assessed participants\' facial expressions with an automated Action Unit (AU) intensity detector. Contrary to our hypotheses, our results disclose that the agent that was perceived as the least uncanny, and most anthropomorphic, likable, and co-present, was the one spontaneously mimicked the least. Moreover, they show that instructed facial mimicry negatively predicts spontaneous facial mimicry. Further exploratory analyses revealed that spontaneous facial mimicry appeared when participants were less certain of the emotion they recognized. Hence, we postulate that an emotion recognition goal can flip the social value of facial mimicry as it transforms a likable artificial agent into a distractor. Further work is needed to corroborate this hypothesis. Nevertheless, our findings shed light on the functioning of human-agent and human-robot mimicry in emotion recognition tasks and help us to unravel the relationship between facial mimicry, liking, and rapport.