Text-based Online Research Articles

Conversational presentation mode increases credibility judgements during information search with ChatGPT

People increasingly use large language model (LLM)-based conversational agents to obtain information. However, the information these models provide is not always factually accurate. Thus, it is critical to understand what helps users adequately assess the credibility of the provided information. Here, we report the results of two preregistered experiments in which participants rated the credibility of accurate versus partially inaccurate information ostensibly provided by a dynamic text-based LLM-powered agent, a voice-based agent, or a static text-based online encyclopedia. We found that people were better at detecting inaccuracies when identical information was provided as static text compared to both types of conversational agents, regardless of whether information search applications were branded (ChatGPT, Alexa, and Wikipedia) or unbranded. Mediation analysis overall corroborated the interpretation that a conversational nature poses a threat to adequate credibility judgments. Our research highlights the importance of presentation mode when dealing with misinformation.

Intelligent evaluation system for new energy vehicles based on sentiment analysis: An MG-PL-3WD method

As a critical strategic tool within the framework of the digital economy (DE), artificial intelligence (AI) plays a crucial role in realizing an AI-assisted economy. This novel paradigm has gained widespread acceptance from governments globally, positioning itself as a cornerstone in the practical implementation of the DE. The increasing reliance on digital means for economic transformation, the treatment of data as a critical resource, and the integration of information technologies highlight the synergy between AI and the DE. Against this backdrop, online reviews and SA play a pivotal role, offering rich data streams continually emerging on various platforms. Therefore, this article utilizes a probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) to establish a multi-granularity probabilistic linguistic (MG-PL) information system. This approach, through sentiment analysis (SA), enables quantitative analysis of user emotional expressions. The integration of these technological aspects holds the promise of enhancing decision-making processes, facilitating the intellectualization of economic activities, and addressing existing challenges in the application of AI within the DE domain. Initially, SA is conducted on text-based online comment data, forming a probabilistic linguistic incomplete information system. The maximum similarity method is employed to establish a probabilistic linguistic complete information system. Subsequently, an adjustable MG-PL decision-theoretic rough set (DTRS) is developed, followed by the establishment of a three-way group decision model using three-way decisions (3WD) and a directed graph. The model’s applicability, stability, and feasibility are demonstrated via a case study centered on the acquisition of new energy vehicles (NEVs).

The mind in the machine: Estimating mind perception's effect on user satisfaction with voice-based conversational agents

Given the interest in imbuing voice-based conversational agents with humanlike features, understanding how this affects user satisfaction is ultimately important for business performance. Mind perception theory explains how ascribing the mental capacity for agency and experience to artificial intelligence shapes subsequent user attitudes. Hence, we estimate the effect of mind perception on satisfaction in users with high/low innovativeness using data from text-based online reviews, which better reflect actual usage than traditional surveys. Methodologically, where numerous controls affect the cause and outcome variables in a model, traditional machine learning methods produce biased estimates. We overcome this by deploying Double/Debiased Machine Learning (combined with text analytics). Results show that user satisfaction is increased by two forms of perceived experience: directed at moral agents, or moral patients. Perceived agency, however, has no significant influence. The increase in satisfaction from both types of perceived experience is stronger among users with high (vs. low) innovativeness.

Carers’ and therapists’ views of internet-delivered guided self-help acceptance and commitment therapy for family carers of people with dementia (iACT4CARERS): a qualitative study in the context of ethnic minority families

Abstract This study aimed to explore the views of family carers of people living with dementia from ethnic minority groups and their therapists on internet-delivered, self-help acceptance and commitment therapy for family carers (iACT4CARERS), enhanced with additional therapist guidance. To achieve this, a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews was employed with ethnic minority carers who completed Enhanced iACT4CARERS (n=9) and therapists who supported them throughout the programme (n=5). The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using framework analysis. Four over-arching themes were identified: (1) Value of the programme to ethnic minority carers, (2) Barriers for ethnic minority carers, (3) Sense of connectedness through written feedback, and (4) Sense of connectedness through one-to-one sessions. Theme 1 reflected that ethnic minority carers valued ACT techniques, highlighting their usefulness and simplicity, leading to perceived benefits. Theme 2 revealed the irrelevance of examples provided of carer experiences throughout the programme due to differences in family carers’ experiences of providing care within ethnic minority communities. Theme 3 highlighted that carers’ engagement with the programme was facilitated by feelings of validation and encouragement received from their therapist via weekly written feedback. Finally, Theme 4 highlighted that additional one-to-one support sessions allowed both carers and therapists to develop strong therapeutic relationships. This enhanced subsequent text-based online interactions, allowing carers to be more open and engaged. Also, therapists reported that a strong sense of connectedness helped them to tailor their feedback. Enhanced iACT4CARERS that uses carers’ experiences more relevant to ethnic minority communities may be more acceptable. Key learning aims (1) To understand the views of family carers of people living with dementia from ethnic minority groups and their therapists on internet-delivered, self-help acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which has been found to be feasible and acceptable with White British carers. (2) To understand whether additional one-to-one support can help develop effective therapeutic relationships and thus improve the experiences of carers in completing the programme. (3) To learn whether any cultural adaptations are needed to improve the acceptability of internet-delivered self-help ACT among this population.

