Linda Graf, M.Sc.

I am interested in the impact of emotionally expressive virtual characters on users’ emotions. For example, can a virtual character provide emotional support and help me during stressful moments? Or can a virtual character convey believable emotions to represent me in a social virtual interaction? My research focuses on the believability and appropriateness of those emotional virtual characters in VR applications in both human-agent and mediated human-human interaction.

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M. Sc. Linda Graf

Informatik / HCCS

Address
Lotharstr. 65 (LE)
47057 Duisburg
Room
LE 331
Phone
+49 203 379 4051
Fax
+49 203 379 4476
E-Mail
linda.graf@uni-due.de

Functions

  • Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in, Medieninformatik

The following publications are listed in the online university bibliography of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Further information may also be found on the person's personal web pages.

    Journal articles

  • Gradl-Dietsch, Gertraud; Graf, Linda; Hagemann, Marie; Seitz, Jochen; Masuch, Maic
    Emotionale virtuelle Charaktere für die Lehre in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie
    In: Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Vol. 53, 2025, Nr. 1, pp. 45 – 48
    DOI
  • Graf, Linda; Sykownik, Philipp; Gradl-Dietsch, Gertraud; Masuch, Maic
    Towards believable and educational conversations with virtual patients
    In: Frontiers in Virtual Reality, Vol. 5, 2024, 1377210
    DOI, Online Full Text (Open Access)
  • Graf, Linda; Abramowski, Sophie; Born, Felix; Masuch, Maic
    Emotional Virtual Characters for Improving Motivation and Performance in VR Exergames
    In: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 7, 2023, Nr. CHI PLAY, 3611063
    DOI
  • Liszio, Stefan; Graf, Linda; Masuch, Maic
    The Relaxing Effect of Virtual Nature : Immersive Technology Provides Relief in Acute Stress Situations
    In: Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine, Vol. 16, 2018, pp. 87 – 93
    Online Full Text (Open Access)

    • Book articles / Proceedings papers

  • Graf, Linda; Scholemann, Leslie; Sykownik, Philipp; Fuss, Johannes; Masuch, Maic
    Virtual Visits, Real Emotions : Designing Social VR Experiences for Imprisoned Fathers and their Children
    In: CHI'25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems / CHI'25 (2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), 26. April - 1. Mai 2025, Yokohama / Yamashita, Naomi; Evers, Vanessa; ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) (Eds.). New York: ACM, 2025, 1080
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Graf, Linda; Emmerich, Katharina; Liszio, Stefan; Masuch, Maic
    The Impact of Emotional Virtual Characters on Emotional State and Player Experience in VR Horror Games
    In: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2024) / 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2024): 21 - 24 May 2024; Worcester, USA / Smith, Gillian; Whitehead, Jim; Samuel, Ben; Spiel, Katta; van Rozen, Riemer (Eds.). New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2024, 5
    DOI
  • Graf, Linda; Gradl-Dietsch, Gertraud; Masuch, Maic
    Depressed Virtual Agents : Development of a Playful VR Application for the Training of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Students
    In: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents / IVA '23: ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, September 19 - 22, 2023, Würzburg, Germany / Association for Computing Machinery (Eds.). New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2023, 35
    DOI
  • Graf, Linda; Pabreiter, Isabelle Alice; Kuhn, Jorg-Tobias; Masuch, Maic; Paßreiter, Isabelle Alice
    MATS - An ADHD-Specific Mental Health App : Evidence-Based Recommendations for Designing Assistive Applications for ADHD Families
    In: 2023 IEEE 11th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH) / 11th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH), 28-30 Aug. 2023, Athens, Greece. Piscataway: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2023
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Graf, Linda; Altmeyer, Maximilian; Emmerich, Katharina; Herrlich, Marc; Krekhov, Andrey; Spiel, Katta
    Development and Validation of a German Version of the Player Experience Inventory (PXI)
    In: Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2022 (MuC '22) / MuC 2022: Mensch und Computer Conference: Facing Realities; 4 - 7 September 2022; Darmstadt / Mühlhäuser, Max (Eds.). New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022, pp. 265 – 275
    DOI
  • Graf, Linda; Abramowski, Sophie; Baßfeld, Melina; Gerschermann, Kirsten; Grießhammer, Marius; Scholemann, Leslie; Masuch, Maic
    Emotional Support Companions in Virtual Reality
    In: Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2022 / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2022; Virtual, Online; 12 - 16 March 2022. Piscataway: IEEE, 2022, pp. 634 – 635
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Graf, Linda; Scholemann, Leslie; Masuch, Maic
    Designing VR Games with Gaze Control for Directing Attention of Children with ADHD
    In: IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games / CIG 2021; Copenhagen, Denmark; 17-20 August 2021. Piscataway: IEEE Computer Society, 2021
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Born, Felix; Graf, Linda; Masuch, Maic
    Exergaming: The Impact of Virtual Reality on Cognitive Performance and Player Experience
    In: IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games / CIG 2021; Copenhagen, Denmark; 17-20 August 2021. Piscataway: IEEE Computer Society, 2021
    DOI, Online Full Text
  • Sykownik, Philipp; Graf, Linda; Zils, Christoph; Masuch, Maic
    The most social platform ever? : A survey about activities motives of social VR users
    In: 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2021: Proceedings / 28th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces: VR 2021, 27.03.-03.04.2021, Virtual. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2021, pp. 546 – 554
    DOI
  • Liszio, Stefan; Graf, Linda; Basu, Oliver; Masuch, Maic
    Pengunaut trainer : A playful VR app to prepare children for MRI examinations - In-depth game design analysis
    In: Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference / IDC 2020; London, United Kingdom; 21 - 24 June 2020. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2020, pp. 470 – 482
    DOI (Open Access)
  • Graf, Linda; Liszio, Stefan; Masuch, Maic
    Playing in virtual nature : Improving mood of elderly people using VR technology
    In: MuC '20: Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch und Computer / Conference on Mensch und Computer (MuC 2020): 6 - 9 September 2020; Magdeburg, Virtual / Preim, Bernhard (Eds.). New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2020, pp. 155 – 164
    DOI

