Speed Dating with Voice User Interfaces: Understanding How Families Interact and Perceive Voice User Interfaces in a Group Setting

As voice-user interfaces (VUIs), such as smart speakers like Amazon Alexa or social robots like Jibo, enter multi-user environments like our homes, it is critical to understand how group members perceive and interact with these devices. VUIs engage socially with users, leveraging multi-modal cues including speech, graphics, expressive sounds, and movement. The combination of these cues can affect how users perceive and interact with these devices. Through a set of three elicitation studies, we explore family interactions (N = 34 families, 92 participants, ages 4–69) with three commercially available VUIs with varying levels of social embodiment. The motivation for these three studies began when researchers noticed that families interacted differently with three agents when familiarizing themselves with the agents and, therefore, we sought to further investigate this trend in three subsequent studies designed as a conceptional replication study. Each study included three activities to examine participants’ interactions with and perceptions of the three VUIS in each study, including an agent exploration activity, perceived personality activity, and user experience ranking activity. Consistent for each study, participants interacted significantly more with an agent with a higher degree of social embodiment, i.e., a social robot such as Jibo, and perceived the agent as more trustworthy, having higher emotional engagement, and having higher companionship. There were some nuances in interaction and perception with different brands and types of smart speakers, i.e., Google Home versus Amazon Echo, or Amazon Show versus Amazon Echo Spot between the studies. In the last study, a behavioral analysis was conducted to investigate interactions between family members and with the VUIs, revealing that participants interacted more with the social robot and interacted more with their family members around the interactions with the social robot. This paper explores these findings and elaborates upon how these findings can direct future VUI development for group settings, especially in familial settings.

Behavioural Development of Three Former Pet Chimpanzees a Decade after Arrival at the MONA Sanctuary

Chimpanzees used as pets and in the entertainment industry endure detrimental living conditions from early infancy onwards. The preferred option for ending their existence as pet or circus chimpanzees is their rescue and transfer to a primate sanctuary that will provide them with optimal living and social conditions, so that they can thrive. In this case study, we had the rare opportunity to compare the activity budgets of three chimpanzees from their time as pets in 2004 to their time living at the MONA sanctuary in 2020, after almost a decade in the centre. We found their behaviour patterns changed in accordance with the sanctuaries’ rehabilitation objectives. Resting periods increased considerably while vigilance simultaneously declined sharply. Moreover, the chimpanzees’ social competence increased as allogrooming became the predominant social behaviour, and agonistic interactions diminished even though they were living within a larger social group at the sanctuary. All three chimpanzees expanded their allogrooming and proximity networks at the sanctuary, which included new group members, but they maintained the closest relationships to those conspecifics who they were rescued with. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the sanctuary environment and social group setting made it possible for these three chimpanzees to improve their social competence and increase their well-being over time.

The Effect of Inner Engineering Online (IEO) Program on Reducing Stress for Information Technology Professionals: A Randomized Control Study

In recent years, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are rapidly growing in the workplace. Several meta-analyses conclude that overall MBIs have a moderate effect of alleviating deficit-based experiences, such as burnout and stress, but a small to no effect of promoting asset-based experiences, such as positive affect and well-being. While workplace MBIs vary greatly in their content, format, and duration, the dominant format is still face to face in a group setting, which limits scalability. Our study introduces an emerging workplace intervention called Inner Engineering Online (IEO) and evaluates its effect on reducing stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety and increasing mindfulness and joy. Drawing on the classical yogic science, IEO is a comprehensive web-based multicomponent intervention that utilizes dialectic discourse, meditation, and yogic practices designed to improve physical, mental, and emotional health. Utilizing a randomized active control cross-over experimental design with a sample of 71 employees of an Information Technology company, we tested our hypothesis that IEO training and regular daily yogic practice are likely to lower the stress levels, prevent burnout, and alleviate anxiety and depression, while at the same time promotes positive affect for employees. The results show that IEO program significantly reduces stress only among those who adhere to recommended daily yogic practices. The study is limited by its small sample size. Future research using a large sample is recommended to reexamine the effect of IEO training on occupational health. This trial is registered with NCT04126564.

Human-Centered Design of an Advance Care Planning Group Visit for Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background and Objectives While advance care planning (ACP) is critical for ensuring optimal end-of-life outcomes among individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), many individuals that may benefit from ACP have not initiated this process. This paper aims to describe the iterative design of a MCI group visit-based intervention, and evaluate feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Research Design and Methods We used human-centered design, rapid-cycle prototyping, and multiple methods to adapt an Engaging in Advance Care planning Talks (ENACT) Group Visits intervention. We convened an advisory panel of persons with MCI and care partners (n=6 dyads) to refine the intervention and conducted a single-arm pilot of four MCI ENACT intervention prototypes (n=13 dyads). We used surveys and interviews to assess outcomes from multiple perspectives. Results The advisory panel affirmed that ACP is a priority for individuals with MCI, described the need for ACP in a group setting, and suggested refinements to ACP resources for the MCI ENACT intervention. Feasibility of recruitment was limited. MCI ENACT intervention participants strongly agreed that group discussions provided useful information and recommended the intervention. Themes supporting acceptability included: 1) feedback on acceptability of the intervention; 2) previous experiences with ACP; and 3) reasons for participation, including desire for discussions about MCI and how it relates to ACP. Discussion and Implications Despite stakeholder’s positive ratings of acceptability of the MCI ENACT intervention, future work is needed to enhance feasibility of recruitment to support implementation into clinical settings.

