Can private reports enhance children’s event recall,lower their suggestibility and foster their metacognitive monitoring compared to face-to-face interviews?

In this paper, two studies are presented in which the social demands of an event recall interview situation were manipulated using two different methodologies and by using different dependent measures as indices for children’s event memory, suggestibility and metacognitive monitoring processes. Participants aged 6–10 years were shown a brief video and then questioned about it 2–3 weeks later. Answers to the recall questions were either given privately by whispering into a teddy bear’s ear or publicly in a normal face-to-face interview. Confidence judgments as indicators for metacognitive monitoring were entered into a computer, either with the interviewer having direct knowledge about them, or with the children entering the confidence judgments in privacy. In line with previous research on this topic, although private reports did not produce poorer performance, neither did they improve performance. In both studies there were no effects of the social manipulations on either recall or metacognitive monitoring and also no age-dependent benefits. The results are discussed in terms of the chosen methodologies and in the light of previous studies.     

Eliciting children’s recall of events: how do computers compare with humans?

This study investigated the usefulness of an interactive computer program in eliciting children's reports about an event. Fifty-four 5–6- and fifty-nine 7–8-year old children participated in an event with their regular class teacher which involved several activities and a mildly negative secret. Four days and again 14 days later, the children were interviewed individually by computer (alone) or by a human interviewer. The computer program incorporated animation and audio whereby an animated figure asked the questions and the children were required to provide a verbal response. The accuracy and detail of the children’s reports was similar across the interview conditions. The children were more willing to review their answers with the computer than the adult interviewer. However, responses to the computer were less consistent across the interviews, and the children were less willing to disclose the secret in the second interview to the computer compared with the human interviewer. Overall, the computer revealed little benefit in eliciting children’s recall of the event over the standard face-to-face interview.     

Virtual research assistants: Replacing human interviewers by automated avatars in virtual worlds

We conducted an experiment to evaluate the use of embodied survey bots (i.e., software-controlled avatars) as a novel method for automated data collection in 3D virtual worlds. A bot and a human-controlled avatar carried out a survey interview within the virtual world, Second Life, asking participants about their religion. In addition to interviewer agency (bot vs. human), we tested participants’ virtual age, that is, the time passed since the person behind the avatar joined Second Life, as a predictor for response rate and quality. The human interviewer achieved a higher response rate than the bot. Participants with younger avatars were more willing to disclose information about their real life than those with older avatars. Surprisingly, the human interviewer received more negative responses than the bot. Affective reactions of older avatars were also more negative than those of younger avatars. The findings provide support for the utility of bots as virtual research assistants but raise ethical questions that need to be considered carefully.     

Impact of two types of partner,perceived or actual,in human–human and human–agent interaction

Participants engaged in the Prisoner’s dilemma game with a partner through a computer terminal. We define two types of partner: a perceived partner and an actual partner, and manipulated the two factors independently. A perceived partner means a partner with whom participants imagined themselves to be interacting; instruction given by an experimenter controls the image of the perceived partner. An actual partner can change its behavior. In one scenario participants actually interacted with a human partner, in another scenario their partner was either a mostly cooperating computer agent or a mostly defecting computer agent. Three experiments were performed. The result suggested that the participants’ selection behavior was largely influenced by the instruction given about the partner by the experimenter and not influenced by the partner’s actual behavior. The analysis of the participants’ impressions of the partner showed that the effect of instruction about the partner disappeared. Individual likeability for a partner was very influenced by the partner’s behavior; as the participants incurred more defect actions from the partner, individual likeability for the partner decreased. On the other hand, social likeability for a partner was not so influenced by the partner’s behavior, but rather related to the participants’ own behavior. The participants who made more defect actions rated their partner’s social likeability lower.     

The effects of simulating human conversational style in a computer-based interview

A computer interview involves a program asking questions of the user, who responds by providing answers directly to the computer. Using a computer interview has been shown to be an effective method of eliciting information, and particularly personal information which many people find difficult to discuss face to face. While the simulation of some of the characteristics of human–human communication seems to enhance the dialogue, it appears to be the absence of others, such as being non-judgmental, unshockable, completely consistent, and unendingly patient, that gives computer interviewing its particular effectiveness.

The work reported in this paper investigated the effect of simulating in a computer interview two techniques which good human interviewers use: empathy and grouping questions. Thirty nine interviewees answered 40 questions on a computer, in combinations of human-like or computer-like question styles, and presented in either a logical or a random order.