Tendered Theses

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Theses in Progress

Type Topic Author
     

 

 

 

Supervised Theses

Type Topic Author Finished
Master's Thesis Virtual Reality in the Intensive Care Unit: Potential Applications and the Role of Social VR for Creating Shared Experiences to Promote Well-Being Cindy-Virginia Enekwemchi 2025
Master's Thesis

Artificial Intelligence for Science Communication: The Impact of Visual and Linguistic Representation on Credibility and Persuasiveness

 Sophia Prehn 2025
Master's Thesis Enhancing Virtual Agent Interaction: A Comparative Study of Pre-Recorded Audio vs. ChatGPT-Enhanced Dialogue Systems Philip Frese 2024
Master's Thesis Virtual Encounters, Real Emotions: Designing VR Experiences for Incarcerated Parents and Their Children Leslie Scholemann 2024
Master's Thesis The Impact of Emotional Expression and Social Touch on the Empathetic Response Towards Virtual Characters Melina Baßfeld 2024
Master's Thesis Enhancing Clinical Empathy Through Embodiment in Virtual Reality Anne Smets 2024
Master's Thesis Development of a Speech Recognition System for Teaching Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders Yustinus Aquila Adrian 2023
Bachelor's Thesis Personality Customization in Avatars: Evaluating the Needs and Preference of Social VR Users to Express Their Virtual Personality Dana Schulte 2023
Master's Thesis The Influence of Mood-congruent Virtual Agents on the Social Connectedness and the Player Experience in a Cooperative VR Game Gian Luca Dossena 2023
Bachelor's Thesis Sweet but Creepy? An Investigation of the Impact of Appearance and Behaviour of Virtual Agents on Likeability and Social Acceptance Anastasia Chernetskaya 2023
Bachelor's Thesis Investigating Different Appearances of Virtual Characters for Teaching Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders Tobias Windheuser 2022
Bachelor's Thesis Investigation of Emotional Expressions of Virtual Characters for the Teaching of Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders Vera Golz 2022
Master's Thesis Investigating the Influence of Different Types of Social Support provided by Virtual Companions on the User's Emotions Laura Menze 2022
Bachelor's Thesis Extension of a Training Game to Improve Executive Functions in Children with ADHD by Adding a Motivation and a Level Component Julian Stülp 2021
Bachelor's Thesis The Impact of Eye Contact with Virtual Companions on Social Presence and Social Connectedness Timo Fürtges 2021
Bachelor's Thesis Eye-Gaze Interaction as Game Control? Directing attention of children with ADHD in Virtual Reality Leslie Scholemann 2021
Bachelor's Thesis Development of a training game to train interference control in children with ADHD Marcel Morillo 2021
Bachelor's Thesis Investigation and cataloging of emotion causing game elements Marius Grießhammer 2020
Bachelor's Thesis Acquisition and analysis of eye tracking data for concentration enhancing games Jacky James Chi Quan 2020

 

Academic Career and Education

2017 - 2019 Study of Applied Cognitive- and Media Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, degree Master of Science (M.Sc.)
2013 - 2017 Study of Applied Cognitive- and Media Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, degree Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)

 

Professional Career

09/2019 - today Researcher at the Entertainment Computing Group
05/2019 - 08/2019 Research Assistant at Higgins Lab, Columbia University, New York, USA
10/2015 - 04/2019 Student assistant at the Entertainment Computing Group
10/2014 - 02/2019 Student assistant at the Department of Psychological Research Methods and Media based knowledge constructions