The Virtual Teacher (VT) Paradigm: Learning New Patterns of Interpersonal Coordination Using the Human Dynamic Clamp

Abstract

The Virtual Teacher paradigm, a version of the Human Dynamic Clamp (HDC), is introduced into studies of learning patterns of inter-personal coordination. Combining mathematical modeling and experimentation, we investigate how the HDC may be used as a Virtual Teacher (VT) to help humans co-produce and internalize new inter-personal coordination pattern(s). Human learners produced rhythmic finger movements whilst observing a computer-driven avatar, animated by dynamic equations stemming from the well-established Haken-Kelso-Bunz (1985) and Schöner-Kelso (1988) models of coordination. We demonstrate that the VT is successful in shifting the pattern co-produced by the VT-human system toward any value (Experiment 1) and that the VT can help humans learn unstable relative phasing patterns (Experiment 2). Using transfer entropy, we find that information flow from one partner to the other increases when VT-human coordination loses stability. This suggests that variable joint performance may actually facilitate interaction, and in the long run learning. VT appears to be a promising tool for exploring basic learning processes involved in social interaction, unraveling the dynamics of information flow between interacting partners, and providing possible rehabilitation opportunities.

The Human Dynamic Clamp reveals the fronto-parietal network linking real-time social coordination and cognition

“…To overcome this limitation while at the same time maintaining the essential reciprocal and dynamical nature of social interaction, we use the Human Dynamic Clamp (HDC) or Virtual Partner Interaction (VPI) paradigm which enables direct experimental control of one of the social partners, as well as the coupling between them. The HDC consists of a human interacting reciprocally with a virtual partner (VP), the design of which is based on an empirically grounded computational model of human coordination dynamics Dumas et al, 2014a;Kostrubiec et al, 2015). Both the intrinsic dynamics of the VP and its coupling to the human can be manipulated in real-time thereby enabling parametric exploration of the relationship between humans and interaction-capable surrogates.…”

Enhanced emotional responses during social coordination with a virtual partner

“…coupling strength and preferred phase relationship) in a realistic manner and in ways that might not be possible in ordinary experiments (Kelso et al, 2009; Dumas et al, 2014). The VP is the key component of an experimental paradigm – the Human Dynamic Clamp (HDC) – recently proposed as a new tool to study human social interaction (Dumas et al, 2014; Kelso et al, 2009; Kostrubiec et al, 2015). The HDC allows a human being to interact in real-time with a VP driven by well-established models of Coordination Dynamics.…”

Reciprocity and alignment: quantifying coupling in dynamic interactions

“…The latter were neither the product of the VP's nor the sole outcome of the human's behavioral dispositions, but rather a truly emergent collective pattern that resulted from their interaction." 86 In general these social machines can be seen as a dynamical, mathematical mirror where the "exploration of the machine's behavior may be viewed as an exploration of us as well." 87 If artificial machines can serve as a valuable bootstrap of natural machines, the questions is how flexible the apparatus must be to deal with co-agents which do not entirely behave, say in terms of richness, as human partners.…”