Articles: Interactive Virtual Patients
This portfolio element groups three articles that altogether showcase our research on Interactive Virtual Patients:
- A. Benamara, J.-C. Martin, E. Prigent, L. Chaby, M. Chetouani, J. Zagdoun, H. Vanderstichel, S. Dacunha, and B. Ravenet. COPALZ: A Computational Model of Pathological Appraisal Biases for an Interactive Virtual Alzheimer Patient. AAMAS ’22: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pages 72–81, Virtual Event New Zealand, New Zealand, May 2022. DOI: 10.5555/3535850.3535860 - HAL:ird-03679246
- A. Benamara, J.-C. Martin, E. Prigent, and B. Ravenet. Evaluating a Model of Pathological Affect based on Pedagogical Situations for a Virtual Patient. 23rd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (ACM IVA 2023), 8 pages, Würzburg, Germany, Sept. 2023. DOI: 10.1145/3570945.3607325 - HAL:hal-04215759
- P. Roux, Y. Okuya, and J.-C. Martin. Simulation virtuelle : développement du jeu sérieux Sivipsy pour l’enseignement de la psychiatrie aux étudiants en santé. Symposium virtuel MAPS2 - Management et Psychiatrie - Impact et pilotage des innovations numériques en santé mentale, Virtuel - Online, France, June 2021. HAL:hal-04476857
Context
Virtual Patients, which are interactive animated characters that simulate the behaviors displayed by patients, are increasingly used to train caregivers to interact properly with patients. The virtual patient needs to dynamically generate multimodal expressions of pathological behaviors consistent with the pedagogical goals. Current research display limitations in terms of automatic generation of pathological behaviors for credible training, and in terms of proper evaluation method for such automatic models.
The team’s work has led to new advances in the design, implementation and evaluation of such virtual patients. These articles represent original contributions from the CPU teams relying on pluridisciplinary collaborations including psychologists and medical professionals.
Contribution
This portfolio element groups two articles and one communication. The first article describes the new automatic computational generation model of emotions we proposed, enabling pathologies to be simulated (AAMAS 2022 A* International Conference). The second article explains the new evaluation method we proposed using a corpus of interactions (ACM International Conference on Virtual Agents, IVA'2023). These two articles describe research conducted in close cooperation with the Broca hospital in Paris, where professionals are experts in Alzheimer disease and dementia.
The third article describes a new virtual patient we designed using our MARC virtual agent platform to train psychiatry students in the detection of suicidal risks. This research was achieved in cooperation with psychiatrists from the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles and Centre de recherche en Épidémiologie et Santé des Populations.
Impact
The article on the evaluation method won the Best Paper Award at the ACM International Conference on Virtual Agents (IVA'2023).
Articles: Designing Motivational Interactions
This portfolio element groups several articles which showcase our research on the topic of Motivational interactions covering experimental and field studies, mobile and virtual interactions:
- M. Falck, J.-C. Martin, C. Le Scanff, and C. Clavel. Impact of a Regulatory Fit Motivational Virtual Coach on Users during Physical Activity. Psychology, 14(11):1743–1756, Nov. 2023. DOI:10.4236/psych.2023.1411102 - HAL: hal-04338877
- R. Chauvin, C. Clavel, B. Ravenet, and N. Sabouret. A virtual coach with more or less empathy: impact on older adults’ engagement to exercise. 23rd International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (ACM IVA 2023), Würzburg, Allemagne, Germany, Sept. 2023. DOI:10.1145/3570945 - HAL: hal-04337147
- D. Rei, C. Clavel, J.-C. Martin, and B. Ravenet. Intervention mobile pour la motivation à marcher : Impact de l’adaptation des objectifs et des messages motivationnels. Colloque en TéléSANté et dispositifs biomédicaux, Paris Saint Denis, France, June 2023. Université Paris 8, CNRS. HAL: hal-04220657
- F. Debackere, C. Clavel, A. Roren, V.-T. Tran, Y. Messai, F. Rannou, C. Nguyen, and J.-C. Martin. Design framework for the development of tailored behavior change technologies. UMAP '23 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP'23)*, pages 140–146, Limassol Cyprus, France, June 2023. DOI: 10.1145/3563359.3596984 - HAL: hal-04433661
Context
Persuasive (or Motivational) Technologies have attracted growing interest in the research community.
This element explains how we design motivational interactions which are tailored thanks to profiling users, particularly to encourage physical activity. We have designed motivational technological components such as: motivational text messages, animated virtual coaches and global mobile phone interventions, for which we have proposed a new design framework. We have observed the importance of tailoring interactions and interventions to individual users or to groups of users. This interdisciplinary research combining psychology and computer science enables to design levers and motivational interactions for encouraging healthy behaviour. Our approach takes into account users’ individual profiles and preferences, paving the way for more targeted and tailored interventions.
