Alle Publikationen
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2017
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(2017): ‘What I see is not what you get’. Why culture-specific behaviours for virtual characters should be user-tested across cultures. In: AI & Society 32 (1), S. 37-49. DOI: 10.1007/s00146-014-0567-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-014-0567-2 Abstract: Abstract Integrating culture into the behavioural models of virtual characters requires knowledge from very different disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology and computer science. If culture-related behavioural differences are simulated with a virtual character system, users might not necessarily understand the intent of the designer. This is, in part, due to the influence of culture on not only users, but also designers. To gain a greater understanding of the instantiation of culture in the behaviour of virtual characters, and on this potential mismatch between designer and user, we have conducted two experiments. In these experiments, we tried to simulate one dimension of culture (Masculinity vs. Femininity) in the behaviour of virtual characters. We created four scenarios in the first experiment and six in the second. In each of these scenarios, the same two characters interact with each other. The verbal and non-verbal behaviour of these characters differs depending on their cultural scripts. In two user perception studies, we investigated how these differences are judged by human participants with different cultural backgrounds. Besides expected differences between participants from Masculine and Feminine countries, we found significant differences in perception between participants from Individualistic and Collectivistic countries. We also found that the user’s interpretation of the character’s motivation had a significant influence on the perception of the scenarios. Based on our findings, we giverecommendations for researchers that aim to design culture-specific behaviours for virtual characters.
Keywords: Agent-based Modelling, Behaviour modelling, Culture, Design, Disziplin, Evaluation, Favoriten, Interaktion, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Kultur, Kultursensibilität, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modell, Modelle/Theorien, Modellierung, Realtechnik, social importance dynamics, Soziosensitive Systeme, Technik, User testing, Virtual characters 2016
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(2016): Agent-based modelling in applied ethology. An exploratory case study of behavioural dynamics in tail biting in pigs. In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science 183, S. 10-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2016.07.011
Abstract: Understanding behavioural dynamics in pigs is important to assess pig welfare in current intensive pig production systems. Agent-based modelling (ABM) is an approach to gain insight into behavioural dynamics in pigs, but its use in applied ethology and animal welfare science has been limited so far. We used ABM in a case study on tail biting behaviour in pigs to explore the use of ABM in gaining more insight into emergent injurious pig behaviour and related welfare issues in intensive production systems. We developed an agent-based model in Netlogo 5.1.0 to simulate tail biting behaviour of pigs housed in conventional pens in groups of 10. Pigs in the model started as neutral pigs (not involved in biting incidents), but could change into a biter, victim, or both biter and victim. Tail biting behaviour could emerge when pigs were unable to fulfil their internal motivation to explore. The effects of a redirected exploratory motivation, behavioural changes in victims and preference to bite a lying pig on tail biting patterns were tested in our model. The simulations with the agent-based model showed that coincidence in development of a redirected exploratory motivation can lead to tail biting behaviour in pigs and can explain the strong variations in incidence of tail biting behaviour observed in conventionally housed pigs. Behavioural changes in victims and preference to bite a lying pig seem to be of minor importance in the causation of tail biting patterns. The behavioural time budget of a pig might be an important factor in predisposing pigs to or preventing them from becoming a tail biter or a victim. ABM showed to be useful in analysing behavioural dynamics and welfare issues. An advantage for ABM in applied ethology is the availability of data from empirical studies.
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(2016): Don't Be a Stranger-Designing a Digital Intercultural Sensitivity Training Tool that is Culture General. In: IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies 9 (2), S. 120-132. DOI: 10.1109/TLT.2015.2456912
Abstract: Digital intercultural training tools play an important role in helping people to mediate cultural misunderstandings. In recent years, these tools were made to teach about specific cultures, but there has been little attention for the design of a tool to teach about differences across a wide range of cultures. In this work, we take the first steps to create a digital self-contained culture-general training tool. In the first part of the article, we focus on different aspects and methods of intercultural training. This information is then used in the second part to evaluate the effect of these different methods on the perception of behaviour in misunderstandings. We found that experiential and story-based approaches may lead to different perceptions of participants. In the third part, we expanded on these critical incidents, and incorporated virtual characters, to evaluate if experiential incidents in an embedded story can lead to an attribution of perceived differences in behaviour to specific differences in culture and to users becoming less judgemental of inappropriate behaviours by people from different cultures. The results suggest that the tool had some effect, but that a debriefing relating the general differences to specific instances would be beneficial.