The Frucht property in the quantum group setting

A classical theorem of Frucht states that any finite group appears as the automorphism group of a finite graph. In the quantum setting, the problem is to understand the structure of the compact quantum groups which can appear as quantum automorphism groups of finite graphs. We discuss here this question, notably with a number of negative results.

How Follower Contribute to Team Success, Leadership Transformation and Organizational Excellence

Followers have typically been overlooked compared to leaders in an organizational setting but are a huge component of team success. A coach would not get “100 career wins” without the hard work of the team members on the field playing the game. A performer would not have the prosperity of a sold-out tour without the dedication of his fans. Followers are present in every group setting and are integral to the success of the team. They also play a part beyond supporting and following the leader. Followers’ engagement, relationships, and well-being directly affect the organization and leader. This paper will further explore the meaning of a follower and leader, examine the follower-leader interaction and its effectiveness in a team, and the overall value followers contribute to team success. In addition, this paper will reveal the critical success factors to maintain healthy follower-leader dynamics, it emphasizes the important role of practicing mindfulness, creating assertive communication and engagement channels, creating a motivating, and learning organizational culture, and boosting critical thinking and brainstorming activities to generate new pathways to boost organizational innovation. This case analysis will further help illustrate how the behaviors of the followers can shape leadership style and exhibit the importance of team recognition to create a healthy follower-leader relationship. Keywords: Team leadership, Team dynamics, Followership qualities, Transformational leadership, Organization culture, Motivation, Organization change

The role of social influence in New Zealand rural landowners' land use decisions

<p>New Zealand’s native bush has been substantially reduced in extent by human actions. Valuable native bush fragments remain on private land. Protection of these fragments is required on multi-generational timescales appropriate to their succession periods. Social influence has been shown to predict human behaviour in a variety of behavioural domains and research settings. Social norms possess a self-reinforcing characteristic that may lead to the diffusion and embedding of behaviour and attitude change in society also on a multi-generational time-scale. The role of social influence in New Zealand landowners’ decisions with respect to native trees on their land is examined for two populations. One population is a shared interest group (the ‘Farm Forestry Association’); the other is the general population of rural landowners. Data is gathered using questionnaires based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Weak social influence is shown to be present for participants’ intentions to increase or decrease native tree cover on their land. The strength of social influence is moderated by the frequency of social interaction. Contrary to the research hypothesis, the two groups do not differ in the norms they perceive nor the strength of social influence experienced. Suggestions are made for developing and applying the research methods in a small group setting.</p>

The role of social influence in New Zealand rural landowners' land use decisions

<p>New Zealand’s native bush has been substantially reduced in extent by human actions. Valuable native bush fragments remain on private land. Protection of these fragments is required on multi-generational timescales appropriate to their succession periods. Social influence has been shown to predict human behaviour in a variety of behavioural domains and research settings. Social norms possess a self-reinforcing characteristic that may lead to the diffusion and embedding of behaviour and attitude change in society also on a multi-generational time-scale. The role of social influence in New Zealand landowners’ decisions with respect to native trees on their land is examined for two populations. One population is a shared interest group (the ‘Farm Forestry Association’); the other is the general population of rural landowners. Data is gathered using questionnaires based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Weak social influence is shown to be present for participants’ intentions to increase or decrease native tree cover on their land. The strength of social influence is moderated by the frequency of social interaction. Contrary to the research hypothesis, the two groups do not differ in the norms they perceive nor the strength of social influence experienced. Suggestions are made for developing and applying the research methods in a small group setting.</p>

Co-therapy in a Group Setting: Benefits and Challenges in Facilitating Co-Therapy Music Therapy in a Small Group Setting

<p>This study provides my findings on the issue of co-therapy in music therapy practice with children and young adults, based on my personal experience in placement during my final year as a student practitioner for music therapy. The study discusses co-therapy from the point of view that, like any other example of team work, co-therapy has advantages and benefits, as well as disadvantages, difficulties and challenges. The study looks at the practice of co-therapy in detail, to reach conclusions about those benefits and challenges. It uses examples of co-therapy with small groups of clients with a range of different needs, to provide a wide picture of how co-therapy could be used effectively in music therapy, but also to discuss the issues that occurred when co-facilitating. The results of the analysis are presented in the findings section and discussed in the subsequent section. It is important to note that these results, as in other qualitative research studies, are based on personal interpretations and should not be viewed as facts. They can, however, serve as recommendations and points for consideration for students, new and experienced practitioners who might consider co-therapy as a practice.</p>