Case study in choosing a graphical character to support reminiscence therapy for those living with dementia

The present study describes the process employed to identify a suitable intelligent virtual agent (IVA) for the AMPER App supporting reminiscence therapy for those living with dementia through the use of a facilitating agent. This included three distinct phases: 1) co-creation with project stakeholders and identification of a set of desirable IVA traits; 2) a blind internal team rating process to select a subset from available IVAs; 3) a character survey with healthy older adults to select a final 4 IVAs (2 male, 2 female). We analyse the results, assess inter-subject agreement, and suggest guidelines for IVA selection.