Psychological evolution
Learn about the concept of psychological evolution and how the evolution of VHs is reflected in your (simulation solution) project output.
Understanding psychological evolution
Observing psychological evolution in the real world
The APA (American Psychological Association) defines evolution and perception in the following manner:
Evolution
Based on the process of gradual change in the appearance of populations of organisms that takes place over generations. Such changes are widely held to account for the present diversity of living organisms originating from relatively few ancestors since the emergence of life on earth.
Any other process of gradual change
Perception
The process or result of becoming aware of objects, relationships, and events by means of senses, which includes such activities as recognizing, observing, and discriminating. These activities enable organisms to organize and interpret the stimuli received into meaningful knowledge and to act in a coordinated manner.
The human brain perceives 3,456,000 (roughly 3.5 million) pieces of information per day, which translates to approximately 40 perceptions per second.
Research has demonstrated that it takes between 18 and 254 days to form a new habit.
Based on multiple studies, researchers have determined that on an average, one can only start observing psychological evolution in a person after 66-84 days.
Based on this scientific appreciation, the minimum number of perceptions required to observe evolution in a real human is 228,096,000.
These science-backed numbers are the scientific foundation of the Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) functionality that enables you to analyze psychological evolution in Virtual Humans (VHs). This functionality helps you observe how the VHs in your project have evolved psychologically over the course of the simulation.
Observing psychological evolution in the virtual world
When the concept of psychological evolution is extended and applied to VHs, the following factor must be considered; The VHs' experience environment is a simulated one, not the the real world. Therefore:
VHs might not be exposed to all the situations and stimuli that a real human would face in a typical day.
The frequency at which VHs would be exposed to perceptions would also be lower than the one of real humans' experiences in the real world.
For example, if the scope of your solution is limited to exterior spaces, your VHs would only be exposed to the perceptions that they could receive in these spaces, which is fewer than the number of perceptions that a person would be exposed to in the real world.
When studying the perceptions that impact an VH in the virtual world, averaged perceptions are considered. These perceptions also have lower complexity.
Therefore, in comparison to a person in the real world, a VH would require longer exposure to receive the proportional number of perceptions it requires to evolve psychologically.
Based on these differences, in a virtual day, a VH requires a minimum of 0.5% of the perceptions that a real human would require for evolution in a real day, which amounts to 17,280 perceptions.
This number enables them to experience a psychological evolution that maintains a proportion with reality. This number also accounts for the amount of time that the VHs would not be exposed to interactions within the scope of the solution (for example, complex interactions such as developing an occupation, taking time out for hobbies, sleeping, and more).
An evolution cycle is the period of time in a simulation in which a single VH mind undergoes psychological evolution.
The minimum number of perceptions that a VH requires for evolution in an evolution cycle is equal to the product of the number of perceptions required per day and the minimum number of days required (66). This amounts to 1,140,480.
To be able to visualize VH profile evolution, we advise running the simulation for at least 5 evolution cycles.
In a day, a VH undergoes multiple journeys, each of which are composed of a number of experiences.
The concept of journeys helps us understand a VH’s experiences in a simple manner. Each journey can contain multiple Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) requests, and as a client, you can configure this number based on your specific requirements.
By understanding concepts such as perceptions, virtual days, evolution cycles, and journeys and how to convert them to real time (for example, understanding that the average processing time for an Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) request is 4 seconds) and cost implications, you can calculate the total duration of simulation required to observe evolution in your VHs.
Calculating the minimum simulation duration required to observe psychological evolution
This section enables you to understand how to ensure excellent data quality and generate sufficient data volume to obtain qualitative results of observed psychological evolution while also staying within your budget.
In this section, we explain how to calculate the minimum duration of simulation required to observe psychological evolution using an example of a solution in which, during simulation, a VH receives 8 perceptions distributed amongst the following 5 types in each request to Affective Computing (powered by Virtue):
Perceived light or temperature: Light or temperature from objects based on their dynamic position with respect to the VH
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Perceived sound or wind: Sound or wind from objects based on their dynamic position with respect to the VH
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Interactions: Interactions, such as conversations, decisions of movement based on crowding, etc. Note: These interactions are managed by EDAA™, the underlying technology that powers Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) during simulation.
1
EEG readings: EEG inputs
Note: These inputs are managed by EDAA™, the underlying technology that powers Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) during simulation.
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Average perceptions from objects provided
4
Sum
8
Avg. no. of perceptions received by a human per day = 3,456,000
Avg. no. of perceptions required for a VH per virtual day = 17,280 (which is 0.5% of the Avg. no. of perceptions of a human per day. For more information, see Understanding psychological evolution.)
Min. no. of requests that a single VH requires to evolve through a single evolution cycle per day = 34,560 / 8 = 4,320
As a client, you can define the no. of requests in a journey and the no. of journeys in a virtual day based on your specific requirements.
The product of these numbers is the no. of Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) requests your solution will require for each virtual day, i.e. no. of requests per virtual day.
In this example, the number of requests in a journey is defined as 4 and the number of journeys in a virtual day is defined 5. Therefore, the number of requests per virtual day will be 20.
