Name: Trevor Patten

School of Psychology - M.S. Thesis Defense

Date: Tuesday, June 9th, 2026

Time: 3PM-4PM

Teams Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MGQ4MDk1MjUtZDUxMi00YWJhLWE4ZGUtZTE1ZGRmMzc0MGUw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22794082e9-4bf5-4595-92ba-d8b1920433b3%22%7d

Committee Chair/Advisor:

Mengyao Li, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Committee Members:

Bruce Walker, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Mark Himmelstein, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title: Simulating Interoception in Robot Teammates: Effects of Internal Arousal Display and Belief on Human Cooperation

Abstract: Human-Robot teams under mixed-motive tasking struggle to achieve similar levels of cooperation to human-human teams. Past research established that social cues, discernible through vision and audition, are effective at reducing the exploitation bias of robot teammates. In a theoretical capacity, humans also rely on inferred biological cues to understand teammates’ decision-making. This study investigated how human interoceptive inference could be supported with robot teammates to enhance cooperation outcomes on mixed-motive tasking. A 2 (neutral or interoceptive belief) by 2 (internal arousal display, no display) between-subjects design assessed cooperation rates with the robot teammate. The primary analysis did not return statistically significant results, with no effect of belief nor social cues from the robot altering cooperation; however, exploratory analyses returned a promising finding that psychophysical metrics interoceptive and exteroceptive accuracy may describe Theory of Mind ability.