Talk to me: Exploring user interactions with the Amazon Alexa:

doi:10.1177/0961000618759414

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Talk to me: Exploring user interactions with the Amazon Alexa:

Journal Article•DOI•

Talk to me: Exploring user interactions with the Amazon Alexa:

Irene Lopatovska¹, Katrina Rink¹, Ian Knight¹, Kieran Raines¹, Kevin Cosenza¹, Harriet Williams¹, Perachya Sorsche¹, David Hirsch¹, Qi Li¹, Adrianna Martinez¹ - Show less +6 more•Institutions (1)

Pratt Institute¹

01 Dec 2019-Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (SAGE PublicationsSage UK: London, England)-Vol. 51, Iss: 4, pp 984-997

TL;DR: The results indicate that across all age groups, Alexa was primarily used for checking weather forecasts, playing music, and controlling other devices, while its overall usage tended to decrease over time.

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Abstract: Amazon Alexa is a voice-controlled application that is rapidly gaining popularity. We examined user interactions with this technology, and focused on the types of tasks requested of Alexa, the vari...

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Proceedings Article•DOI•

"Siri Talks at You": An Empirical Investigation of Voice-Activated Personal Assistant (VAPA) Usage by Individuals Who Are Blind

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Ali Abdolrahmani¹, Ravi Kuber¹, Stacy M. Branham²•Institutions (2)

University of Maryland, Baltimore County¹, University of California, Irvine²

08 Oct 2018

TL;DR: Voice-activated personal assistants (VAPAs) offer considerable promise to individuals who are blind due to widespread adoption of these non-visual interaction platforms, but studies have yet to focus on the ways in which these technologies are used by individuals who is blind, along with whether barriers are encountered during the process of interaction.

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Abstract: Voice-activated personal assistants (VAPAs)--like Amazon Echo or Apple Siri--offer considerable promise to individuals who are blind due to widespread adoption of these non-visual interaction platforms. However, studies have yet to focus on the ways in which these technologies are used by individuals who are blind, along with whether barriers are encountered during the process of interaction. To address this gap, we interviewed fourteen legally-blind adults with experience of home and/or mobile-based VAPAs. While participants appreciated the access VAPAs provided to inaccessible applications and services, they faced challenges relating to the input, responses from VAPAs, and control of information presented. User behavior varied depending on the situation or context of the interaction. Implications for design are suggested to support inclusivity when interacting with VAPAs. These include accounting for privacy and situational factors in design, examining ways to support concerns over trust, and synchronizing presentation of visual and non-visual cues.

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96 citations

Cites background from "Talk to me: Exploring user interact..."

...queries such as determining environmental conditions [16], to listen to the news, for playing music, and controlling external devices [15]....
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...While researchers have examined and analyzed the types of requests made to VAPAs [8,10,11,16] and examined issues relating to the constraints and acceptability of these technologies [9,15], studies have yet to examine VAPA usage by blind individuals and the barriers which they may face....
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...[15] suggest that people are satisfied with home-based VAPAs even when they do not produce sought information....
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Proceedings Article•DOI•

"Alexa is a Toy": Exploring Older Adults' Reasons for Using, Limiting, and Abandoning Echo

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Milka Trajkova¹, Aqueasha Martin-Hammond¹•Institutions (1)

Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis¹

21 Apr 2020

TL;DR: A better understanding of the reasons older adults do not engage with IVAs is contributed and how IVAs might better support aging and independent living in the future is contributed.

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Abstract: Intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) have the potential to support older adults' independent living. However, despite a growing body of research focusing on IVA use, we know little about why older adults become IVA non-users. This paper examines the reasons older adults use, limit, and abandon IVAs (i.e., Amazon Echo) in their homes. We conducted eight focus groups, with 38 older adults residing in a Life Plan Community. Thirty-six participants owned an Echo for at least a year, and two were considering adoption. Over time, most participants became non-users due to their difficulty finding valuable uses, beliefs associated with ability and IVA use, or challenges with use in shared spaces. However, we also found that participants saw the potential for future IVA support. We contribute a better understanding of the reasons older adults do not engage with IVAs and how IVAs might better support aging and independent living in the future.

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82 citations

Cites background from "Talk to me: Exploring user interact..."

