Publications

@article{augelloUnveilingReasoningProcesses2022,

title = {Unveiling the Reasoning Processes of Robots through Introspective Dialogues in a Storytelling System: A Study on the Elicited Empathy},

author = { Agnese Augello},

doi = {10.1016/j.cogsys.2021.11.006},

issn = {13890417},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-01-01},

journal = {Cognitive Systems Research},

volume = {73},

pages = {12--20},

abstract = {The work studies the empathy elicited by a storytelling system in which the characters in the story are interpreted by humanoid robots and modelled as cognitive agents. The ACT-R architecture is exploited to shape the characters' personalities and equip them with knowledge and behaviours typical of social practices. The narration is enriched with gestures and emotional expressions obtained by setting parameters that can be correlated to some emotions, such as the pitch and speech rate, the LEDs colour and the head inclination. The system has been evaluated by comparing a simple narrative modality with an enhanced one, where an introspective dialogue is adopted to explain and let transparent the internal reasoning processes of the characters. The obtained results show that storytelling affected the cognitive component of empathy, especially through the advanced narrative mode. textcopyright 2022 Elsevier B.V.},

keywords = {ACT-R, Anthropomorphic Robots, Cognitive Architectures, Cognitive Systems, Empathy, Gestural user interfaces, Introspective Dialogs, Personality, Reasoning, Social Agents, Social Practices, Storytelling Robots},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{bonoACTRBasedHumanoid2020,

title = {An ACT-R Based Humanoid Social Robot to Manage Storytelling Activities},

author = { Adriana Bono and Agnese Augello and Giovanni Pilato and Filippo Vella and Salvatore Gaglio},

doi = {10.3390/ROBOTICS9020025},

issn = {22186581},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Robotics},

volume = {9},

number = {2},

abstract = {This paper describes an interactive storytelling system, accessible through the SoftBank robotic platforms NAO and Pepper. The main contribution consists of the interpretation of the story characters by humanoid robots, obtained through the definition of appropriate cognitive models, relying on the ACT-R cognitive architecture. The reasoning processes leading to the story evolution are based on the represented knowledge and the suggestions of the listener in critical points of the story. They are disclosed during the narration, to make clear the dynamics of the story and the feelings of the characters. We analyzed the impact of such externalization of the internal status of the characters to set the basis for future experimentation with primary school children. textcopyright 2020 by the authors.},

keywords = {ACT-R, Cognitive Architectures, Education, Humanoid Robots, Introspective Dialogs, Social Practices, Social Robots, Storytelling Robots},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}