Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of a sequence of related events. At the foundation of this model is the distinction made
between the interaction behavior on itself and the functions served by them. Distinguishing
the function served by the interaction behavior means to recognize that the same behavioral
patterns can serve very different functions in an interaction.
In the service-task function proposed by Patterson (1983), the service component refers to
interaction determined by a service relationship between individuals, for example, a
physician-patient interaction. While the task function, influential for a CVE for learning,
identifies focused or unfocused interactions that require people to relate others through a
particular task or activity.
According to Patterson (1983), the necessity for variable involvement in task-oriented
focused interactions, such as when people collaborate to accomplish a task, seems relatively
straightforward. Understanding this type of nonverbal interaction keeps the interpretation
of nonverbal behavior to an acceptable extent from cultural and personality influences, since
the service-task function identifies determinants of nonverbal involvement that are
generally independent of the quality of interpersonal relationships. Accordingly, the
nonverbal interaction conditions for a CVE for learning are presented in Table 3.
Nonverbal interaction
influential factors
Their conditions in CVEs for learning
Environmental conditions
an scenario according to the domain to be taught
operable objects for the learning purpose
Physical characteristics the users' avatars
appearance
allowed body movements
Behaviors of communicators consistent with the service-task function
Table 3. Conditions of the nonverbal interaction factors in CVEs for learning
In order to make use of a nonverbal communication cue to monitor collaboration, it needs to
have the faculty of being transmittable to the CVE and recognizable by the computer
system. With this in mind, the nonverbal communication cues suggested for the interaction
analysis as described in Peña & de Antonio (2010) are:
Talking turns
- the paralinguistic branch that studies, not what or how people talk but
amounts and patterns of talk and that have been use for the comprehension of interaction in
different ways as in (Bales, 1970; Jaffe & Feldstein, 1970).
Proxemics
- to understand the users' position within the environment and related to others.
Facial expressions
- in real life, they might be difficult for interpretation, but when
transmitted to a VE not directly controlled by the user, their intention is usually predefined
by the system as in the case of the emoticons.
Artifacts manipulation
- when they are part of the collaborative interaction.
Body movements
- such as gaze direction, deictic gestures, head movements and some body
postures.
In the next section the analysis of nonverbal behavior from the participants in a
collaborative task within a CVE are discussed. Afterwards, a model for an intelligent tutor
based on nonverbal behavior with the intent to facilitate collaborative sessions is presented.
