Similarity in action with an Embodied Conversational Agent; can synchronous speech yield higher levels of rapport? An exploratory eHealth study

IF 0.8 Q3 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Interaction Design and Architectures Pub Date : 2023-03-15 DOI:10.55612/s-5002-056-007

M. Scholten, S. Kelders, J. V. van Gemert-Pijnen

{"title":"Similarity in action with an Embodied Conversational Agent; can synchronous speech yield higher levels of rapport? An exploratory eHealth study","authors":"M. Scholten, S. Kelders, J. V. van Gemert-Pijnen","doi":"10.55612/s-5002-056-007","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Self-guided eHealth has the benefit of providing autonomy to patients. However, the autonomy comes with a cost; elevated attrition rates. Embodied Conversational Agents (‘robots on screen’), have technological capabilities to build rapport with eHealth users and to support them, but are costly to realize and their evidence is inconclusive. We investigated a novel and low-technological method to build rapport. eHealth users synchronized their speech with a monologue-style ECA, a method for which there exists evidence within the human-to-human communication domain. User experiences were investigated using predominantly qualitative methods. As our study results show, users are fairly positive about speaking synchronously with the ECA. However, the experimental task needs refinements. Users need to priorly hear, at least once, the pace of their artificial interlocutor in order to synchronize. Future studies can further examine the refined synchronous speech task and its potential for more widely accessible rapport-building ECA’s aiming for eHealth adherence.","PeriodicalId":44247,"journal":{"name":"Interaction Design and Architectures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Interaction Design and Architectures","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-056-007","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Self-guided eHealth has the benefit of providing autonomy to patients. However, the autonomy comes with a cost; elevated attrition rates. Embodied Conversational Agents (‘robots on screen’), have technological capabilities to build rapport with eHealth users and to support them, but are costly to realize and their evidence is inconclusive. We investigated a novel and low-technological method to build rapport. eHealth users synchronized their speech with a monologue-style ECA, a method for which there exists evidence within the human-to-human communication domain. User experiences were investigated using predominantly qualitative methods. As our study results show, users are fairly positive about speaking synchronously with the ECA. However, the experimental task needs refinements. Users need to priorly hear, at least once, the pace of their artificial interlocutor in order to synchronize. Future studies can further examine the refined synchronous speech task and its potential for more widely accessible rapport-building ECA’s aiming for eHealth adherence.

查看原文本刊更多论文

与化身会话代理在动作上的相似性；同步语音能产生更高层次的融洽关系吗？一项探索性的电子健康研究

自助电子健康的好处是为患者提供自主性。然而，自主性是有代价的；流失率上升。化身对话代理（“屏幕上的机器人”）具有与eHealth用户建立融洽关系并为他们提供支持的技术能力，但实现成本高昂，其证据也没有定论。我们研究了一种新的、低技术含量的建立融洽关系的方法。eHealth用户将他们的演讲与独白式ECA同步，这种方法在人与人之间的交流领域中存在证据。用户体验主要采用定性方法进行调查。正如我们的研究结果所示，用户对与ECA同步发言持相当积极的态度。然而，实验任务需要改进。为了同步，用户需要至少先听到一次人工对话者的节奏。未来的研究可以进一步检验精炼的同步语音任务及其在建立更广泛的融洽关系方面的潜力，ECA的目标是遵守电子健康。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Interaction Design and Architectures EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

15.40%

发文量

审稿时长

20 weeks

期刊介绍： IxD&A (Interaction Design and Architecture (s)) Journal bases its existence on the following beliefs: - the complexity of today''s society requires the developments of new visions and new tools to address new systemic problems; - one needs at large to promote a deeper understanding of the interaction mechanisms, whatever the scale and the phenomena involved, from which originate the dynamic and static of the systems and all forms of architectures; - within complex systems, processes, architectures and cultural stratifications the focus should be always the individuals and their continuous co-evolution with the place that they populate; - the project and the ability to meta-design are central elements necessary to live consciously experiences, and above all those mediated by the machine. IxD&A aims to offer an interdisciplinary arena where everybody can present top level researches and discuss ideas on the future of technology mediated experiences in the field of communication, learning, working, entertainment, healthcare, etc...) a future that can be made possible by a joint effort in research and education. IxD&A, indeed, offers the ideal forum for meeting among frontier research, education, cutting edge technology development and application. Indeed, there will be no future if research and education will not be able to meet the world of production, or, in other words if we will not be able to transfer the ''lab'' into real life.