scholarly journals Voice Assistant vs. Chatbot – Examining the Fit Between Conversational Agents’ Interaction Modalities and Information Search Tasks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Rzepka ◽  
Benedikt Berger ◽  
Thomas Hess
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Task Technology Fit

AbstractOwing to technological advancements in artificial intelligence, voice assistants (VAs) offer speech as a new interaction modality. Compared to text-based interaction, speech is natural and intuitive, which is why companies use VAs in customer service. However, we do not yet know for which kinds of tasks speech is beneficial. Drawing on task-technology fit theory, we present a research model to examine the applicability of VAs to different tasks. To test this model, we conducted a laboratory experiment with 116 participants who had to complete an information search task with a VA or a chatbot. The results show that speech exhibits higher perceived efficiency, lower cognitive effort, higher enjoyment, and higher service satisfaction than text-based interaction. We also find that these effects depend on the task’s goal-directedness. These findings extend task-technology fit theory to customers’ choice of interaction modalities and inform practitioners about the use of VAs for information search tasks.

What factors other than age predict performance on an information search task?

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Czaja ◽  
Joseph Sharit ◽  
Sankaran N. Nair
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Search Task

Executive Dysfunction Mediates the Association Between Older Age and Online Health Information Search Performance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Kordovski ◽  
Savanna M. Tierney ◽  
Samina Rahman ◽  
Luis D. Medina ◽  
Michelle A. Babicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Older Age ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related

Objective: Searching the Internet for health-related information is a complex and dynamic goal-oriented process that places demands on executive functions, which are higher-order cognitive abilities that are known to deteriorate with older age. This study aimed to examine the effects of older age on electronic health (eHealth) search behavior, and to determine whether executive functions played a mediating role in that regard. Method: Fifty younger adults (≤ 35 years) and 41 older adults (≥50 years) completed naturalistic eHealth search tasks involving fact-finding (Fact Search) and symptom diagnosis (Symptom Search), a neurocognitive battery, and a series of questionnaires. Results: Multiple regression models with relevant covariates revealed that older adults were slower and less accurate than younger adults on the eHealth Fact Search task, but not on the eHealth Symptom Search task. Nevertheless, executive functions mediated the relationship between older age and eHealth Fact Search and Symptom Search accuracy. Conclusions: Older adults can experience difficulty searching the Internet for some health-related information, which is at least partly attributable to executive dysfunction. Future studies are needed to determine the benefits of training in the organizational and strategic aspects of Internet search for older adults and whether these findings are applicable to clinical populations with executive dysfunction.

A fully automated conversational agent with artificial intelligence capabilities (Youper) for treating depression and anxiety: A nonrandomized feasibility trial (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Hamilton Vargas ◽  
Thiago Antonio Marafon ◽  
Diego Fernando Couto ◽  
Ricardo Giglio ◽  
Marvin Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Feasibility Trial ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Viable Solution

BACKGROUND Mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety disorders, are significant global concerns. Many people with these conditions don't get the help they need because of the high costs of medical treatment and the stigma attached to seeking help. Digital technologies represent a viable solution to these challenges. However, these technologies are often characterized by relatively low adherence and their effectiveness largely remains empirical unverified. While digital technologies may represent a viable solution for this persisting problem, they often lack empirical support for their effectiveness and are characterized by relatively low adherence. Conversational agents using artificial intelligence capabilities have the potential to offer a cost-effective, low-stigma and engaging way of getting mental health care. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of Youper, a mobile application that utilizes a conversational interface and artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults. METHODS 1,012 adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety participated in a real-world setting study, entirely remotely, unguided and with no financial incentives, over an 8-week period. Participants completed digital versions of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) at baseline, 2, 4, and 8 weeks. RESULTS After the eight-week study period, depression (PHQ-9) scores of participants decreased by 48% while anxiety (GAD-7) scores decreased by 43%. The RCI was outside 2 standard deviations for 93.0% of the individuals in the PHQ-9 assessment and 90.7% in the GAD-7 assessment. Participants were on average 24.79 years old (SD 7.61) and 77% female. On average, participants interacted with Youper 0.9 (SD 1.56) times per week. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that Youper is a feasible, acceptable, and effective intervention for adults with depression and anxiety. CLINICALTRIAL Since this study involved a nonclinical population, it wasn't registered in a public trials registry.

In quest of goldilocks ranges in searching for information on the web

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Matysek ◽  
Jacek Tomaszczyk
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Web Searching ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Right ◽  
User Experiment ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe quest to discover optimal conditions or amounts has been carried out in many scientific disciplines and practical fields. In astrophysics, biology, medicine, psychology and education, the quest has resulted in finding the right amount of something, a desirable middle between extremes, a balance between conditions or the optimal state of a system. The results are referred to as the Goldilocks principle, which is based on the idea of being “just right”. The aim of our study was to find out if there are any measures in information search that could be identified as Goldilocks ranges.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a user experiment in which 68 participants carried out a time-unlimited, topical search task involving finding relevant websites on the basis of which the participants were supposed to prepare a presentation on a given topic. We examined aspects of their search behavior.FindingsWe found that information search Goldilocks ranges can be identified for a length of a search session, number of relevant results, number of queries submitted and number of search engine results pages (SERPs) visited. This preliminary study has resulted in indicating the following dominant ranges: Number of relevant documents found: 5–8; Time spent searching: 21–35 min; Number of queries submitted: 3–7; Number of SERPs viewed: 1–3.Originality/valueTill now, no one has studied Goldilocks ranges in information retrieval. The Goldilocks ranges have some practical implications for improving the effectiveness of web searching.

