Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) show promise for use as companions in emotional
support applications, although real world uptake can be low. Incorporating closeness …

The use of intelligent virtual agents (IVA) to support humans in social contexts will depend
on their social acceptability. Acceptance will be related to the human's perception of the IVAs …

Whilst the use of digital interventions to assist patients with self-management involving
embodied conversational agents (ECA) is emerging, the use of such agents to support …

There is growing awareness that effective emotion regulation is critical for health, adjustment
and wellbeing. Emerging evidence suggests that interventions that promote flexible emotion …

Empathic behavior between humans often has a positive effect, particularly in healthcare,
since it facilitates relationships, improves engagement, and reduces stress and anxiety …

The present work investigates the effect of natural conversations with virtual beings on user
perceptions with a current conversational AI model (Meta's BlenderBot). To this aim, we …

To personalise dialogue to different users, relational agents need to learn about the users'
preferences for relational cues used by the agent. In the context of a virtual advisor to reduce …

Relational cues are extracts from actual verbal dialogues that help build the therapist–
patient working alliance and stronger bond through the depiction of empathy, respect and …

Affective intelligent tutoring systems (ATSs) are gaining recognition for their role in
personalized learning through adaptive automated education based on students' affective …

Relational agents who personalise their message to individual users need to learn about the
user first. In the context of an agent who personalises the inclusion of 10 relational cues in its …