They found the use of the human interviewer technique in the wording of questions made the computer interviews more interesting and enjoyable, than when blunt, direct questioning was used, and they answered honestly more often to the human-like style.

This investigation has shown that a computer interview can be made more effective by simulating the human interviewer technique of empathising with interviewees and softening those questions which are of a sensitive nature. It seems therefore that it is the combination of the right non-human characteristics with the right human characteristics that can produce a successful computer interview. The question for further research is which are the right characteristics in each case, given the purpose of the interview.     

The effects of a computerised interview on children's recall of an event

The usefulness of an interactive computer program in eliciting children's reports about an event was examined. Fifty-nine 5- to 6-year-old and fifty-two 7- to 8-year old children participated in an event with their regular class teacher, which involved several activities and a mildly negative secret. Four days later, the children were interviewed individually in one of three interview conditions; computer program alone, computer program with adult assistant present and standard verbal interview format. The computer program incorporated animation and audio whereby an animated figure asked the questions and the child was required to provide a verbal response. Results revealed that the children were just as willing to recount details of the event to the computer, compared to the standard interviewer; there was no effect of interview condition on the number of words and event features recalled, and on children's willingness to disclose the secret. However, the children favoured the computer interview format; they were more willing to revise their answers to the computer than to the adult interviewer. The implications of these findings and possible directions for future research are discussed.     

Social evaluations of embodied agents and avatars

The purpose of this study was to examine social evaluations (i.e., perceptions of empathy and positivity) following peoples’ interactions with digital human representations. Female research participants engaged in a 3-min interaction while immersed in a 3-D immersive virtual environment with a “peer counselor.” Participants were led to believe that the peer counselor was either an embodied agent (i.e., computer algorithm) or an avatar (i.e., another person). During the interaction, the peer counselor either smiled or not. As predicted, a digitally-rendered smile was found to affect participants’ social evaluations. However, these effects were moderated by participants’ beliefs about their interaction partner. Specifically, smiles enhanced social evaluations of embodied agents but degraded them for avatars. Although these results are consistent with other findings concerning the communicative realism of embodied agents and avatars they uniquely demonstrate that people’s beliefs alone, rather than actual differences in virtual representations, can impact social evaluations.     

Revealing sensitive information in personal interviews: Is self-disclosure easier with humans or avatars and under what conditions?

Despite the many advantages of computer-assisted data collection, it is unclear if, when, or under what conditions embodied conversational agents (i.e., ECA, virtual humans) can replace human interviewers to collect personal information in interviews, especially for topics that might be regarded as ‘sensitive’. This paper presents results from an exploratory study designed to investigate how topic sensitivity affects individuals' preference to disclose to a human or an ECA interviewer. A convenience sample of 203 undergraduate business students completed a scenario-based survey that asked them to rate the sensitivity of various interview topics and indicate their preference to disclose such sensitive information to human or ECA interviewers. Open-ended questions revealed factors behind preferences for interviewer choice. Findings show a preference for ECAs when topics are highly sensitive and more likely to evoke negative self-admissions. For topics rated low in sensitivity or more likely to evoke positive self-admissions, human interviewers are preferred. Specifically, participants stated that they would feel more comfortable discussing sensitive topics with an ECA interviewer because it could not judge them. This indicates that the evaluative capability of the interviewer plays a factor in the amount of sensitive information elicited from interviewees. Overall, results contribute to an understanding of when and why ECA interviewers can effectively replace human interviewers.     

Designing motivational agents: The role of praise, social comparison, and embodiment in computer feedback

The present study draws on theories of attribution, social comparison, and social facilitation to investigate how computers might use principles of motivation and persuasion to provide user feedback. In an online experiment, 192 participants performed a speed-reading task. The independent variables included whether or not the verbal feedback from the computer involved praise, whether the objective feedback showed that the participants were performing better or worse from their peers, and whether or not the feedback was presented by an on-screen agent. The main dependent variables included a subjective measure of participants’ intrinsic motivation and an objective measure of their task persistence. Results showed that providing participants with praise or comparative information on others’ performance improved intrinsic motivation. When praised, participants whose performances were comparatively low persisted in the task longer than those whose performances were comparatively high did. Additionally, the mere presence of an embodied agent on the screen increased participants’ motivation. Together, these results indicate that praise and social comparison can serve as effective forms of motivational feedback and that humanlike embodiment further improves user motivation.     

