Cars, Cognitive Empathy, and the Uncanny Valley Erin MacDonald Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering, Design Stanford Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 Cognitive (Perspective-taking) Empathy and Emotional (Affective) Empathy are distinguished both neurally and clinically. Shamay-Tsoory, S.G., Aharon-Peretz, J., and Perry, D., 2009, “Two systems for empathy: a double dissociation between emotional and cognitive empathy in inferior frontal gyrus versus ventromedial prefrontal lesions,” Brain, 132, pp. 617-627. Cognitive Empathy in Design Research draws from: Behavioral Psychology Decision-making Cognitive Science Autonomous cars are driving themselves into the uncanny valley. Will they get out? Design Practice Motivation Aztec Production http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/new s/preview-concept/11-concept-cars-thatshould-have-made-it-5#slide-5 Aztec Concept Car Research Question: http://triebenbach.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html Can we predict feature importance? Du, P. and MacDonald, E., In Press, “Eye-Tracking Data Predicts Importance of Product Features and Saliency of Size Change,” Journal of Mechanical Design. Reid, T., MacDonald, E., and Du, P., 2013, “Impact of Product Design Representation on Customer Judgment with Associated Eye Gaze Data,” Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 135, No. 9, 091008. Design Practice Motivation http://www.eriksbikeshop.com/Assets/product_images/PR3C14925_mlg.jpg Research Question: Can we predict saliency of size (dimensional) changes? Cognitive Empathy Concept Eye-mind Hypothesis The eye focuses on what the mind is cognitively processing. Just, M. A., and Carpenter, P. A., 1976, "Eye Fixations and Cognitive Processes," Cognitive Psychology, 8(4), pp. 441–480. The eye focuses on what the mind is processing. The eye focuses on what the mind is processing. But focus can have different motivations. Data Collection and Processing Types of Gaze Data Used in the Experiment Fixation Time: Aggregated length of time that subject’s gaze fixates on feature (seconds) Fixation Count: Total number of times that subject fixates on feature First-located Time: Time-to-first fixation on Feature (seconds) Product features defined as Area-Of-Interest (AOI) in iMotions Software Fixation Time: Aggregated length of time that subject’s gaze fixates on AOI (seconds) Fixation Count: Total number of times that subject fixates on AOI First-located Time: Time-to-first fixation on AOI (seconds) Du, P. and MacDonald, E., In Press, “Eye-Tracking Data Predicts Importance of Product Features and Saliency of Size Change,” Journal of Mechanical Design. Product Stimuli Cars (familiar) and Electric Bicycles (novel) Can we predict feature importance using gaze data? “Which do you prefer?” (Paraphrased) […] “Rate feature importance.” (Paraphrased) Fixation Time Correlates with and Predicts Importance of Features Correlations between a feature’s average importance and associated average gaze data. Condition (both N=36) Stimuli Sequentially Stimuli Side by Side Fixation Metric Time (s) % Time Count First-Located (s) Car and Bike Combined 0.61** 0.61** 0.61** -0.58** Car and Bike Combined 0.73** 0.74** 0.71** -0.64** (‘**’ p<0.01, Pearson correlation, one-tailed test) Can we predict sizes change saliency using gaze data? “Examine for differences” (Paraphrased) “Write down the differences you saw.” (Paraphrased) Fixation Time Predicts Saliency of Size Change When looking at a feature pair with a size difference Fixation Metric Condition Time (s) Count Sequential (Noticeable vs. Unnoticeable) 1.8 vs. 1.1 s * 7.22 vs. 4.33 ** Side-by-Side (Noticeable vs. Unnoticeable) 1.7 vs. 0.9 s *** 7.25 vs. 4.43 ** ( ‘*’ p<0.05, ‘**’ p<0.01, ‘***’ p<0.001) Du, P. and MacDonald, E., In Press, “Eye-Tracking Data Predicts Importance of Product Features and Saliency of Size Change,” Journal of Mechanical Design. Future Applications Eye-tracking will provide “big (design) data” in the near future. http://www.gizmag.com/ http://www.theverge.com/ ??? Amazon’s Eye- and Facetracking Smartphone http://www.gizmodo.com Sustainable Product Research http://www.squidoo.com/paper-towel-experiment (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) MacDonald, E., Gonzalez, R. and Papalambros, P., 2009, “Preference Inconsistency in Multidisciplinary Design Decision Making,” Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 131, No. 3, 031009. http://www.squidoo.com/paper-towel-experiment (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) MacDonald, E., Whitefoot, K., Allison, J., Papalambros, P.Y. and Gonzalez, R., 2010, “An Investigation of Sustainability, Preference, and Profitability in Design Optimization,” ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference/Design Automation Conference, Montreal, August 15-18. (under review at the Journal of Mechanical