Speech Rate Adjustments in Conversations With an Amazon Alexa Socialbot

Frontiers in Communication

Georgia Zellou¹  Melina Sarian¹  Michelle Cohn²  Kai-Hui Liang³  Zhou Yu³ 

[1] Davis, CA, United States;Davis, CA, United States;Davis, CA, United States;Davis, CA, United States;New York, NY, United States;

关键词: vocal entrainment;    socialbot;    voice-activated artificially intelligent assistant;    non-task oriented conversations;    human-computer interaction;    hyperarticulation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fcomm.2021.671429

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This paper investigates users’ speech rate adjustments during conversations with an Amazon Alexa socialbot in response to situational (in-lab vs. at-home) and communicative (ASR comprehension errors) factors. We collected user interaction studies and measured speech rate at each turn in the conversation and in baseline productions (collected prior to the interaction). Overall, we find that users slow their speech rate when talking to the bot, relative to their pre-interaction productions, consistent with hyperarticulation. Speakers use an even slower speech rate in the in-lab setting (relative to at-home). We also see evidence for turn-level entrainment: the user follows the directionality of Alexa’s changes in rate in the immediately preceding turn. Yet, we do not see differences in hyperarticulation or entrainment in response to ASR errors, or on the basis of user ratings of the interaction. Overall, this work has implications for human-computer interaction and theories of linguistic adaptation and entrainment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY