古典建筑中的“身体”投射

该文探讨了身体的物质形态在古典建筑中的直接体现。身体与建筑物的类比源于维特鲁威,并在文艺复兴时期得到充分的发展。文艺复兴时期的许多概念如"神人同形同性论"都是与身体有着莫大的关联。这种身体的直接显现是通过几何、比例表现出来,使得建筑物在表达有机形式的同时,获得了一种形式上的自治和分类。     

PLANT’S-EYE VIEWS OF TAIPEI

The installation of “Plant’s-Eye Views of Taipei” is the result of an international workshop that took place in Taipei in summer 2018, organized as part of the 2018 Taipei Biennial. Under the direction of two participating artists, and with the help from ecologists and videographers, university students from the Asia-Pacific region each imagined themselves as a particular plant. Students began by examining the physiology of selected plants to better understand their characteristics and life histories, as well as their adaptive features and ecosystem behaviors. In viewing themselves as plants, students were able to see Taipei through a new lens as a place coproduced by the city’s urban flora and human communities. The installation including scaffolds, sketches, and films was exhibited at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum to explore different ways through which plants view the city, as well as notions of anthropomorphism, phytomorphism, and phototropism.     

Anthropomorphism and the social robot

This paper discusses the issues pertinent to the development of a meaningful social interaction between robots and people through employing degrees of anthropomorphism in a robot’s physical design and behaviour. As robots enter our social space, we will inherently project/impose our interpretation on their actions similar to the techniques we employ in rationalising, for example, a pet’s behaviour. This propensity to anthropomorphise is not seen as a hindrance to social robot development, but rather a useful mechanism that requires judicious examination and employment in social robot research.     

Social organization in virtual settings depends on proximity to human visual aspect

Virtual environments are inherently social spaces, in which humans interact through avatars. However, the parameters which favor inter-individual social structuring in those settings are still far to be understood. Particularly, the putative influence of anthropomorphic similarity of visual aspect on social organization of avatars is a key issue to understand the cognitive processes used to form social interactions in virtual worlds. Using the highly popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft as a model of socially-active virtual setting, we analyzed the social behavior of 11,649 avatars as a function of their visual aspect. Our results show that social structuring in virtual settings depends on proximity to human visual aspect. Social groups formed by human-like avatars display more homogeneity than what the optimal use of the interface would predict, while this effect is not observed for social groups formed by non-human avatars. Thus, immersion in virtual environments depends more on visually-triggered social dynamics (role-play) than on optimal use of the interface (game-play). Furthermore, social aspect may override the immediate reward of interface optimization, thus representing a major factor of immersion in virtual environments.     

Effects of cognition demand,mode of interactivity and brand anthropomorphism on gamers’ brand attention and memory in advergames

This paper explores how game and message related characteristics of interactivity and brand anthropomorphism interact each other with gamers' cognition demand (high cognition versus low cognition demand) to influence gamers' brand attention, brand recall, and brand recognition in advergames. The mixed-measures experimental design study revealed that in high cognition demand game play, gamers' brand attention, recognition, and recall are low, in comparison with low cognition demand game. However, in high cognition demand condition, gamers exposed to brand interactivity game (versus no interactivity and game interactivity) showed higher brand attention and memory. The results also showed that gamers’ brand anthropomorphism works as a boundary condition which further shapes the above-said effects.     

Smartphones as Social Actors? Social dispositional factors in assessing anthropomorphism

Smartphones are prominently personalized and personified in our society. Existing Computers as Social Actors (CASA) studies about anthropomorphism and social interactions have focused on how to identify and elicit positive anthropomorphic effects but have seldom addressed motivations and dispositional factors of the user. Through an online survey that incorporates validated social psychological scales, this study provides empirical evidence that smartphone users’ social disposition, including factors of chronic loneliness, attachment style, and cultural orientation, is associated with their acceptance and awareness of anthropomorphism. The findings corroborate and add to the theory of sociality determinant of anthropomorphism, the computing technology continuum of perspective, and the CASA paradigm.     

How should intelligent agents apologize to restore trust? Interaction effects between anthropomorphism and apology attribution on trust repair

Trust is essential in individuals’ perception, behavior, and evaluation of intelligent agents. Because, it is the primary motive for people to accept new technology, it is crucial to repair trust when damaged. This study investigated how intelligent agents should apologize to recover trust and how the effectiveness of the apology is different when the agent is human-like compared to machine-like based on two seemingly competing frameworks of the Computers-Are-Social-Actors paradigm and automation bias. A 2 (agent: Human-like vs. Machine-like) X 2 (apology attribution: Internal vs. External) between-subject design experiment was conducted (N = 193) in the context of the stock market. Participants were presented with a scenario to make investment choices based on an artificial intelligence agent’s advice. To see the trajectory of the initial trust-building, trust violation, and trust repair process, we designed an investment game that consists of five rounds of eight investment choices (40 investment choices in total). The results show that trust was repaired more efficiently when a human-like agent apologizes with internal rather than external attribution. However, the opposite pattern was observed among participants who had machine-like agents; the external rather than internal attribution condition showed better trust repair. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Chatbot for SMEs: Integrating customer and business owner perspectives

PurposeChatbots have been widely adopted to create more positive customer experiences as customers now spend more time in digital environments. Despite the technological advancement and benefits of chatbots for customer service, research on chatbot applications for Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is limited. The absence of research explaining the struggles faced by SMEs contributes to the gap of SMEs' chatbot adoption. This research determines the features and elements that fit with SMEs’ characteristics and their customers with chatbots.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach is used to understand SMEs' needs. Study 1 uses interviews with SME business owners and its customers; it aims to explore the features that should be provided by chatbots for SME by identifying combinations between chatbots' generic features and SMEs' customer characteristics. Study 2 tests features identified in Study 1 and surveys 315 SMEs customers to empirically test featured chatbots' influence to anthropomorphism, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and how they affect SMEs’ customer intentions to use chatbots and their shopping intentions.Findings –The findings suggest four combinations of chatbot features that match SME customer characteristics: responsive; simple steps to trigger customer actions; humanized conversations; and personalized recommendations. An experimental survey was designed by creating a chatbot prototype based on these features. The results show that the featured chatbot prototype affects higher anthropomorphism, perceived enjoyment, and perceived usefulness, compared to the standard chatbot. We also find that perceived enjoyment and usefulness positively affect customer's intention to shop and intention to use the chatbot. While anthropomorphism only affect customer's shopping intention to SMEs.OriginalityThis paper contributes to the emerging service literature on the use of chatbots service interactions, particularly for SMEs. This research provides robust explorations from the perspective of both SME owners and customers. For practice, the research provides guidelines on how to design a chatbot for SMEs that meet customers’ needs.     

The more humanlike,the better? How speech type and users’ cognitive style affect social responses to computers

The present experiment investigated if anthropomorphic interfaces facilitate people’s tendency to project social expectations onto computers and how such effects might vary depending on users’ cognitive style. In a 2 (synthetic vs. recorded speech) × 2 (flattering vs. generic feedback) × 2 (low vs. high rationality) × 2 (low vs. high experientiality) experiment, participants played a trivia game with a computer. Use of recorded speech did not amplify the previously documented flattery effects (Fogg & Nass, 1997), challenging the notion that anthropomorphism will promote social responses to computers. Participants evaluated the human-voiced computer more positively and conformed more to its suggestions than the one using synthetic speech, but such effects were found only among less analytical or more intuition-driven individuals, suggesting dispositional differences in people’s susceptibility to anthropomorphic cues embedded in the interface.