Design) The proposed new design technique Priming Perceptions and Sustainability Exercise Sensory Perception Perform Design Task Trigger Change in Construction of Preference Create Features that Communicate Sustainability Search for Sustainability Information Make Sustainable Purchase Choice The proposed augmented customer purchase process She, J., and MacDonald, E., 2014, “Priming Designers to Communicate Sustainability,” Journal of Mechanical Design, 136(1), 011001. Cognitive Empathy Concept Priming A psychological experimental technique that uses an artifact, exposure, or experience to stimulate cognitive accessibility of specific mental content. Stapel, D. A., 2011, "Priming as Proxy: Understanding the Subjectivity of Social Life," Cognitive Methods in Social Psychology, K. Klauer, A. Voss, and C. Stahl, eds., Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. 148-183. Priming activity: Collage Guyton, A. A., 2006, "Developing Sustainable Product Semantics For Consumer Products - A Sustainable Designer's Guide," Masters Thesis, The Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Rating Analysis Experts (2) and Customers (174): Rate the ability of features to “trigger customers to think about sustainability” on a 1 to 5 (strongly agree) scale. Include a knife holder in the toaster Attach a metal plate to the top of the toaster to heat items. Expert Rating: 1.0 Customer: 1.8 Reflective cavity increases radiant heat with materials and shape. Expert Rating: 4.0 Customer: 3.6 Expert Rating: 4.0 Customer: 4.2 Pearson Correlation on Ratings: 0.7 She, J. and MacDonald, E., 2014, “Priming Designers to Communicate Sustainability,” Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 136, No. 1, Trigger Feature Rating Analysis Average number of effective trigger features (rated higher than 3) generated per subject was significantly higher with collage priming than no priming (control). Priming Condition Expert and Customer data analyzed separately. Both sets of data demonstrate collage prime effective at * = p < 0.05, using betweensubjects ANOVA. Number of subjects across all five conditions = 50, Number of features generated = 237. The proposed new design technique Priming Perceptions and Sustainability Exercise Sensory Perception Perform Design Task Trigger Change in Construction of Preference Create Features that Communicate Sustainability Search for Sustainability Information Make Sustainable Purchase Choice The proposed augmented customer purchase process Cognitive Empathy Concept Construction of Preference Decision structures and outcomes, such as product evaluations and purchases, are constructed in response to the context of the decision. Slovic, P., 1995, "The Construction of Preference," American Psychologist, 50(5), pp. 364-371. Toaster Prototype Sustainability Trigger Features She, J. and MacDonald, E., 2013, “Trigger Features on Prototypes Increase Preference for Sustainability,” ASME IDETC, Portland, OR, August 4-7 (with additional experiments to be submitted Marketing Science.) Decisions Between Pairs Sub-Experiment Choice Rank Eye-tracking All subjects saw the same shipping method and energy usage information. Trigger features change construction of preference in choice tasks Subjects exposed to trigger features were more likely to: Purchase/select the Rank sustainability as Focus on/ more sustainable toaster important in decisions Search for sustainability (p<0.1) information (p<0.05) (% fixation count p<0.05 %fixation time p<0.1) “Sustainable” = energy usage and shipping method A priming exercise can provide a targeted enhancement to designers’ skills that can result in a targeted change in customers’ construction of preference. Future Applications http://store.hbo.com/silicon-valley-season-1-poster-11x17/detail.php?p=550319 http://www.equipmentworld.com/npl-construction-receives-john-deeres250000th-backhoe/ Future Applications http://store.hbo.com/silicon-valley-season-1-poster-11x17/detail.php?p=550319 http://www.equipmentworld.com/npl-construction-receives-john-deeres250000th-backhoe/ Uncanny Valley Cognitive Mechanisms: *Mortality Salience *Undermining human identity *Violation of human norms *Conflicting perceptual cues Cars that think what people think Cars that feel what people feel Cars that help people Empathic Cars Empathic Cars: • Enhancing: Hybrid vision systems • Comforting: Readjusting seating and wheels • Therapeutic: Cars that calm you down • Improving: Efficiency and Safety Training Ads that think like people think Sample Size Outcome Measure Test Control Test Control Lift (%) Sig. 6,348 2,643 0.97% 0.26% +245 < 0.01 Per Consumer 421 167 15.9% 9.6% +66 < 0.01 Brand Consideration 421 167 42.8% 32.9% +30 < 0.01 Purchase Likelihood 421 167 3.28 3.05 +8 < 0.01 Click-through rates All Banners Urban, G., Liberali, G., MacDonald, E., Bordley, R., and Hauser, J., In Press, “Morphing Banner Advertising,” Marketing Science.