Evaluating the effectiveness of concurrent sessions and counselors' attention allocation in online counseling.

With its anonymity and accessibility, text-based online counseling has shown great potential in reaching people with mental health needs. One strategy adopted to meet the service gap is concurrent counseling, that is, each counselor attending to more than one client at a time. To date, there is no reported evidence supporting its rationality and effectiveness. This study investigated the potential opportunities, effectiveness, and caveats in concurrent service delivery and identified the optimal cutoff number of concurrent sessions while maintaining the quality of service at or above a set threshold. We analyzed the transcript of 54,716 online counseling sessions from Open Up, a free, 24/7 text-based counseling service, to develop an attention score that measures the attention allocation of counselors and examined the impact of the counselor's attention allocation on client satisfaction and service outcomes. On average, compared to nonconcurrent sessions, concurrent sessions were longer, more likely to end prematurely, and had lower client satisfaction. We also identified an optimal attention score of approximately 0.4 (out of 1.0, which denotes full attention), which translates to two to three concurrent sessions. This study provides empirical evidence for the feasibility of conducting multiple text-based sessions concurrently without compromising service quality and client experience. Our method of measuring the counselor attention allocation offers a way to systematically assess and evaluate concurrent sessions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effectiveness of extrinsic emotion regulation strategies in text-based online communication.

In daily life, others play a key role in helping regulate an individual's emotions. Such emotion regulation occurs not only in face-to-face communication but also in text-based online communication. To date, much research has examined strategies for alleviating one's own negative emotions (intrinsic emotion regulation) based on the process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998, 2015a). However, little is known about the effectiveness of the full range of strategies for alleviating others' negative emotions (extrinsic emotion regulation) derived from this model. This research aims to fill this gap. In study 1, participants wrote response letters to bogus pen pals who had recently experienced negative emotional events. Independent coders rated the effectiveness of these response letters in alleviating pen pal's negative emotions. In study 2, participants communicated with each other on an online forum by posting about distressing events and messages that attempted to alleviate another person's negative emotions. When participants received a reply to their posts, they rated its effectiveness in alleviating their negative emotions. The results of both studies consistently showed that strategies classified as reappraisal and empathic responding effectively alleviated others' negative emotions. Moreover, emotional intensity moderated the effectiveness of some extrinsic emotion regulation strategies. Specifically, problem-solving and reappraisal showed positive effects on the alleviation of relatively less intense negative emotions. However, these effects were neither positive nor negative in regulating relatively intense negative emotions. The present study offers novel insights into other-focused emotion regulation research by clarifying similarities and differences between intrinsic and extrinsic emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Therapist Feedback and Implications on Adoption of an Artificial Intelligence-Based Co-Facilitator for Online Cancer Support Groups: Mixed Methods Single-Arm Usability Study.

The recent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing requirement have created an increased demand for virtual support programs. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may offer novel solutions to management challenges such as the lack of emotional connections within virtual group interventions. Using typed text from online support groups, AI can help identify the potential risk of mental health concerns, alert group facilitator(s), and automatically recommend tailored resources while monitoring patient outcomes. The aim of this mixed methods, single-arm study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, validity, and reliability of an AI-based co-facilitator (AICF) among CancerChatCanada therapists and participants to monitor online support group participants' distress through a real-time analysis of texts posted during the support group sessions. Specifically, AICF (1) generated participant profiles with discussion topic summaries and emotion trajectories for each session, (2) identified participant(s) at risk for increased emotional distress and alerted the therapist for follow-up, and (3) automatically suggested tailored recommendations based on participant needs. Online support group participants consisted of patients with various types of cancer, and the therapists were clinically trained social workers. Our study reports on the mixed methods evaluation of AICF, including therapists' opinions as well as quantitative measures. AICF's ability to detect distress was evaluated by the patient's real-time emoji check-in, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Although quantitative results showed only some validity of AICF's ability in detecting distress, the qualitative results showed that AICF was able to detect real-time issues that are amenable to treatment, thus allowing therapists to be more proactive in supporting every group member on an individual basis. However, therapists are concerned about the ethical liability of AICF's distress detection function. Future works will look into wearable sensors and facial cues by using videoconferencing to overcome the barriers associated with text-based online support groups. RR2-10.2196/21453.

