No Arabic abstract
Social comparison-based features are widely used in social computing apps. However, most existing apps are not grounded in social comparison theories and do not consider individual differences in social comparison preferences and reactions. This paper is among the first to automatically personalize social comparison targets. In the context of an m-health app for physical activity, we use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques of multi-armed bandits. Results from our user study (n=53) indicate that there is some evidence that motivation can be increased using the AI-based personalization of social comparison. The detected effects achieved small-to-moderate effect sizes, illustrating the real-world implications of the intervention for enhancing motivation and physical activity. In addition to design implications for social comparison features in social apps, this paper identified the personalization paradox, the conflict between user modeling and adaptation, as a key design challenge of personalized applications for behavior change. Additionally, we propose research directions to mitigate this Personalization Paradox.
Personalized adaptation technology has been adopted in a wide range of digital applications such as health, training and education, e-commerce and entertainment. Personalization systems typically build a user model, aiming to characterize the user at hand, and then use this model to personalize the interaction. Personalization and user modeling, however, are often intrinsically at odds with each other (a fact some times referred to as the personalization paradox). In this paper, we take a closer look at this personalization paradox, and identify two ways in which it might manifest: feedback loops and moving targets. To illustrate these issues, we report results in the domain of personalized exergames (videogames for physical exercise), and describe our early steps to address some of the issues arisen by the personalization paradox.
Social media platforms support the sharing of written text, video, and audio. All of these formats may be inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), particularly those who primarily communicate via sign language, people who we call Deaf signers. We study how Deaf signers engage with social platforms, focusing on how they share content and the barriers they face. We employ a mixed-methods approach involving seven in-depth interviews and a survey of a larger population (n = 60). We find that Deaf signers share the most in written English, despite their desire to share in sign language. We further identify key areas of difficulty in consuming content (e.g., lack of captions for spoken content in videos) and producing content (e.g., captioning signed videos, signing into a phone camera) on social media platforms. Our results both provide novel insights into social media use by Deaf signers and reinforce prior findings on DHH communication more generally, while revealing potential ways to make social media platforms more accessible to Deaf signers.
With the recent evolution of mobile health technologies, health scientists are increasingly interested in developing just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs), typically delivered via notification on mobile device and designed to help the user prevent negative health outcomes and promote the adoption and maintenance of healthy behaviors. A JITAI involves a sequence of decision rules (i.e., treatment policy) that takes the users current context as input and specifies whether and what type of an intervention should be provided at the moment. In this paper, we develop a Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm that continuously learns and improves the treatment policy embedded in the JITAI as the data is being collected from the user. This work is motivated by our collaboration on designing the RL algorithm in HeartSteps V2 based on data from HeartSteps V1. HeartSteps is a physical activity mobile health application. The RL algorithm developed in this paper is being used in HeartSteps V2 to decide, five times per day, whether to deliver a context-tailored activity suggestion.
The paper describes BIRAFFE2 data set, which is a result of an affective computing experiment conducted between 2019 and 2020, that aimed to develop computer models for classification and recognition of emotion. Such work is important to develop new methods of natural Human-AI interaction. As we believe that models of emotion should be personalized by design, we present an unified paradigm allowing to capture emotional responses of different persons, taking individual personality differences into account. We combine classical psychological paradigms of emotional response collection with the newer approach, based on the observation of the computer game player. By capturing ones psycho-physiological reactions (ECG, EDA signal recording), mimic expressions (facial emotion recognition), subjective valence-arousal balance ratings (widget ratings) and gameplay progression (accelerometer and screencast recording), we provide a framework that can be easily used and developed for the purpose of the machine learning methods.
Delivery of digital behaviour change interventions which encourage physical activity has been tried in many forms. Most often interventions are delivered as text notifications, but these do not promote interaction. Advances in conversational AI have improved natural language understanding and generation, allowing AI chatbots to provide an engaging experience with the user. For this reason, chatbots have recently been seen in healthcare delivering digital interventions through free text or choice selection. In this work, we explore the use of voice-based AI chatbots as a novel mode of intervention delivery, specifically targeting older adults to encourage physical activity. We co-created FitChat, an AI chatbot, with older adults and we evaluate the first prototype using Think Aloud Sessions. Our thematic evaluation suggests that older adults prefer voice-based chat over text notifications or free text entry and that voice is a powerful mode for encouraging motivation.