Creating and using matrix representations of social interaction

This paper explores the use of an outcome matrix as a computational representation of social interaction suitable for implementation on a robot. An outcome matrix expresses the reward afforded to each interacting individual with respect to pairs of potential behaviors. We detail the use of the outcome matrix as a representation of interaction in social psychology and game theory, discuss the need for modeling the robot´s interactive partner, and contribute an algorithm for creating outcome matrices from perceptual information. Experimental results explore the use of the algorithm with different types of partners and in different environments.