We focus on these points because cognitive restructuring by a human therapist starts by identifying automatic thoughts and seeking sufficient evidence to find balanced thoughts (evaluation of automatic thoughts).
We collected interaction data between virtual agents and users to observe the mood improvements associated with changes in automatic thoughts that occur in user cognition and addressed the following two points: (1) implementation of a virtual agent that helps a user identify and evaluate automatic thoughts (2) identification of the relationship between a user's facial expressions and the extent of the mood improvement subjectively felt by users during the human-agent interaction. Unfortunately, since the quantitative analysis of human-agent interaction is still insufficient, the effect on the user's cognitive state remains unclear. Since virtual agents can be used anytime and anywhere, they are expected to perform cognitive restructuring without being influenced by medical infrastructure or patients' stigma toward mental illness.
Kazuhiro Shidara 1 * Hiroki Tanaka 1 Hiroyoshi Adachi 2 Daisuke Kanayama 2 Yukako Sakagami 2 Takashi Kudo 2 Satoshi Nakamura 1