Contribution
The first article describes a virtual coach tailored to the user's regulatory focus profile. The second article explains how we designed and evaluated a virtual empathic coach. The third item is a communication about tailored interactions on a mobile phone for encouraging users to walk. The fourth item is a description of a design framework we propose for studying and designing such tailored motivational interactions and interventions.
Impact
The French communication by (Rei at al. 2023) was extended and published in 2024 in an international journal (Smart Health).
Articles: Participatory and User-Centred Design in the Context of Autism
This portfolio element groups two articles describing our research on Participatory and User-Centred Design in the Context of Autism:
- T. Giraud, B. Ravenet, C. Tai Dang, J. Nadel, E. Prigent, G. Poli, E. Andre, and J.-C. Martin. “Can you help me move this over there?”: training children with ASD to joint action through tangible interaction and virtual agent. TEI ’21: Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, pages 1–12, Salzburg Austria, France, Feb. 2021. ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3430524.3440646 - HAL:hal-04433012
- S. Estival, V. Demulier, J. Renaud, and J.-C. Martin. Training work-related social skills in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder using a tablet-based intervention. Human-Computer Interaction, pages 1–13, Aug. 2023. DOI: 10.1080/07370024.2023.2242344 - HAL:hal-04220922
Context
Designing interactive social skills training devices for people with autism requires a user-centred and tailored approach. Existing technologies and studies for training social skills remains limited in their consideration of the specific requirements of children or young adults with autism. For example, most systems for training joint action (a combination of social skills and motor skills, quite relevant for young children with autism) is only available on costly industrial robots. Similarly, current social skills training applications do not adress specific social situations met by young adult workers with autism.
Contributions
In the MIMETIC project (Giraud et al. 2021, ACM TEI conference), we designed a transportable mixed tangible/virtual device to train autistic children to carry out joint actions with a virtual character, by combining observations of children interacting, interviews with professionals and questionnaires for parents.
In the EXTRAH project (Estival et al. 2022, HCI Journal), a similar approach was used to analyse professional social interaction situations that pose specific problems for young adults with autism. We carried out a requirement analysis with partners in the field. This enabled helped us to identify the social skills that needed to be addressed and trained. The field workers with autism were invited to take part in workshops to co-construct the social scenarios. Finally, the tablet application was designed and tested with autistic workers and jobseekers to check its accessibility and the relevance of the designed social scenarios.
Articles: The sustainable prevention of occupational risks through the lens of the work of occupational safety and health experts
- Poley, Y., Le Bail, C., & Boccara, V. (2023). La prévention durable des risques professionnels au prisme du travail des préventeurs. Le cas de conseillers en prévention de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA). Activités, 20(2). DOI:doi.org/10.4000/activites.8925 - HAL:hal-04251128v1
Context
This article results from a two-year action-research project with the Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (CCMSA). This project is part of a wider project by this institution to rethink its service relationship with its members in the field of occupational risk prevention, to improve it. More specifically, the article follows a symposium on sustainable prevention in the agricultural world, organized as part of the project at the 56th Congress of the Société d’Ergonomie de Langue Française (SELF). The article aims to contribute to reflections in ergonomics on what makes occupational risk prevention sustainable, based on the analysis of the work of prevention advisors at the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA). It originally articulates the literature on occupational health and safety specialists with current thinking in Ergonomics on Sustainable Development and work sustainability. Until now, these two themes have rarely been addressed together.
Contributions
Based on the literature, the article proposes 12 criteria to analyze sustainability in occupational risk prevention. The research question focuses on the capacity of prevention advisors for the sustainable prevention of occupational hazards. The originality of the study is to approach this question by focusing on the work of prevention specialists and their actions, as this question is mainly apprehended in the literature on the work of prevention specialists, on what they should do, and not on what they can do. Secondly, based on a retrospective analysis of six service relationships conducted by prevention advisors from four MSA with affiliated companies, the study describes in detail the relation between the quality of the service relationship deployed by prevention advisors and the sustainability of prevention. The prevention advisors aim to build unique and lasting relationships with their members. These relationships are a means of co-constructing actions promoting collective, primary, and sustainable prevention.
Impact
The article was published in October 2023 in the journal Activités and has not yet been cited. However, a paper based on this article has been submitted to the 22nd Triennial Congress of The International Ergonomics Association (IEA) to promote the work further, and a complementary publication is currently being written in an English-language journal. In addition, the work resulting from this article is used in several ergonomics courses on occupational hazards, health and safety at work, and sustainable development.