Expressing Personality Through Non-verbal Behaviour in Real-Time Interaction

The attribution of traits plays an important role as a heuristic for how we interact with others. Many psychological models of personality are analytical in that they derive a classification from reported or hypothesised behaviour. In the work presented here, we follow the opposite approach: Our personality model generates behaviour that leads an observer to attribute personality characteristics to the actor. Concretely, the model controls all relevant aspects of non-verbal behaviour such as gaze, facial expression, gesture, and posture. The model, embodied in a virtual human, affords to realistically interact with participants in real-time. Conceptually, our model focuses on the two dimensions of extra/introversion and stability/neuroticism. In the model, personality parameters influence both, the internal affective state as well as the characteristic of the behaviour execution. Importantly, the parameters of the model are based on empirical findings in the behavioural sciences. To evaluate our model, we conducted two types of studies. Firstly, passive experiments where participants rated videos showing variants of behaviour driven by different personality parameter configurations. Secondly, presential experiments where participants interacted with the virtual human, playing rounds of the Rock-Paper-Scissors game. Our results show that the model is effective in conveying the impression of the personality of a virtual character to users. Embodying the model in an artificial social agent capable of real-time interactive behaviour is the only way to move from an analytical to a generative approach to understanding personality, and we believe that this methodology raises a host of novel research questions in the field of personality theory.

Verbal coping of coaches in competition: Differences depending on emotional intelligence and self-determined motivation

In this study we analysed the differences in verbal behaviour of coaches during matches. A total of 9739 verbal behaviours issued by 26 male handball coaches in 26 matches, 1 for each coach, were classified into the categories established by the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (CAIS). These behaviours in turn were grouped according to the type of coping expressed by the coach (task-oriented, emotional positive and emotional negative). Coaches were then classified into high or low emotional intelligence, and high or low self-determined motivation, using the mean of these scores. Differences in verbal behaviour percentages were analysed by Chi-square based on coach membership in groups of emotional intelligence and self-determined motivation. Coaches with greater self-determined motivation and emotional intelligence used more verbal behaviours showing positive emotional coping. Results are discussed based on the impact on the health and performance of athletes, as well as possible interventions to improve the leadership of the coach in a match situation.

Towards the Peculiarities of Jean-Luc Melenchon’s Idiolecte

The paper presents the analysis of the peculiarities of the verbal behaviour of the French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. On the examples obtained from his interviews and videos, the author demonstrates that by means of such figures of speech as metaphors and phraseological units, the French politician was able to materialize his persuasive strategies by manipulating people’s minds. It is emphasized that metaphoric expressions used within the idiolect of Jean-Luc Mélenchon were able to form positive or negative image and perception of the politician, therefore the role of these figures of speech cannot be underestimated. It is also observed that the study of metaphors is considered to be extremely important within the learning process at the University, especially when teaching the language of French political communication to students in Political Science, International Journalism and Diplomacy.

Towards the Peculiarities of Jean-Luc Melenchon’s Idiolecte

The paper presents the analysis of the peculiarities of the verbal behaviour of the French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. On the examples obtained from his interviews and videos, the author demonstrates that by means of such figures of speech as metaphors and phraseological units, the French politician was able to materialize his persuasive strategies by manipulating people’s minds. It is emphasized that metaphoric expressions used within the idiolect of Jean-Luc Mélenchon were able to form positive or negative image and perception of the politician, therefore the role of these figures of speech cannot be underestimated. It is also observed that the study of metaphors is considered to be extremely important within the learning process at the University, especially when teaching the language of French political communication to students in Political Science, International Journalism and Diplomacy.

Young children learn first impressions of faces through social referencing

Previous research has demonstrated that the tendency to form first impressions from facial appearance emerges early in development. We examined whether social referencing is one route through which these consistent first impressions are acquired. In Study 1, we show that 5- to 7-year-old children are more likely to choose a target face previously associated with positive non-verbal signals as more trustworthy than a face previously associated with negative non-verbal signals. In Study 2, we show that children generalise this learning to novel faces who resemble those who have previously been the recipients of positive non-verbal behaviour. Taken together, these data show one means through which individuals within a community could acquire consistent, and potentially inaccurate, first impressions of others faces. In doing so, they highlight a route through which cultural transmission of first impressions can occur.

A Study of Class Interaction Analysis Using Flanders's FIAC

Interaction Analysis is a technique for capturing quantitative and qualitative dimensions of teacher verbal behaviour in the classroom. As an observational system, it captures the verbal behaviour of teachers and students that is directly related to the social – emotional climate of the classroom. Interaction Analysis is a tool used in the classroom to capture quantitative and qualitative aspects of verbal instructor behaviour. It captures the verbal behaviour of teachers and students as an observational device that is directly linked to the social-emotional environment of the classroom. Interaction Analysis (IA) theoretical assumptions are that verbal contact is prevalent in a typical classroom situation; the teacher exerts a great deal of control on the student and the behavior of the student is influenced to a great extent by this form of teacher behavior seen. The ten-category structure of Flanders, which aims to categories all the verbal actions to be found in this paper. The aim is to promote the implementation of FIAC in the educational process in schools, as the quantity and consistency of teacher-student interaction is a vital element of effective teaching and improved learning in the classroom.

Alan Turing and Human-Like Intelligence

Alan Turing’s model of computation (1936) is explicated in terms of the potential operations of a human “computer”, and his famous test for intelligence (1950) is based on indistinguishability from human verbal behaviour. But this chapter challenges the apparent human-centredness of the 1936 model, suggesting a focus instead on mathematical concepts, with human comparisons making an entrance only retrospectively. The 1950 account of intelligence also turns out to be far less human-centred than it initially appears to be, because the universality of computation makes human intelligence just one variety amongst many. It is only when Turing considers consciousness that he treats intelligence in a way that cannot properly be carried over to machines. But here he is mistaken, since his own work gave ample reason to reinterpret intelligence as sophisticated information processing for some purpose, and to divorce this from the subjective consciousness with which it is humanly associated.