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What Are You Talking To?: Understanding Children's Perceptions of Conversational Agents

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Mark WarschauerAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376416

Published: 23 April 2020 Publication History

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Abstract

Conversational agents (CAs) available in smart phones or smart speakers play an increasingly important role in young children's technological landscapes and life worlds. While a handful of studies have documented children's natural interactions with CAs, little is known about children's perceptions of CAs. To fill this gap, we examined three- to six-year-olds' perceptions of CAs' animate/artifact domain membership and properties, as well as their justifications for these perceptions. We found that children sometimes take a more nuanced position and spontaneously attribute both artifact and animate properties to CAs or view them as neither artifacts nor animate objects. This study extends current research on children's perceptions of intelligent artifacts by adding CAs as a new genre of study and provides some underlying knowledge that may guide the development of CAs to support young children's cognitive and social development.

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Cited By

Sun YChen JYao BLiu JWang DMa XLu YXu YHe L(2024)Exploring Parent's Needs for Children-Centered AI to Support Preschoolers' Interactive Storytelling and Reading ActivitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870358:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
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Varatharaj ARead JHorton MLochrie MBrehm L(2024)Children As Evaluators: Understanding Emotion Language AcquisitionProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3659413(892-896)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3659413
Li ZThomas TYu CXu Y(2024)"I Said Knight, Not Night!": Children's Communication Breakdowns and Repairs with AI Versus Human PartnersProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3659394(781-788)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
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Index Terms

What Are You Talking To?: Understanding Children's Perceptions of Conversational Agents
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI
2. Social and professional topics
  1. User characteristics
    1. Age
      1. Children

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

10688 pages

ISBN:9781450367080

DOI:10.1145/3313831

General Chairs:
Regina Bernhaupt
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
,
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller
Monash University, Australia
,
David Verweij
Newcastle University, UK
,
Josh Andres
RMIT, Australia
,
Program Chairs:
Joanna McGrenere
University of British Columbia, Canada
,
Andy Cockburn
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
,
Ignacio Avellino
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
,
Alix Goguey
Grenoble Alpes University, France
,
Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
,
Shengdong (Shen) Zhao
National University of Singapore, Singapore
,
Briane Paul Samson
Future University Hakodate, Japan & De La Salle University, Philippines
,
Rafal Kocielnik
University of Washington, USA

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Published: 23 April 2020

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Cited By

Sun YChen JYao BLiu JWang DMa XLu YXu YHe L(2024)Exploring Parent's Needs for Children-Centered AI to Support Preschoolers' Interactive Storytelling and Reading ActivitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870358:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687035
Varatharaj ARead JHorton MLochrie MBrehm L(2024)Children As Evaluators: Understanding Emotion Language AcquisitionProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3659413(892-896)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3659413
Li ZThomas TYu CXu Y(2024)"I Said Knight, Not Night!": Children's Communication Breakdowns and Repairs with AI Versus Human PartnersProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3659394(781-788)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3659394
Jing MHu TLi HXu Y(2024)The Transfer Deficit in the Context of Social Robots: A Case of Early Spatial Learning from Screen-Based TechnologyProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3659384(725-731)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
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Zhang CLiu XZiska KJeon SYu CXu Y(2024)Mathemyths: Leveraging Large Language Models to Teach Mathematical Language through Child-AI Co-Creative StorytellingProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642647(1-23)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Newman MSun KDalla Gasperina IShin GPedraja MKanchi RSong MLi RLee JYip J(2024)"I want it to talk like Darth Vader": Helping Children Construct Creative Self-Efficacy with Generative AIProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642492(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Yi SRieh S(2024)Children’s conversational voice search as learning: a literature reviewInformation and Learning Sciences10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0133Online publication date: 17-Jul-2024
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Oyedoyin MSanusi IAyanwale M(2024)Young children’s conceptions of computing in an African settingComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2314397(1-36)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
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