His general research interest is in the computational modeling of cognition, emotion and social behavior, both as a basic research methodology in the study of human behavior as well as the use of these computational models in a range of gaming and analysis applications. His current research spans the interplay of emotion and cognition, modeling of the influence that beliefs about the mental processes of others have on social interaction and the role of nonverbal behavior in face-to-face interaction. He has extensive experience in the application of these models to the design of virtual humans, software entities that look human and can interact with humans in a virtual environment using spoken!