Elder user’s attitude toward assistive virtual agents: the role of voice and gender

• Published in: Journal of ambient intelligence and humanized computing Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 4429 - 4436
• Main Authors: Esposito, Anna, Amorese, Terry, Cuciniello, Marialucia, Riviello, Maria Teresa, Esposito, Antonietta M., Troncone, Alda, Torres, Maria Inés, Schlögl, Stephan, Cordasco, Gennaro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Attitudes; Computational Intelligence; Engineering; Females; Gender; Humanoid; Older people; Original Research; Portable computers; Preferences; Questionnaires; Robotics and Automation; Smartphones; Usability; User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction; Voice; Italy
• ISSN: 1868-5137; 1868-5145
• DOI: 10.1007/s12652-019-01423-x

This paper reports on experiments devoted to explore the role of specific attributes of humanoid virtual agents that may influence elderly users’ perception and attitude, determining their acceptance and adoption as assistive devices. In particular, it investigates elderly preference on agents’ gender and the role of the agents’ ability to use voice during the interaction. To this aim two different groups of seniors were involved in the experiments. The first group evaluated talking virtual agents, the second one the same virtual agents, but silenced. The data shows that elderly users, independently from their gender, prefer to interact with female agents, especially when they are able to talk to them, revealing the role played by the voice. Furthermore, it was found a significant effect of the elderly level of experience with technology: when interacting with agents with voice, elderly users with high technological experience were less interested and considered the proposed agents less attractive and appealing, while just the opposite occurred when interacting with silenced agents.