KONSELING BERBASIS TEXT BASED COUNSELING DALAM LAYANAN BIMBINGAN DAN KONSELING OLEH GURU BK DI SEKOLAH MENENGAH PERTAMA

This study aims to describe text-based counseling by counseling teachers in the era of society 5.0. This study surveyed data using the Google form and used a quantitative descriptive approach. Respondents to this study were counseling teachers who served in junior high schools in Bandung. The number of samples in the study was 32 counseling teachers who filled out the Google form and 6 counseling teachers who were willing to carry out the interview process. The results of the study show that counseling teachers prefer text-based online counseling media, with the WhatsApp application.

Becoming European Through Football Media? Representations of Europe in German Football News Coverage

In recent decades, the administrative and competitive structures of men’s elite club football in Europe have undergone a profound transformation toward Europeanization. As a result, football fans are increasingly exposed to European influences. These dynamics shape fans’ perceptions of and orientations toward Europe and contribute to constructions of collective identities. Because football is a highly mediatized sport, fans’ exposure to European influences and their constructions of identity are highly dependent on the representation of Europe in football media. To analyze this, we conducted a quantitative analysis of text-based online news media. Using selected German media outlets, we examined the extent and the patterned variation of media representation of Europe in football news articles. Our results indicate a highly selective media environment focused on a limited set of countries with high sporting relevance and a presence of German national-team players, while other countries rarely enter the media discourse.

Smile Back at Me, But Only Once: Social Norms of Appropriate Nonverbal Intensity and Reciprocity Apply to Emoji Use

In computer-mediated communication, small graphical icons (emojis) can be used to compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions or hand gestures. Accordingly, literature suggests that the use of emojis may also be subject to social norms—similar to nonverbal behavior in face-to-face interactions. However, actual empirical investigations into this assumption remain lacking. To remedy this research gap, I explored whether traditional norms of appropriate emotional intensity and reciprocity also apply to emoji usage. A first online experiment (N = 188) revealed that excessive emoji use in a first-contact scenario leads to diminished interpersonal outcomes, corresponding to the drawbacks of overly intense nonverbal displays in natural interactions. Proceeding to a different communicative stage, Experiment 2 (N = 242) explored nonverbal reciprocity with acquainted interaction partners. Inviting participants to reply to fictitious text messages (at varying levels of interpersonal intimacy), it was observed that stimulus messages containing more emojis also evoke stronger emoji use in return—indicating that principles of nonverbal attunement are in full effect during text-based online interactions.

Role of Non-Verbal Communication in Asynchronous Talk Channels ‎

With the increased adoption of online learning (even greater as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), online asynchronous discussions have become a mainstay of many online learning platforms. As teachers struggle to communicate and connect with students due to the forced transition online, we can better appreciate the differences between traditional nonverbal communication in a face-to-face environment and that of online nonverbal communication. Because digital literacy underpins the whole online learning experience, and because nonverbal communication (NVC) cues such as body language and paralanguage are not visible in asynchronous text-based online learning, this paper presents the relationship (if any) between electronic nonverbal communication (eNVC) and teaching/social presences and digital literacy, as well as its role in student motivation and engagement. A correlational study was conducted using surveys to gather data from 88 Level 5 Business Area students. The data was analysed using a Pearson’s correlation analysis. The study has found that there is a correlation between eNVC and the social/teaching presence and digital literacy in the asynchronous online discussions, and that eNVC is related to teaching and social presences, but not to digital literacy.

