Understanding User Perceptions of Proactive Smart Speakers

Voice assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Home, increasingly find their way into consumer homes. Their functionality, however, is currently limited to being passive answer machines rather than proactively engaging users in conversations. Speakers' proactivity would open up a range of important application scenarios, including health services, such as checking in on patient states and triggering medication reminders. It remains unclear how passive speakers should implement proactivity. To better understand user perceptions, we ran a 3-week field study with 13 participants where we modified the off-the-shelf Google Home to become proactive. During the study, our speaker proactively triggered conversations that were essentially Experience Sampling probes allowing us to identify when to engage users. Applying machine-learning, we are able to predict user responsiveness with a 71.6% accuracy and find predictive features. We also identify self-reported factors, such as boredom and mood, that are significantly correlated with users' perceived availability. Our prototype and findings inform the design of proactive speakers that verbally engage users at opportune moments and contribute to the design of proactive application scenarios and voice-based experience sampling studies.

It's not what you did, it's what you could have done

We are more likely to judge agents as morally culpable after we learn they acted freely rather than under duress or coercion. Interestingly, the reverse is also true: Individuals are more likely to be judged to have acted freely after we learn that they committed a moral violation. Researchers have argued that morality affects judgments of force by making the alternative actions the agent could have done instead appear comparatively normal, which then increases the perceived availability of relevant alternative actions. Across four studies, we test the novel predictions of this account. We find that the degree to which participants view possible alternative actions as normal strongly predicts their perceptions that an agent acted freely. This pattern holds both for perceptions of descriptive normality (whether the actions are unusual) and prescriptive normality (whether the actions are good) and persists even when what is actually done is held constant. We also find that manipulating the prudential value of alternative actions or the degree to which alternatives adhere to social norms, has a similar effect to manipulating whether the actions or their alternatives violate moral norms, and that both effects are explained by changes in the perceived normality of the alternatives. Finally, we even find that evaluations of both the prescriptive and descriptive normality of alternative actions explains force judgments in response to moral violations. Together, these results suggest that across contexts, participants’ force judgments depend not on the morality of the actual action taken, but on the normality of possible alternatives. More broadly, our results build on prior work that suggests a unifying role of normality and counterfactuals across many areas of high-level human cognition.

The Influence Of Perception Of Benefits, Easy Of Use, Use, Trust, And Availability Of Features On Satisfaction Of Use Of Bca Mobile Banking Services (Sejabodetabek)

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of perceived usefulness, user convenience, usability, trustworthiness and feature availability on user satisfaction. The research sample consisted of 200 consumer respondents using the BCA mbanking service. Collecting data using an online questionnaire and analyzed using the AMOS program. The results show that perceived usefulness has no effect on user satisfaction, ease of use has an effect on user satisfaction, perceived usefulness has an effect on user satisfaction, trust has no effect on user satisfaction, and perceived availability of firue has an effect on user satisfactionpreferences from each macroinvertebrate species towards environmental conditions.

Adiposity and the role of diverse social supports: an observational, gender-sensitive study using the baseline Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Objective: To quantify associations between four types of social support and measured adiposity among women and men. Design: The cross-sectional sample from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA, 2012-15). Height, weight and waist circumference (WC) were clinically measured perceived availability of informational, tangible, emotional and belonging social supports were self-reported. Setting: Canada Participants: 28,779 adults 45 to 85 years from the CLSA Results: All social support types were associated with WC and body mass index (BMI) among women but not among men. Women reporting the lowest informational support had significantly higher mean BMI (28.84 kg/m2 [95%CI: 28.63-29.05]) and WC (90.81 cm [95%CI: 90.31-91.30]) compared to women reporting maximum support (respectively, 28.09 kg/m2 [95%CI: 27.88-28.30] and 88.92 cm [95%CI: 88.43-89.4]). Women’s abdominal obesity was associated with low levels of informational, emotional and belonging support, and women’s general obesity with informational and emotional support. Notably, informational and emotional support were associated with both obesity outcomes independent of other supports among women. Only a low level of informational support was significantly independently associated with higher odds of obesity among men. Conclusions: Our study provides novel insights into gender-specific associations between different types of social support and adiposity. Prospective studies are needed to further investigate potential causality of these associations between the specific social supports and future weight status, especially among women.

Clinical Ethics Consultations in the Opinion of Polish Physicians

Clinical Ethics Consultations (CEC) are an important tool for physicians in solving difficult cases. They are extremely common in North America and to a lesser extent also present in Europe. However, there is little data on this practice in Poland. We present results of a survey of 521 physicians practising in Poland concerning their opinion on CECs and related practices. We analysed the data looking at such issues as CECs’ perceived availability, use of CECs, and perceived usefulness of such support. Physicians in our study generally encounter hard ethics cases, even—surprisingly—those who do not work in hospitals. Most physicians have no CEC access, and those that do still do not employ CECs. However, physicians perceive this form of support as useful—even more so among actual users of CECs. We compared these findings with similar studies from other European countries and the North America. We point out peculiarities of our results as compared to those in other countries, with some possible explanations. We hope the results may encourage regulatory debate on the need to formally introduce CECs into the Polish healthcare system.

