Virtual Suspect William

We evaluate an algorithm which computes the responses of an agent that plays the role of a suspect in simulations of police interrogations. The algorithm is based on a cognitive model - the response model - that is centred around keeping track of interpersonal relations. The model is parametrized in such a way that different personalities of the virtual suspect can be defined. In the evaluation we defined three different personalities and had participants guess the personality based on the responses the model provided in an interaction with the participant. We investigate what factors contributed to the ability of a virtual agent to show behaviour that was recognized by participants as belonging to a persona.