User Perception of Teachable Robots: A Comparative Study of Teaching Strategies, Task Complexity and User Characteristics

This study explores the influence of teaching methods, task complexity, and user characteristics on perceptions of teachable robots. Analysis of responses from 138 participants reveals that both Teaching with Evaluative Feedback and Teaching through Preferences were perceived as equally user-friendly and easier to use compared to the non-interactive condition. Additionally, Teaching with Evaluative Feedback enhanced robot responsiveness, while Teaching with Preferences yielded results similar to the passive Download condition, suggesting that the degree of interactivity and human guidance in the former may not substantially impact user perceptions. Personality traits, particularly extraversion and intellect, shape teaching method preferences. Task complexity influenced the perceived anthropomorphism, control, and responsiveness of the robot. Notably, the classification task led to higher anthropomorphism, control, and responsiveness scores. Our findings emphasise the importance of task design and the need of tailoring teaching methods to the user’s personality to optimise human-robot interactions, particularly in educational contexts. Project website: https://sites.google.com/view/teachable-robots

Towards Learning ‘Self’ and Emotional Knowledge in Social and Cultural Human-Agent Interactions

Original article can be found at: http://www.igi-global.com/articles/details.asp?ID=35052 Copyright IGI. Posted by permission of the publisher.This article presents research towards the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) inhabited by intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and modeling a scenario of inter-cultural interactions. The ultimate aim of this VLE is to allow users to reflect upon and learn about intercultural communication and collaboration. Rather than predefining the interactions among the virtual agents and scripting the possible interactions afforded by this environment, we pursue a bottomup approach whereby inter-cultural communication emerges from interactions with and among autonomous agents and the user(s). The intelligent virtual agents that are inhabiting this environment are expected to be able to broaden their knowledge about the world and other agents, which may be of different cultural backgrounds, through interactions. This work is part of a collaborative effort within a European research project called eCIRCUS. Specifically, this article focuses on our continuing research concerned with emotional knowledge learning in autobiographic social agents.Peer reviewe

From Affect Theoretical Foundations to Computational Models of Intelligent Affective Agents

[EN] The links between emotions and rationality have been extensively studied and discussed. Several computational approaches have also been proposed to model these links. However, is it possible to build generic computational approaches and languages so that they can be "adapted " when a specific affective phenomenon is being modeled? Would these approaches be sufficiently and properly grounded? In this work, we want to provide the means for the development of these generic approaches and languages by making a horizontal analysis inspired by philosophical and psychological theories of the main affective phenomena that are traditionally studied. Unfortunately, not all the affective theories can be adapted to be used in computational models; therefore, it is necessary to perform an analysis of the most suitable theories. In this analysis, we identify and classify the main processes and concepts which can be used in a generic affective computational model, and we propose a theoretical framework that includes all these processes and concepts that a model of an affective agent with practical reasoning could use. Our generic theoretical framework supports incremental research whereby future proposals can improve previous ones. This framework also supports the evaluation of the coverage of current computational approaches according to the processes that are modeled and according to the integration of practical reasoning and affect-related issues. This framework is being used in the development of the GenIA(3) architecture.This work is partially supported by the Spanish Government projects PID2020-113416RB-I00, GVA-CEICE project PROMETEO/2018/002, and TAILOR, a project funded by EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under GA No 952215.Alfonso, B.; Taverner-Aparicio, JJ.; Vivancos, E.; Botti, V. (2021). From Affect Theoretical Foundations to Computational Models of Intelligent Affective Agents. Applied Sciences. 11(22):1-29. https://doi.org/10.3390/app112210874S129112

Are You Trying to Be Funny? The Impact of Affiliative Humor of Smart Home Technologies on Human-Like Trust

Smart home technologies (SHTs) perform tasks in the most intimate areas of life and therefore require blind user trust from the start. To build this trust, vendors often rely on creating human-like interactions with devices, such as by incorporating humor. Although humor in SHTs is becoming more advanced, e.g., through advanced joke selection algorithms, its actual impact is largely unexplored. In this work, we address this gap and study the impact of affiliative humor as a human-like characteristic on perceived social presence and initial trust in SHTs. To this end, we conducted a vignette-based experiment with potential users (N=63). Our results contribute by uncovering the mechanisms underlying humor as a trust-building characteristic in SHTs. Moreover, in this way, we also provide important insights for the design and communication of SHTs, which can be valuable for vendors to foster perceived human-likeness and thus initial user trust in smart technologies

Sustaining Patient Engagement: The Role of Health Emotion and Personality Traits in Patient Portal Continuous Use Decision

Healthcare providers increasingly rely on technology, such as patient portals, for asynchronous communication with their patients. Even though clinicians have increasingly adopted patient portals to enhance healthcare quality and reduce cost, few patients continue to use this technology. In this paper, we investigate the effect that individuals’ health emotion and personality traits as measured using the five-factor model (FFM) have on patients’ intention to continually use patient portals through the lens of emotional dissonance theory. We collected survey data from 187 patients at a major medical center in the Midwestern United States. After we analyzed the data using structural equation modeling, we found that the final model explained 40 percent of the variance in intention to continue to use. Our results suggest that whether individuals continue to use technology depends on their reactions to technology in which health emotions and personality traits play a crucial part. Additionally, health emotion modifies the effect that personality traits have on patients’ intention to continue to use a patient portal. Our study provides healthcare organizations with an integrated view of patient portal use behavior and shows that individual personality traits and health emotion may increase sustainable patient enrollment and engagement

Sustaining Patient Engagement: The Role of Health Emotion and Personality Traits in Patient Portal Continuous Use Decision

Healthcare providers increasingly rely on technology, such as patient portals, for asynchronous communication with their patients. Even though clinicians have increasingly adopted patient portals to enhance healthcare quality and reduce cost, few patients continue to use this technology. In this paper, we investigate the effect that individuals’ health emotion and personality traits as measured using the five-factor model (FFM) have on patients’ intention to continually use patient portals through the lens of emotional dissonance theory. We collected survey data from 187 patients at a major medical center in the Midwestern United States. After we analyzed the data using structural equation modeling, we found that the final model explained 40 percent of the variance in intention to continue to use. Our results suggest that whether individuals continue to use technology depends on their reactions to technology in which health emotions and personality traits play a crucial part. Additionally, health emotion modifies the effect that personality traits have on patients’ intention to continue to use a patient portal. Our study provides healthcare organizations with an integrated view of patient portal use behavior and shows that individual personality traits and health emotion may increase sustainable patient enrollment and engagement

A Dual-Identity Perspective of Obsessive Online Social Gaming

Obsessive online social gaming has become a worldwide societal challenge that deserves more scholarly investigation. However, this issue has not received much attention in the information systems (IS) research community. Guided by dual-system theory, we theoretically derive a typology of obsessive technology use and contextually adapt it to conceptualize obsessive online social gaming. We also build upon identity theory to develop a dual-identity perspective (i.e., IT identity and social identity) of obsessive online social gaming. We test our research model using a longitudinal survey of 627 online social game users. Our results demonstrate that the typology of obsessive technology use comprises four interrelated types: impulsive use, compulsive use, excessive use, and addictive use. IT identity positively affects the four obsessive online social gaming archetypes and fully mediates the effect of social identity on obsessive online social gaming. The results also show that IT identity is predicted by embeddedness, self-efficacy, and instant gratification, whereas social identity is determined by group similarity, group familiarity, and intragroup communication. Our study contributes to the IS literature by proposing a typology of obsessive technology use, incorporating identity theory to provide a contextualized explanation of obsessive online social gaming and offering implications for addressing the societal challenge

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume 5. Gender and Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume