[Colloq] Talk Announcement: Jonathan Gratch Today at 10:30 am

[Jessica Biron]

The College of Computer and Information Science presents: 

Talk Announcement 

Title: 
Understanding the mind by simulating the body: virtual humans as a tool for cognitive science research 

When: Today: 10:30am 

Where: Room: 366 WVH 



Presenter: Jonathan Gratch, Associate Director for Virtual Humans Research at the University of Southern California’s 

Abstract: 
In helping to define the field of cognitive science, Herb Simon emphasized the importance of “understanding by simulating.” For example, translating a theory into a working computer program reveals inconsistencies and hidden assumptions, and the resulting software becomes an empirical tool to examine how theoretical assumptions interact with each other and unfold over time as they act on complex environments. This interdisciplinary approach has yielded important insights into psychological processes, yet in practice it has tended to abstract away many important details about how minds interact with the environment. From the perspective of cognitive science, virtual humans provide an exciting domain within which to examine a broader and more integrated array of problems that are traditionally explored by the field, and in particular, the role the body plays in shaping cognition and mediating social interaction. Virtual humans are computer-generated characters that are designed to perceive, understand and interact with real people. Although typically conceived as practical tools to assist in a range of application (such as training, health care and entertainment), in this talk, I will outline their potential for advancing cognitive science research. In their most general form, virtual humans aspire to simulate the cognitive abilities of people, but also many of the “embodied” aspects of human behavior more traditionally studied in fields outside of cognitive psychology. More importantly, these abilities are not ends in themselves, but rather the means for virtual humans to successfully interact with people, and the success of these interactions is a gold standard by which to judge the success of underlying theoretical models. Through this emphasis on integration of multiple cognitive capabilities (e.g., language, gesture, emotion, and the control problems associated with navigating and interacting with a simulated virtual world) and the requirement that these capabilities work together, in real-time, to interact with human partners, creates a unique and challenging environment within which to develop and validate psychological theories and models. 

Bio 
Jonathan Gratch (http://www.ict.usc.edu/~gratch) is an Associate Director for Virtual Humans Research at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and co-director of USC’s Computational Emotion Group. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois in Urban-Champaign in 1995. Dr. Gratch’s research focuses on computational models of human cognitive and social processes, especially emotion, and explores these models’ role in shaping human-computer interactions in virtual environments. He studies the relationship between cognition and emotion, the cognitive processes underlying emotional responses, and the influence of emotion on decision making and physical behavior. He is the founding and current Editor-in-Chief of IEEE’s Transactions on Affective Computing, Associate Editor of Emotion Review and the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, former President of the HUMAINE Association, the international society for research on emotion and human-computer interaction, and is a member of IEEE, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE). Dr. Gratch is the author of over 150 technical articles. 

Jessica Biron 
Administrative Assistant – Office of the Dean and CCIS Development 
College of Computer and Information Science 
Northeastern University 
202 West Village H 
617-373-5204 
bironje at ccis.neu.edu 
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/