Virtual humans (VHs) are proving to be useful tools in a number of educational domains, including teaching interpersonal skills. It might be counter-intuitive for computers to teach people how to interact with other people, however, research on computer-human interaction has demonstrated several ways in which computers are suited to teach various social skills. In this talk, we will review evidence that humans treat VHs like humans in ways that are important for learning social skills, but also that VHs are now able to act like humans in important ways as a well. Additionally, however, we will discuss evidence showing that humans treat VHs different from real humans in ways that can also benefit learning of social skills. For example, recent work demonstrates that, during clinical interviews, people are more open and honest with VH- interviewers than real human interviewers, because they provide a “safe” environment to share personal information. This sense of safety can encourage honest disclosure of important information or learning. Overall, for teaching interpersonal skills, virtual humans may be able to “keep up” with their “live” human counterparts in some ways, and may in fact provide some additional benefits.
Gale M. Lucas is currently a postdoctoral scholar at ICT. She earned her PhD in Social Psychology from Northwestern University. After completing her doctorate, she spent two years teaching at small liberal arts universities and subsequently worked as a post-doc at the USC Marshall School of Business. She transferred over to ICT to continue her post-doctoral work with Jon Gratch in the Virtual Humans Group.