2014/11/26 by Han Yu, Zhiqi Shen, Yu, Han +5 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · #AI in Service Interactions #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Psychological and Educational Research Studies #Social Robot Interaction and HRI
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1411.7090
openalex publication_date 2014/11/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Virtual companions that interact with users in a socially complex environment require a wide range of social skills. Displaying curiosity is simultaneously a factor to improve a companion's believability and to unobtrusively affect the user's activities over time. Curiosity represents a drive to know new things. It is a major driving force for engaging learners in active learning. Existing research work pays little attention in curiosity. In this paper, we enrich the social skills of a virtual companion by infusing curiosity into its mental model. A curious companion residing in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to stimulate user's curiosity is proposed. The curious companion model is developed based on multidisciplinary considerations. The effectiveness of the curious companion is demonstrated by a preliminary field study.