How level of realism influences anxiety in virtual reality environments for a job interview

This study describes how the level of graphical realism required in a virtual social simulation setting can be therapeutically useful in reducing job interview anxiety through exposure. We developed a virtual job interview simulation at a university career service to help student populations faced with the prospect of their first job interview. The virtual job interview simulation can deliver a realistic mock job interview within a high-quality immersive system that is similar to professional virtual reality (VR) systems. We conducted two experimental studies with a common theme: the role of graphical reality of the virtual interviewer and the immersive visual display in the virtual job interview simulation. The results are presented in this study based on a psycho-physiological approach, revealing variation in the distribution of participants′ anxiety state across various VR conditions. The overall conclusion of this study is that the sense of anxiety is less correlated to the graphical realism in VR environment even though the more graphically detailed the virtual human was, the more it provoked a sense of presence. In addition, at least some degree of physical immersion is needed to maintain anxiety levels over the course of VR exposure.     

Are computers good or bad for business? How mediated customer–computer interaction alters emotions,impressions, and patronage toward organizations

Are computers good or bad for business? Although computers are social actors research finds that people react to computers and humans with similar tendencies, little research directly compares human–computer interaction to human–human interaction. I ask how mediated transactions with a company’s human or computer representatives alter customers’ reactions toward that company. I conduct an experiment where subjects in the role of customers received products (low or high quality) from a representative (human or computer). I measure the customer’s emotions, impressions, and patronage toward both the representative and the organization. The data indicate few differences in reactions toward the representative and the organization, however, customers perceive the organization as more responsible and in control when they have employed human, not computer, representatives. A hypothesized statistical interaction effect (a moderation effect) on several emotions indicates that computer representatives decrease the strength of the relationship between receiving low or high quality products and customer’s emotions. Although many customer reactions indicate no human/computer differences, I discuss how the statistical moderation effect of computer identity on several emotions may relate to computers are social actors and other research.     

Does social desirability bias favor humans? Explicit-implicit evaluations of synthesized speech support a new HCI model of impression management

Do people treat computers as social actors? To answer this question, researchers have measured the extent to which computers elicit social responses in people, such as impression management strategies for influencing the perceptions of others. But on this question findings in the literature conflict. To make sense of these findings, the present study proposes a dual-process model of impression management in human-computer interaction. The model predicts that, although machines may elicit nonconscious impression management strategies, they do not generally elicit conscious impression management strategies. One such strategy is presenting oneself favorably to others, which can be measured as social desirability bias when comparing self-reported preferences with implicit preferences. The current study uses both a questionnaire and an implicit association test (IAT) to compare attitudes toward human and machine speech. Although past studies on social desirability bias have demonstrated people’s tendency to underreport their preference for the preferred group when comparing two human groups, the current study found that, when comparing human speech and machine-synthesized speech, participants instead overreported their preference for the preferred (human) group. This finding supports the proposed dual-process model of impression management, because participants did not consciously treat computers as social actors.     

Perceiving artificial social agents

Three experiments were conducted to examine perceptions of a natural language computer interface (conversation bot). Participants in each study chatted with a conversation bot and then indicated their perceptions of the bot on various dimensions. Although participants were informed that they were interacting with a computer program, participants clearly viewed the program as having human-like qualities. Participants agreed substantially in their perceptions of the bot’s personality on the traits from the five-factor model (Experiment 1). In addition, factors that influence perceptions of human personalities (e.g., whether one uses another’s first name and response latency) also affected perceptions of a bot’s personality (Experiments 2 and 3). Similar to interactions with humans, the bot’s perceived neuroticism was inversely related to how long individuals chatted with it.     

Investigating recognition-based performance in an open content community: A social capital perspective

As the open source movement grows, it becomes important to understand the dynamics that affect the motivation of participants who contribute their time freely to such projects. One important motivation that has been identified is the desire for formal recognition in the open source community. We investigated the impact of social capital in participants’ social networks on their recognition-based performance; i.e., the formal status they are accorded in the community. We used a sample of 465 active participants in the Wikipedia open content encyclopedia community to investigate the effects of two types of social capital and found that network closure, measured by direct and indirect ties, had a significant positive effect on increasing participants’ recognition-based performance. Structural holes had mixed effects on participants’ status, but were generally a source of social capital.     