...Studies have found that individuals that adopt IVAs find them useful for entertainment, basic queries, and smart home control [28,43] and for supporting these tasks among older adults [8,23,40,41,49] and individuals with disabilities [1,39]....
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...Studies examining smart speakers use in the home [28,39,43] as well as potential future uses of smart speakers [8,27,41] have helped researchers to identify what users perceive as benefits and barriers to smart speaker adoption....
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Book Chapter•DOI•

Understanding the Role of Privacy and Trust in Intelligent Personal Assistant Adoption

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Yuting Liao¹, Jessica Vitak¹, Priya Kumar¹, Michael Zimmer², Katherine Kritikos² - Show less +1 more•Institutions (2)

University of Maryland, College Park¹, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee²

31 Mar 2019

TL;DR: Findings from a survey of IPA users and non-users are presented to understand the motivations and barriers to adopting IPAs and how concerns about data privacy and trust in company compliance with social contract related to IPA data affect acceptance and use of IPAs.

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Abstract: Voice-controlled intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) have seen tremendous growth in recent years on smartphones and as standalone devices in people’s homes. While research has examined the potential benefits and drawbacks of these devices for IPA users, few studies have empirically evaluated the role of privacy and trust in individual decision to adopt IPAs. In this study, we present findings from a survey of IPA users and non-users (N = 1160) to understand (1) the motivations and barriers to adopting IPAs and (2) how concerns about data privacy and trust in company compliance with social contract related to IPA data affect acceptance and use of IPAs. We discuss our findings in light of social contract theory and frameworks of technology acceptance.

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76 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Alexa, Can I Trust You? Exploring Consumer Paths to Trust in Smart Voice-Interaction Technologies

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Jonas Foehr, Claas Christian Germelmann

18 Feb 2020-Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

TL;DR: It is suggested that consumers follow four paths to trust in smart technology: on one path, in which consumers relate their trust to the perceived personality of the technology’s voice interface and on three nonanthropomorphism-based trust paths.

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Abstract: Trust is considered a prerequisite for consumer interaction with smart voice-interaction technologies such as smart speakers, although how exactly this develops remains unclear. Adopting th...

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64 citations

Cites background from "Talk to me: Exploring user interact..."

...…that conceptualize SVITs mainly with reference to their underlying software components or computational infrastructure—for example, natural language processing, AI, or cloud computing (e.g., Luger and Sellen 2016; Cho 2018; De Keyser et al. 2018; Lopatovska and Williams 2018; Myers et al. 2018)....
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Posted Content•

Language-Conditioned Imitation Learning for Robot Manipulation Tasks

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Simon Stepputtis¹, Joseph Campbell¹, Mariano Phielipp², Stefan Lee³, Chitta Baral, Heni Ben Amor¹ - Show less +2 more•Institutions (3)

Arizona State University¹, Intel², Oregon State University³

22 Oct 2020-arXiv: Robotics

TL;DR: This work introduces a method for incorporating unstructured natural language into imitation learning and demonstrates in a set of simulation experiments how this approach can learn language-conditioned manipulation policies for a seven-degree-of-freedom robot arm and compares the results to a variety of alternative methods.

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Abstract: Imitation learning is a popular approach for teaching motor skills to robots. However, most approaches focus on extracting policy parameters from execution traces alone (i.e., motion trajectories and perceptual data). No adequate communication channel exists between the human expert and the robot to describe critical aspects of the task, such as the properties of the target object or the intended shape of the motion. Motivated by insights into the human teaching process, we introduce a method for incorporating unstructured natural language into imitation learning. At training time, the expert can provide demonstrations along with verbal descriptions in order to describe the underlying intent (e.g., "go to the large green bowl"). The training process then interrelates these two modalities to encode the correlations between language, perception, and motion. The resulting language-conditioned visuomotor policies can be conditioned at runtime on new human commands and instructions, which allows for more fine-grained control over the trained policies while also reducing situational ambiguity. We demonstrate in a set of simulation experiments how our approach can learn language-conditioned manipulation policies for a seven-degree-of-freedom robot arm and compare the results to a variety of alternative methods.

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64 citations

Cites background from "Talk to me: Exploring user interact..."

...For instance, recent research on the Amazon Alexa [21] suggests that the fluency of the interaction experience is more important to users than the actual interaction output....
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...Surprisingly, “users reported being satisfied with Alexa even when it did not produce sought information”[21]....
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References

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Open Access

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Journal Article•DOI•

Diffusion of innovations

[...]

Thomas W. Valente¹•Institutions (1)

University of Southern California¹

01 Mar 2003-Genetics in Medicine

TL;DR: Upon returning to the U.S., author Singhal’s Google search revealed the following: in January 2001, the impeachment trial against President Estrada was halted by senators who supported him and the government fell without a shot being fired.

