At the fringes of normality – a neurocognitive model of the uncanny valley on the detection and negative evaluation of deviations

Diel, Alexander 2023. At the fringes of normality – a neurocognitive model of the uncanny valley on the detection and negative evaluation of deviations. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Information violating preconceived patterns tend to be disliked. The term “uncanny valley” is used to described such negative reactions towards near humanlike artificial agents as a nonlinear function of human likeness and likability. My work proposes and investigates a new neurocognitive theory of the uncanny valley and uncanniness effects within various categories. According to this refined theory of the uncanny valley, the degree of perceptual specialization increases the sensitivity to anomalies or deviations in a stimulus, which leads to a greater relative negative evaluation. As perceptual specialization is observed for many human-related stimuli (e.g., faces, voices, bodies, biological motion) attempts to replicate artificial human entities may lead to design errors which would be especially apparent due to a higher level of specialization, leading to the uncanny valley. The refined theory is established and investigated throughout 10 chapters. In Chapters 2 to 4, the correlative (Chapters 2 and 3) and causal (Chapter 4) association between perceptual specialization, sensitivity to deviations, and uncanniness are observed. In Chapters 5 to 6, the refined theory is applied to inanimate object categories to validate its relevance in stimulus categories beyond those associated with the uncanny valley, specifically written text (Chapter 5) and physical places (Chapter 6). Chapters 7 to 10 critically investigate multiple explanations on the uncanny valley, including the refined theory. Chapter 11 applies the refined theory onto ecologically valid stimuli of the uncanny valley, namely an android’s dynamic emotional expressions. Finally, Chapter 12 summarized and discusses the findings and evaluates the refined theory of the uncanny based on its advantages and disadvantages. With this work, I hope to present substantial arguments for an alternative, refined theory of the uncanny that can more accurately explain a wider range of observation compared to the uncanny valley.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 November 2023
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2023 15:35
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/164210

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