2015
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(2015): Culture’s causes. The next challenge. In: Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal 22 (4), S. 545-569. DOI: 10.1108/CCM-03-2015-0040
Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to argue that in cross-cultural and strategic management, we must pay attention to the processes creating and maintaining culture. How can everyday interactions give rise to national, "deep" cultures, recognizable across centuries, or organizational cultures, recognizable across decades? Design/methodology/approach - This is a conceptual paper using the evidence provided by research about cultural patterns, and using sociological status-power theory to explain the causation of these patterns. Emergence, also called self-organization, is introduced as mechanism connecting individual-level causation with resulting system-level patterns. Cases are used to illustrate points. Findings - Simulation gaming and computational social simulation are introduced. These methods allow "growing" a system, thus allowing to experiment with potential interventions and their unanticipated effects. Research limitations/implications - This essay could have major implications for research, adding new methods to survey-based and case-based studies, and achieving a new synthesis. Strategic management today almost invariably involves cross-cultural elements. As a result, cross-cultural understanding is now strategically important. Practical implications - The suggestions in this essay could lead to new collaborations in the study of culture and organizational processes. Examples include team formation, negotiation, mergers and acquisitions, trans-national collaboration, incentive systems and job interviews. Social implications - The suggestions in this essay could contribute to our ability of proactively steering processes in organizations. In particular, they can provide a check to the notion that a control measure necessarily results in its intended effect. Originality/value - The synthesis of biological, sociological and cross-cultural psychological viewpoints with design-oriented method, using games or social simulations as research instruments, is original in the field.
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(2015): Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents. In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 30 (5), S. 931-962. DOI: 10.1007/s10458-015-9312-6
Abstract: This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social elements, such as existing relational factors. We addressed this necessity by integrating culture into a novel model for simulating human social behavior. With this model, we operationalized a particular dimension of culture—individualism versus collectivism—within the context of an interactive narrative scenario that is part of an agent-based tool for intercultural training. Using this scenario we conducted a cross-cultural study in which participants from a collectivistic country (Portugal) were compared with participants from an individualistic country (the Netherlands) in the way they perceived and interacted with agents whose behavior was either individualistic or collectivistic, according to the configuration of the proposed model. In the obtained results, Portuguese subjects rated the collectivistic agents more positively than the Dutch but both countries had a similarly positive opinion about the individualistic agents. This experiment sheds new light on how people from different countries differ when assessing the social appropriateness of virtual agents, while also raising new research questions on this matter.
Keywords: Agent-based Modelling, cross-cultural, culturally appropriate behavior, Culture, Disziplin, Favoriten, individual vs collective, individuell, intercultural training, kollektiv, Kultur, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Modelle/Theorien, Modellierung, simulation, social appropriateness, social importance dynamics, virtual agents 2011
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(2011): Planning Small Talk behavior with cultural influences for multiagent systems. In: Computer Speech & Language 25 (2), S. 158-174. DOI: 10.1016/j.csl.2010.04.001
Abstract: There are several factors that influence communicative behavior, such as gender, personality or culture. As virtual agents interact in a more and more human-like manner, their behavior should be dependent on social factors as well. Culture is a phenomenon that affects one's behavior without one realizing it. Behavior is thus sometimes perceived as inappropriate because there is no awareness of the cultural gap. Thus, we think cultural background should also influence the communication behavior of virtual agents. Behavioral differences are sometimes easy to recognize by humans but still hard to describe formally, to enable integration into a system that automatically generates culture-specific behavior. In our work, we focus on culture-related differences in the domain of casual Small Talk. Our model of culture-related differences in Small Talk behavior is based on findings described in the literature as well as on a video corpus that was recorded in Germany and Japan. In a validation study, we provide initial evidence that our simulation of culture-specific Small Talk with virtual agents is perceived differently by human observers. We thus implemented a system that automatically generates culture-specific Small Talk dialogs for virtual agents. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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(2011): Autonome Technik als Herausforderung der soziologischen Handlungstheorie / Autonomous Technology as a Challenge to the Sociological Theory of Action. In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie 40 (2), S. 91-111. DOI: 10.1515/zfsoz-2011-0201
Abstract: Die vorliegende Abhandlung entwickelt ein soziologisches Modell, welches das „Mit-Handeln“ von Technik beschreibt und in einer Weise operationalisiert, dass die Frage der Handlungsträgerschaft empirisch untersucht werden kann. Es wird gezeigt, dass die von der Actor-Network-Theory thematisierten Phänomene auch im Rahmen einer soziologischen Handlungstheorie betrachtet werden können, die sich auf das Esser’sche Modell soziologischer Erklärung stützt. Das Ergebnis ist ein Modell soziologischer Erklärung hybrider Systeme, das die Interaktion von menschlichen Akteuren und nicht-menschlichen Aktanten beschreibt. Zu dessen Überprüfung wurden Experimente in einem selbst programmierten Fahrsimulator durchgeführt. Deren Auswertung belegt, dass die Probanden den technischen Assistenzsystemen Handlungsträgerschaft zuschreiben und das Verhältnis Mensch-Technik als ein symmetrisches wahrnehmen. Zudem tendieren sie dazu, sich je nach Handlungsverteilung der Verfolgung bestimmter Ziele zu entledigen, obwohl nach den Spielregeln „humans“ und „non-humans“ gleichermaßen für die Verfolgung aller Ziele verantwortlich waren.
Keywords: actor network theory, Actor-Network-Theory, agency, Agent-based Modelling, Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation, ANT, ANT und ANT mit Esserschem Modell, autonome Technik, Operationiliserung technischen Handelns, Autonomous Technology, Computer Simulation, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Esser, Experimental Sociology, Favoriten, Handlungsträgerschaft, Man-Machine Interaction, Model of Sociological Explanation, Modelle/Theorien, Soziologie, Soziologisches Handlungsmodell von Hartmut Esser, Theory of Action
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