The expression of social presence through the use of figurative language in a web-based learning environment

The present paper’s aim is to investigate how the participants of an online learning environment employed written language in a creative way through the spontaneous use of figurative language. The content analysis showed that figurative language was a means to express the social dimension either to refer to the self, feelings and emotions, or to conceptualize the components of the virtual learning setting. The research context was a 10-week course, delivered at a distance via a computer conferencing system, addressed to 57 student teachers. The analysis was carried out in the social and meta-cognitive reflection areas, those areas which are mainly related to the expression of the social dimension The study had three different purposes: to investigate the distribution of figurative language during the course length; to explore the relation between the participants’ educational background and their use of figurative language, and to examine the relation between figurative language and the structure of the communication threads. The results indicate that participants tended to use figurative language more when meaningful or critical events happened. The higher the emotional involvement was, the more metaphorical language was adopted. Further results suggest that the adoption of figurative language seems to be related more to individual attitude, than to other factors such as educational background. Finally, figurative language occurrences were not concentrated in specific kinds of postings or threads and did not encourage further use of figurative language.     

Gender stereotyping over instant messenger: The effects of gender and context

Researchers have observed that contrary to the high expectations for online communications, gender stereotyping has not disappeared in this medium, and is sometimes even accentuated. This study aimed to understand the effect of gender over instant messenger, a relatively new and unexplored medium. Instant messenger was chosen because it is a medium that is used most by youth who have grown up communicating online. Participants were interviewed over instant messenger about a potential online support service and were then asked to judge the effectiveness of their interviewer. The interviewer was identified only by a masculine or feminine name and was computer-simulated so as to remove any bias. The topic of discussion was stereotypically masculine or stereotypically feminine. Male participants were found to employ a male superiority heuristic, whereby they judged the male interviewer as more competent, regardless of the context. Female participants were hypothesized to judge the female interviewer as more competent in the feminine context, and the male interviewer as more competent in the masculine context (the context-gender match heuristic), but this hypothesis was not supported. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research on gender stereotyping in online communication.     

The role of self-construal in consumers’ electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites: A social cognitive approach

The current study reconceptualized self-construal as a social cognitive indicator of self-observation that individuals employ for developing and maintaining social relationship with others. From the social cognitive perspective, this study investigated how consumers’ self-construal can affect consumers’ electronic word of mouth (eWOM) behavior through two cognitive factors (online community engagement self-efficacy and social outcome expectations) in the context of a social networking site. This study conducted an online experiment that directed 160 participants to visit a newly created online community. The results demonstrated that consumers’ relational view became salient when the consumers’ self-construal was primed to be interdependent rather than independent. Further, the results showed that such interdependent self-construal positively influenced consumers’ eWOM behavioral intentions through their community engagement self-efficacy and their social outcome expectations.     

“Everyone Has to Do It:” A joint action approach to managing social inattention

In an always-connected world, managing social inattention – that is, explaining the inability to interact at a particular time – can be as important as coordinating mutual availability. Inattention, particularly if repeated, can have significant relational consequences as it may be considered rude and can lead to painful social outcomes. Prior research has examined the butler lie, one strategy commonly used to manage social inattention while preserving relationships. This paper builds on that via an interview study of 47 participants that qualitatively examines perceptions of butler lies from both the senders’ and receivers’ perspectives. Participants see butler lies as a common and useful inattention management strategy, but these messages can have a negative effect receivers do not perceive the senders’ intentions to be positive. Factors affecting the perception of intent include relationship strength and history, the stakes of the situation, and past behavior. The paper argues that inattention management should be considered a joint coordination problem characterized by a willingness to accept the pragmatic relational meaning of messages, which may differ from their literal semantic meaning. This hints at a collaborative view of deception, in which some interlocutors are aware they are being deceived and willing to accept deception.     

Human-agent teamwork in dynamic environments

Teamwork between humans and computer agents has become increasingly prevalent. This paper presents a behavioral study of fairness and trust in a heterogeneous setting comprising both computer agents and human participants. It investigates people’s choice of teammates and their commitment to their teams in a dynamic environment in which actions occur at a fast pace and decisions are made within tightly constrained time frames, under conditions of uncertainty and partial information. In this setting, participants could form teams by negotiating over the division of a reward for the successful completion of a group task. Participants could also choose to defect from their existing teams in order to join or create other teams. Results show that when people form teams, they offer significantly less reward to agents than they offer to people. The most significant factor affecting people’s decisions whether to defect from their existing teams is the extent to which they had successful previous interactions with other team members. Also, there is no significant difference in people’s rate of defection from agent-led teams as compared to their defection from human-led teams. These results are significant for agent designers and behavioral researchers who study human-agent interactions.