Submit your reading response as a comment on this post. Here are the prompts to respond to in your response:
Pak, McLaughlin, & Bass – Advice from Anthropomorphic Automations
- In the introduction, the article makes a specific claim about the circumstances under which stereotypes will affect perceptions of anthropomorphic automation. In other words, when will factors like the gender or age of an automation influence whether people trust it.
- What do they say?
- The authors don’t explain the reasoning behind their claim. Can you think of a reason why things might turn out the way they suggest?
- In the general discussion, the authors return to this proposal. Do they affirm their previous claim, or offer a new one? If they offer a new one, what is the new claim they put forward?
- The authors examine the effects of both the gender and the age of the agent in the automation.
- Based on their data, which factor seems to have more effect on how people perceive the automation? Explain why you think that. NOTE: There may not be a clear-cut answer here, the point is for you to make a case for one or the other.
Dommes, Chevalier, & Rossetti – Searching on the Web
- For purposes of their study, the authors needed to operationalize complexity of a web search.
- How do the authors operationalize search complexity?
- Do you think this is a good operational definition? Why or why not?
- In the discussion, the authors mention two possible explanations for the fact that older adults took longer to complete the searches than younger adults.
- What are these two explanations?
- Which explanation do you think is better supported by their data, and why?