Week 1 Problem Set

Read:  Affective Computing: Introduction, Chapter1, pp. 75-82 on emotional intelligence in Chapter2 (skip the rest) and Chapter 3.

Write & Upload a file with your answers:

1. The Media Equation (by Reeves and Nass) gives a useful principle for when you are designing any system to interact with a person.  Practice using it.  Like we constructed a scenario in class, construct your own scenario, showing a specific example of a human-human interaction that clearly involves emotion for both actors in the scenario. Pick a scenario where the Media Equation holds, e.g. where you take out the word "human", put in the word "computer" and the exactly-worded-the-same scenario seems reasonable. (a) Write the interaction scenario twice: the first time using the word "person" and the second time replacing that word with the word "computer" (or the name of the computer agent/program/robot). Otherwise, your descriptions should be the same. For example, in class we spelled out each step of the interaction replacing the word "person" with the name "Clippy" (the attempting-to-be-helpful software agent) in a scenario.  (b) What is the emotion, explicitly, that is involved in your interaction for the computer, and for the person? For example, the class interaction involved "frustrated" for the person and "cheerful" for the computer/agent.

2. Repeat #1 for another interaction where the media equation does not seem to hold when you swap the words "computer" and "person." Make sure you follow the other rules as above. (a) what is the scenario. (b) what, explicitly, is the main emotion in it for the computer and the person?

** Bonus points are given if your case(s) elicit laughter **

3. (a) Give an example where you have seen a smartphone, smartphone app, or other consumer device demonstrate use of emotional intelligence. If you can't think of one, then pick some kind of technology that you use in everyday life, and describe where you'd like to see it use emotional intelligence. In the latter case, describe what the interaction looks like now, and how it would look differently if it were emotionally intelligent. Show each turn in the interaction or dialogue as if it were in a script of a play or movie. (b) What makes it emotionally intelligent?

4. Pick one of your least favorite applications from Chapter 3 and critique it (pros and cons) based on your own personal and unique research perspective. I wrote these over twenty years ago, and while some things have not changed much, others have changed dramatically. What context/situation would make it most likely to succeed? What would make it most likely to fail? Explain your thinking.

5. Repeat #4 for one of your most favorite applications from Chapter 3.

6. What two affective computing topics do you most want to see us cover during this term?  If one of them is an ethical concern, please frame it with a few sentences.

7. What is the status of your CITI certification? Please make sure you have CITI-certification that is valid through another institution or through MIT for the duration of the course. At MIT you can get it through MIT COUHES Training Links to an external site.. Please confirm "YES" that you have completed this training (required for any class project that involves people.) Note, this can take many hours to complete, but it can be done in several sessions.

8. Participate in the online Discussion on Canvas - see the instructions there.