Towards Aggression De-escalation Training with Virtual Agents: A Computational Model

Serious gaming based on Virtual Reality is a promising means for training of aggression de-escalation skills. By enabling trainees to interact with aggressive virtual characters that respond in a realistic manner to different communicative approaches, they can learn to apply the appropriate approach at the right time. To facilitate the development of such a training system, this paper presents a computational model of interpersonal aggression. The model consists of two sub-models, namely an ‘aggressor model’ and a ‘de-escalator model’. In the long term, the former can be used to generate the behaviour of the virtual characters, whereas the latter can be used to analyse the behaviour of the trainee. The functioning of the model is illustrated by a number of simulation runs for characteristic circumstances.