M.S. Candidate: Gizem Özen
Program: Cognitive Science
Date: 12.09.2019 / 15:00
Place: A-212

Abstract: The main goal of this thesis is to study how kinemorphs influence F-formation shapes by focusing on the occurrences of one-to-one F-formation shapes in a virtual environment social interaction setting. The problem statement relies three aspects of this investigation. Firstly, the proximity (the distance between interactants) in F-formation was investigated. It has been known that the proximity is affected by kinemorphs; however, it is not clear whether the shape of a social group’s spatial arrangement is also influenced by kinemorphs. In the present study, F-formation shape of two facial kinemorphs were comparatively analyzed. Secondly, the interactions between human participants and robots in virtual reality were analyzed by focusing on likely similarities and differences to the real life human-human interactions in similar F-formation settings. Thirdly, the role of F-formation shapes was investigated on joining a dyadic interaction scenario. The results reveal systematic findings that address likely postures in a triadic interaction setting, for a robot agent in a virtual environment.