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23,419 citations

"Talk to me: Exploring user interact..." refers background in this paper

...We assumed a relative homogeneity of adult participants’ socio-economic characteristics based on their early adoption of Alexa – early adopters are usually characterized by higher socio-economic status (Rogers, 2010)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Thought and language

[...]

D. Laplane

01 Jan 1992-Behavioural Neurology

TL;DR: From aphasics' self records, common experience, changes in signification of sentences according to a verbal or non-verbal context, animals and non speaking children performances, it seems possible to get some evidence that thought is distinct from language even though there is a permanent interaction between both in normal adult human beings.

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Abstract: From aphasics' self records, common experience, changes in signification of sentences according to a verbal or non-verbal context, animals and non speaking children performances, it seems possible to get some evidence that thought is distinct from language even though there is a permanent interaction between both in normal adult human beings. Some considerations on formalisation of language suggests that the more formalised it is, the less information it contains. If it is true, it is not reasonable to hope that a formalised language like that used by computers may be a model for thought. Finally, the lack of status of thought, as far as it is a subjective experience and the impossibility of giving it a definition as far as it exceeds language, make it clear that in spite of progress in scientific psychology, thought, per se, is not an object for science.

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6,581 citations

"Talk to me: Exploring user interact..." refers background in this paper

...The observation that most of the not-understood voice commands came from children can be explained by the still developing clarity and completeness of children’s speech (Vygotskiĭ, 2012) as well as inabilities to formulate commands that could be understood by Alexa....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the User's Perspective.

[...]

Carol Collier Kuhlthau¹•Institutions (1)

Rutgers University¹

01 Jun 1991-Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology

TL;DR: A model of the information search process is presented derived from a series of five studies investigating common experiences of users in information seeking situations, suggesting a gap between the users’ natural process of information use and the information system and intermediaries’ traditional patterns of information provision.

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Abstract: The article discusses the users’ perspective of information seeking. A model of the information search process is presented derived from a series of five studies investigating common experiences of users in information seeking situations. The cognitive and affective aspects of the process of information seeking suggest a gap between the users’ natural process of information use and the information system and intermediaries’ traditional patterns of information provision.

...read moreread less

2,062 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Models in information behaviour research

[...]

Tom Wilson¹•Institutions (1)

University of Sheffield¹

01 Aug 1999-Journal of Documentation

TL;DR: An alternative, problem‐solving model is presented, which, it is suggested, provides a basis for relating the models of information seeking and other aspects of information behaviour in appropriate research strategies.

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Abstract: This paper presents an outline of models of information seeking and other aspects of information behaviour, showing the relationship between communication and information behaviour in general with information seeking and information searching in information retrieval systems. It is suggested that these models address issues at various levels of information behaviour and that they can be related by envisaging a ‘nesting’ of models. It is also suggested that, within both information seeking research and information searching research, alternative models address similar issues in related ways and that the models are complementary rather than conflicting. Finally, an alternative, problem‐solving model is presented, which, it is suggested, provides a basis for relating the models in appropriate research strategies.

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1,876 citations

"Talk to me: Exploring user interact..." refers background in this paper

...…nature of IPAs, and Alexa in particular, traditional models of information behavior and seeking, for example the information behaviour model (Wilson, 1999); casual leisure information-seeking model (Elsweiler et al., 2011), do not fully apply and cannot explain user interactions with this…...
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...Information behavior research has traditionally recognized the effect of context, and specifically, location on user’s behavior (Leckie et al., 1996; Wilson, 1999)....
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...However, during the study we discovered that due to the multi-functional nature of IPAs, and Alexa in particular, traditional models of information behavior and seeking, for example the information behaviour model (Wilson, 1999); casual leisure information-seeking model (Elsweiler et al....
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Book•

Information Seeking in Electronic Environments

[...]

Gary Marchionini¹•Institutions (1)

University of Maryland, College Park¹

26 May 1995

TL;DR: This chapter discusses the continuing evolution of information seeking and its role in the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the rapidly changing electronic environments.

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Abstract: Information and information seeking 2. Information seekers and electronic environments 3. Information-seeking perspective and framework 4. Foundations for personal information infrastructures: 5. Information-seeking knowledge, skills, and attitudes 6. Analytical search strategies 7. Browsing strategies 8. Designing support for Browsing: 9. A research and development perspective 10. The continuing evolution of information seeking 11. Future directions and conclusion.

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1,865 citations

"Talk to me: Exploring user interact..." refers background in this paper

...Traditional information retrieval research often examines the effect of user type, expert/novice or advanced/nonadvanced, on information behavior and finds the differences (e.g. levels of effectiveness and efficiency) in the behaviors of the two user types (Marchionini, 1995)....
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