S4 Ep12: Your Mind on the Uncanny Valley with Dr. Julija Vaitonyté
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Have you ever seen a robot that looks almost human, but something feels a bit off? Did it make you feel unsettled, and maybe a bit creeped out? Dr. Julija Vaitonyté joins us to discuss her research on this phenomenon of the uncanny valley. She unpacks the brain and perceptual cues behind this eeriness, and tells us why certain kinds of imperfections might actually help robots appear more real. Beth & Ava play a game to see if they can recognize real faces from artificially generated ones.
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Dr. Julija Vaitonyté
Research discussed
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Alimardani, M., de Roode, R., Vaitonyté, J., Louwerse, M. M. (2024). Effect of a Virtual Agent’s Appearance and Voice on Uncanny Valley and Trust in Human-Agent Collaboration. Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 5, 1-7.
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Vaitonyté, J., Alimardani, M., Louwerse, M. M. (2023). Scoping review of the neural evidence on the uncanny valley. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 9, 100263.
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Vaitonyté, J., Blomsma, P. A., Alimardani, M., Louwerse, M. M. (2021). Realism of the face lies in skin and eyes: Evidence from virtual and human agents. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 3, 100065.
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