Escaping from air pollution: The psychological process of domestic migration intention among urban people

Rapid urbanization with poor city planning has resulted in severe air pollution in low- and middle-income countries’ urban areas. Given the adverse impacts of air pollution, many responses have been taken, including migration to another city. The current study explores the psychological process and demographic predictors of migration intention among urban people in Hanoi, Vietnam – one of the most polluted capital cities in the world. The Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) was used to construct the model and perform Bayesian analysis on a stratified random sampling dataset of 475 urban people. We found that the migration intention was negatively associated with the individual’s satisfaction with air quality. The association was moderated by the perceived availability of a better alternative (or nearby city with better air quality). However, the high migration cost due to geographical distance affected the perceived availability of a better alternative negligible. Moreover, it was also found that male and young people were more likely to migrate, but the brain drain hypothesis was not validated. The results hint that without air pollution mitigation measures, the dislocation of economic forces might occur and hinder sustainable urban development. Therefore, collaborative actions among levels of government, with the semi-conducting principle at heart, are recommended to reduce air pollution.

Social-Ecological Predictors of Opioid Use Among Adolescents With Histories of Substance Use Disorders

Adolescent opioid misuse is a public health crisis, particularly among clinical populations of youth with substance misuse histories. Given the negative and often lethal consequences associated with opioid misuse among adolescents, it is essential to identify the risk and protective factors underlying early opioid misuse to inform targeted prevention efforts. Understanding the role of parental risk and protective factors is particularly paramount during the developmental stage of adolescence. Using a social-ecological framework, this study explored the associations between individual, peer, family, community, and school-level risk and protective factors and opioid use among adolescents with histories of substance use disorders (SUDs). Further, we explored the potential moderating role of poor parental monitoring in the associations between the aforementioned risk and protective factors and adolescent opioid use. Participants included 294 adolescents (Mage = 16 years; 45% female) who were recently discharged from substance use treatment, and their parents (n = 323). Results indicated that lifetime opioid use was significantly more likely among adolescents endorsing antisocial traits and those whose parents reported histories of substance abuse. Additionally, adolescents reporting more perceived availability of substances were significantly more likely to report lifetime opioid use compared to those reporting lower perceived availability of substances. Results did not indicate any significant moderation effects of parental monitoring on any associations between risk factors and lifetime opioid use. Findings generally did not support social-ecological indicators of opioid use in this high-risk population of adolescents, signaling that the social-ecological variables tested may not be salient risk factors among adolescents with SUD histories. We discuss these findings in terms of continuing care options for adolescents with SUD histories that target adolescents’ antisocial traits, perceived availability of substances, and parent histories of substance abuse, including practical implications for working with families of adolescents with SUD histories.

Race/ethnicity differences in risk and protective factors for marijuana use among U.S. adolescents

Background Little is known about how race and ethnicity influence marijuana-specific risk and protective factors in U.S. adolescents. We examined differences in risk and protective factors of marijuana use (MU) and their associations with MU by race/ethnicity. Methods The present study used data from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. A total of 68,263 adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) were divided into seven subgroups by race/ethnicity (White, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NH/PI), and mixed race). Marijuana-specific risk and protective factors (RPFs) were examined, including perceived availability of marijuana, adolescents’ perceived risk of MU and perceived disapproval of parents, peers, and close friends. Past-month, past-year, and lifetime MU were used as MU outcomes to examine the associations with RPFs as well as with race/ethnicity. Results Overall, 6.85, 12.67, and 15.52% of the sample reported past-month, past-year, and lifetime MU respectively. Weighted adjusted logistic regression analyses revealed that mixed race adolescents reported the greatest perceived availability of marijuana, whereas Black and Asian adolescents had less access compared to White adolescents. The adolescents’ perception of parental disapproval of MU was the lowest for Native American adolescents and highest for Asian adolescents. Mixed race adolescents experienced lower peer and close friend disapproval of MU while Black and Asian adolescents had higher. The MU risk perception was lower in most groups including Black, Hispanic, Native American, and mixed race adolescents, but not in Asian adolescents. Native American adolescents scored the highest on all MU outcomes, whereas Asian adolescents scored the lowest. Perceived availability of marijuana was associated with higher MU in all MU outcomes. Lower disapproval MU perceptions and lower MU risk perceptions were also associated with greater MU. Conclusion These findings suggest there is considerable heterogeneity of marijuana risk and protective factors and MU across race/ethnicity among U.S. adolescents.