scholarly journals Reading problems and their connection with visual search and attention: The search for a cause continues

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heida Maria Sigurdardottir ◽  
Hilma Ros Omarsdóttir ◽  
Anna Sigridur Valgeirsdottir
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Reading Problems ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Reading Abilities ◽  
Gating Mechanism

Attention has been hypothesized to act as a sequential gating mechanism for the orderly processing of letters in words. These same visuo-attentional processes are assumed to partake in some but not all visual search tasks. In the current study, 60 adults with varying degrees of reading abilities, ranging from expert readers to severely impaired dyslexic readers, completed an attentionally demanding visual conjunction search task thought to heavily rely on the dorsal visual stream. A visual feature search task served as an internal control. According to the dorsal view of dyslexia, reading problems should go hand in hand with specific problems in visual conjunction search – particularly elevated conjunction search slopes (time per search item) – which would be interpreted as a problem with visual attention. Results showed that reading problems were associated with slower visual search, especially conjunction search. However, problems with reading were not associated with increased conjunction search slopes but instead with increased conjunction search intercepts, traditionally not interpreted as reflecting attentional processes. Our data are hard to reconcile with hypothesized problems in dyslexia with the serial moving of an attentional spotlight across a visual scene or a page of text.

scholarly journals Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair D F Clarke ◽  
Jessica Irons ◽  
Warren James ◽  
Andrew B. Leber ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Over Time

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here we ask if an individual's strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers in the three tasks mentioned above over two sessions. Even though the test-retest reliability of the tasks is high, an observer's performance and strategy in one task did not reliably predict their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals, but also how individuals interact with the search task and context. These context-specific but stable individual differences in strategy can account for a substantial proportion of variability in search performance.

scholarly journals Model of Making Decisions during an Information Search Task

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Francisco López-Orozco ◽  
Luis D. Rodríguez-Vega
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Search Task

Primary Care: The Actual Intelligence Required for Artificial Intelligence to Advance Health Care and Improve Health (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winston R. Liaw ◽  
John M Westfall ◽  
Tyler S Williamson ◽  
Yalda Jabbarpour ◽  
Andrew Bazemore
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Vital Signs ◽  
Patient Privacy ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Remote Sensors ◽  
Delivery Platform ◽  
And Training ◽  
Improve Health

UNSTRUCTURED With conversational agents triaging symptoms, cameras aiding diagnoses, and remote sensors monitoring vital signs, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) outside of hospitals has the potential to improve health, according to a recently released report from the National Academy of Medicine. Despite this promise, AI’s success is not guaranteed, and stakeholders need to be involved with its development to ensure that the resulting tools can be easily used by clinicians, protect patient privacy, and enhance the value of the care delivered. A crucial stakeholder group missing from the conversation is primary care. As the nation’s largest delivery platform, primary care will have a powerful impact on whether AI is adopted and subsequently exacerbates health disparities. To leverage these benefits, primary care needs to serve as a medical home for AI, broaden its teams and training, and build on government initiatives and funding.

Examining internet banking user’s continuance intention through the lens of technology continuance theory and task technology fit model

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samar Rahi ◽  
Mazuri Abd Ghani
Keyword(s):  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Internet Banking ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Matrix Analysis ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Continuance Intention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Task Technology Fit ◽  
And Task ◽  
Expectation Confirmation

Purpose The long-term success of internet banking (IB) services is connected with continuous use. Therefore, examining factors which influence IB user continuance intention is important. Grounded in technology continuance theory, bank transparency and task technology fit (TTF) model, the purpose of this study is to develop a unified technology continuance model to investigate IB user continuance intention. Design/methodology/approach The research model was empirically tested with 348 responses. Respondents included in this study had prior experience with IB services. For hypotheses testing, the structural equation modelling approach was used. Findings Findings indicate that the research model has substantial power in explaining IB user continuance intention. Importance performance matrix analysis revealed that bank transparency had the highest importance in determining IB user continuance intention. Therefore, factors like user satisfaction and perceived usefulness have shown a medium level of importance in determining IB user continuance intention. Satisfaction is influenced by perceived usefulness and confirmation and established a significant impact on IB user continuance intention. Practical implications The findings of this research are useful for bank managers and policymakers to develop and design IB services according to user’s expectations. Results demonstrate that expectation confirmation and perceived usefulness are antecedents of IB user satisfaction and IB user continuance intention. In addition to that bank, transparency has shown a significant effect on user expectation and IB user continuance intention. These findings established that accuracy in sharing bank information and clarity in transaction charges encourage the user to continue the use of IB services. Originality/value The current study develops a unified technology continuance model based on the TTF model and technology continuance theory and investigates IB user continuance intention. Moreover, bank transparency is added in the technology continuance model and established a significant impact towards user expectation confirmation and continuance intention. These findings contribute to the limited body of research in the context of IB user continuance intention and enrich information system literature.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document