Nameless strangers, similar others: the affordances of a young people's anonymous online forum for health information practices

PurposeThe study examines how the technical features and associated social practices of an anonymous, text-based online forum intended for young people make it a unique platform for acquiring and sharing health information among peers.Design/methodology/approachThe features and content of a young people's section of a popular Finnish discussion forum were examined with a focus on health-related threads. Observational notes and thread content were analysed with a focus on the forum's affordances for health information practices.FindingsThe findings indicate that the forum's affordances including anonymity, persistence, searchability, cohesion and tolerance enabled the pooling of peer experiences, opinions and experience-based advice on health, rather than sharing factual information or embracing reciprocal discussion. As such, instead of competing for a cognitive authority position with medical authorities or offering emotional support like tight online support communities, the anonymous forum served as a platform for young people to gain information on others' experiences and opinions on sensitive, mundane and disnormative health issues and for reflecting their own lived experiences to those of others.Originality/valueThe study is original in its approach to examining the affordances of an online platform for health information practices. It helps in understanding young people's ways of using different resources to meet their diverse health information needs and the value of gaining access to experiential health information.

“This word no get concrete meaning oo”: Pragmatic markers in Nigerian online communication

This paper deals with Nigerians’ use of pragmatic markers in their computer-mediated communication. The investigated items originate from various languages but now seem to be used across ethnic boundaries in online interactions that take place in Nigerian Pidgin and Nigerian English. Relying on a large corpus from a Nigerian web forum, the study focuses on a set of common interjections and other textual and interpersonal pragmatic markers and their discourse-pragmatic functions. Their semantic flexibility allows these items to perform different functions depending on the context. I argue that they are vital in indicating emotional involvement and response and in contextualizing (Gumperz, 1982) the forum contributions. Furthermore, the particularities of employing, interpreting, and researching such items in text-based online communication are addressed. This paper contributes to a description of “pragmatic borrowing” (Andersen, 2014) in Nigeria, as well as to the rising field of pragmatics of computer-mediated communication.

Are we leaving students behind? Self-directed learning in an ICT challenged country.

This study investigated the preparedness and experience of students for the fast-paced convergence of ICT and higher education. Overall, 366 distance students with a history of self-directed learning through correspondence courses were profiled using structured text-based online interviews. Twelve students’ attributes on ICT material possession and competencies and experience of Open Distance and Open Learning (ODeL) were collected and analysed. The findings show that the majority of students (72%) who had prior knowledge about the basic concepts of ODeL modalities indicated satisfaction with the e-learning environment while the learning mode is challenging for traditional students (28%). Statistically significant positive correlations (ρ = 0.00) were observed between ICT competencies or preparedness: the level of prior academic qualifications (HAQ: r2 = 0.35); key challenge faced (KC: r2 = 0.26); and the convenience of ODeL (C.ODeL: r2 = 0.18). To ensure that students are not left behind with the proliferation of ICT in distance education, principal component analysis revealed that having prior knowledge about the ODeL modalities is an important attribute that contributes to students’ preparedness for the e-learning environment, thus bridging the variance between the expected expectations and the actual expectations.

Let All Voices Be Heard: Creating an Engaging and Inclusive Asynchronous QR Classroom

With the shift to remote teaching, many instructors used Zoom for synchronous work. However, this presented issues (fatigue, turning cameras off, inequitable technical hurdles) that motivated quantitative reasoning (QR) instructors to look for asynchronous alternatives. A common technique has been text-based online discussions, which can be difficult for students to find engaging. This mixed method study (N = 41) describes an inclusive video alternative, specifically for teaching QR and quantitative fluency skills, which was piloted in two asynchronous sections and one hybrid section of the same course. Students posted their video responses, watched their classmates’ videos, and wrote short lessons-learned papers. After measuring how many students addressed a set of QR questions and the length of video and written submissions, two coders independently rated the quality of students’ written reflections as well as the reasonableness of their oral arguments. Fewer than half of the students addressed most QR questions, about a third presented arguments with medium to high reasonableness, and approximately 40% of students reflected substantively, with no significant differences found by class format. Students in the hybrid section had medium reasonableness of QR arguments, which differed significantly from online students whose arguments had low reasonableness. The length of videos and written submissions were significantly and positively correlated with the number of QR questions addressed. The findings suggest a QR activity with asynchronous videos, which allows students to see and hear each other, may be an effective pedagogical option to improve engagement and accessibility in online courses.