Considering the no. of evolution cycles required to observe psychological evolution as 5 (based on our recommended number; for more information, see Understanding psychological evolution), you can calculate the following:
No. of requests per virtual day for a single VH to evolve throughout one evolution cycle = no. of perceptions required for evolution in one evolution cycle per virtual day / no. of perceptions in a request = 17,280 / 8 = 2160
Total no. of requests for a single VH to evolve throughout one evolution cycle = no. of perceptions required for evolution in one evolution cycle / no. of perceptions in a request = ( 3,456,000 * 66 * 0.5 / 100 ) / 8 = 142560
No. of virtual days in an evolution cycle = no. of requests per evolution cycle / no. of requests per virtual day = 142,560 / 20 = 7128
No. of journeys in an evolution cycle = No. of journeys in a virtual day * no. of virtual days in an evolution cycle = 5 * 7128 = 35,640
No. of journeys a single VH would require to evolve through all evolution cycles = No. of journeys in an evolution cycle * No. of evolution cycles = 35,640 * 5 = 178,200
Scale of one actual day to the virtual day = duration of an evolution cycle / no. of days required for the human mind to evolve = 7128 / 66 = 108
These calculations enable us to derive the duration of psychological evolution for a single VH. It is calculated as follows:
No. of virtual days required for one VH’s psychological evolution i.e. the duration of the simulation for all evolution cycles (in virtual days) = no. of virtual days required for one VH to evolve through one evolution cycle * No. of evolution cycles = 7128 * 5 = 35,640
(Considering that the simulation will be performed with 10000 VHs and the average processing time for a request is 4 seconds) No. of real-hours required to observe a single VH’s evolution in a single evolution cycle = Avg. processing time for a request (in hours) * no. of requests per evolution cycle = 4 / 3600 * 142560 = 158.4
Therefore, no. of hours of simulation required to observe a single VH’s evolution = no. of hours required to observe a single VH’s evolution in a single evolution cycle * no. of evolution cycles = 158.4 * 5 = 792
Using this, we can calculate the Total duration of simulation required for a single VH = no. of hours of simulation required to observe a single VH’s evolution / 24 = 792 / 24 = 33 hours
Moreover, Actual duration of simulation required to observe evolution (spanning all cycles) = Duration of the simulation for all evolution cycles (in virtual days) / Scale of one actual day to one virtual day = 35640 / 108 = 330 days.
Your actual total cost of the simulation can be calculated based on our hourly cost for bulk simulation and the values you enter for the following variables:
No. of evolution cycles
No. of requests per journey
No. of journeys per virtual day
Interpreting psychological evolution data outputs from your projects
You can gain the following data insights related to psychological evolution of VHs during simulation through a low-code integration with our APIs:
Psychological Well-Being
The percentage of psychological well being of a VH.
If there is no data for a particular session, the value returned is 0.
A higher percentage indicates a positive progression towards psychological well-being. Similarly, a lower percentage indicates a negative progression, i.e. against psychological well-being.
Personality Evolution
Whether or not the personality of the VH is evolving:
Evolving: The VH’s personality is evolving in a positive way.
Not evolving: The VH’s personality didn’t achieve a positive evolution (regression).
Mental Well-Being
Percentages of the different components of mental well-being.
If there is no data for a particular interaction session, the value returned is 0 for anxiety, level of stress, self-knowledge, and aggressiveness.
For creativity, social skills, open to changes, and inhibited, the value returned is 0 if the VH did not experience a sufficient number of interactions for a reliable conclusion.
For anxiety, level of stress, aggressiveness and inhibited:
A higher percentage indicates negative progress.
A lower percentage indicates positive progress.
For creativity, social skills, open to changes and self-knowledge:
A higher percentage indicates positive progress.
A lower percentage indicates negative progress.
Note: An VH should undergo more than 4 sessions to receive information about its mental well-being.
For detailed information, see Analyze the psychological evolution of VHs during a simulation.
Glossary
Evolution
In the context of the solution, evolution is a change in the VH's psychology that could be positive or negative.
Evolution cycle
An evolution cycle is the period of time in a simulation in which a single VH mind observes an evolution.
Journey
A journey is a collection of experiences and can include interactions, reactions to perceptions, and more. The concept of journeys helps us understand experiences from an VH’s perspective in a simple manner.
Each journey can contain multiple Affective Computing (powered by Virtue) requests, and you can configure this number based on your requirements.
For example, during the journey of returning home from work, a VH can experience specific physical conditions based on proximity to objects and the environment, and participate in interactions such as conversations. It might also need to perform a triggered action, such as changing its path, if a rush condition exists.
Perception
A perception is the amount of input that a VH receives in any given scenario.
Request
A request is a call to Affective Computing (powered by Virtue).
Each journey can contain multiple requests, and you can configure this number based on your requirements.
Time scaling
Time scaling is the compression or expansion of time in the virtual world with respect to real-time based on your required scaling factor.
Virtual day
A virtual day represents a day in the virtual world as a VH would experience it during the simulation.
For example, 1 virtual day could be 2 hours of real time.
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