NEWS

David is interested in improving human-computer interaction by studying the ways humans behave with each other. He believes that the most effective and humane tools are designed with a deep understanding of everyday human behavior. Currently his research involves observing 12 year olds taking turns tutoring each other in simple algebra over several weeks. These students are teaching him about how young people build, sustain, or fail to sustain rapport over time. Such rapport behaviors will then be modeled and implemented into virtual agents, changing the nature of educational software by adding dimensions of social interaction between the human user and computational agent. David was a psychology major at the University of Utah with research centered on cognitive processing and social norms found in human-computer interaction. He is most fascinated by how humans reason about the perceived intentionality of virtual agents. This background informs his current research by providing a foundation in cognitive models and a theoretical framework for the psychological world of virtual agents.