Deconstructing the linguistic features of hybrid text-based online social network communication among Algerian Facebook users: A case study

AbstractThis paper aims at dissecting the foremost innovative linguistic features that characterize the hybrid text-based online social network communication of some Algerian Facebook users. It also seeks to emphasize the role of computer-mediated communication, mainly social networking sites (SNSs), in the modernization of stigmatized informal language varieties as in the case of Algerian Dialectal Arabic (ADA). To achieve this, a qualitative research approach, in which both the researcher’s long-term participant observation and a descriptive content analysis of a corpus of 30 hybrid text-based Facebook posts, is adopted for investigation. Moreover, the relevant data was collected from a virtual Facebook group community that was chiefly created by some younger Algerian EFL students at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret in Algeria in order to share information related to their studies. Interestingly, the findings of our case study revealed that the ADA is linguistically accommodated to some nonstandard and unconventional spellings of hybrid informal writing such as transliteration in its two forms, the use of distinctive signs such as numbers for some letters, the partial and/or full removal of vowel sounds for shortenings, the occurrence of written code switching/mixing and loanwords, and deficiency in using punctuation marks. Ultimately, the research ends with some recommendations for future research in the domain of text-based online communication with reference to the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria.

Strategies to Improve the Use of Live Synchronous Meetings in Blended, Remote, and Online Courses

Distance education over the years has been defined by the ability of students to learn at any time, from anywhere. Thus, it is not surprising that most online courses rely solely on asynchronous text-based online communication, such as email and discussion forums. However, the COVID- 19 pandemic and the rise of emergency remote teaching have sparked an increased interest in using web conferencing software (e.g., Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams) to hold live synchronous meetings, often on a set day and time each week, instead of asynchronous discussions. But as convenient as it can be to move classroom instruction to live synchronous meetings, instructors and students have quickly experienced some drawbacks to using this mode of instruction. Given this problem, we set out to curate a list of strategies to improve the use of live synchronous meetings based on the literature and our combined experience designing and teaching online over the years. In this paper, we describe some affordances and constraints of live synchronous meetings and then describe some strategies that instructors can use to improve their use of these meetings, whether that be in a blended, remote, or online course.

Working from home, care work and shifting gender roles for dual-career couples during the COVID 19 pandemic: An exploratory study of Urban Zimbabwe

abstract The complexities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have created a new ‘normal’ which has further blurred the boundaries of work and home space, with potential to shift gendered care work roles within the household. As schools and childcare centres have also been closed under the COVID-19 lockdowns, care work has been intensified to cater for the home-schooling of children. In the era of COVID-19, the overlapping of work into the home and vice versa has implications for dual-career couples. Using text-based online interviews, 15 heterosexual dual-career couples were purposively selected to explore how dual-career couples in urban Zimbabwe were balancing work and home life during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Findings indicate that COVID-19 indeed intensified care work for women in the home. There was no significant shift in men’s attitudes towards care work or an increased uptake of domestic labour. Utilising a gender lens to boundary theory and African feminism, the paper shows that care work continues to be perceived as women’s work, with men only coming in to assist where necessary. The study recommends that more work needs to be done to shift men’s attitudes towards care work and lessen the burden for women.

A Novel Web Scraping Approach to Identify Stroke Outcome Measures: A Feasibility Study

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> Web scraping is an innovative, efficient and automatic software application to extract large amounts of website data, commonly used for price tracking, product comparison, weather monitoring, and tracking online presence. While this approach provides a promising method to identify and summarize text-based online data, it has yet been utilized in rehabilitation research. This study applies a web-scraping method to rehabilitation research by investigating the scope of existing outcome instruments for stroke patients from one website. <h3>Design</h3> This is a feasibility study using Python programming language and Scrapy framework for identifying web-scraping measurement domains. <h3>Setting</h3> We used the Rehabilitation Measures Database website (RMD; www.sralab.org/rehabilitation-measures) to extract information on stroke outcome instruments. The RMD provides instrument information, such as the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and measurement domains, cost, and administration time. <h3>Participants</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> Measurement domains were extracted and summarized using counts and percentages. <h3>Results</h3> Less than fifteen minutes were taken for accessing each RMD page to store measurement domains of instruments for stroke patients in a csv formatted file by running python programming queries. Among 124 instruments identified for stroke patients, motor (38.5%, n=65) was the most frequently measured domain, followed by activities of daily living (23.1%, n=39), general health (12.4%, n=21), cognition (10.7% n=18), emotion (7.7%, n=13), sensory (5.9%, n=10), and participation (1.8%, n=3). <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study demonstrated that a web-scraping method could be a convenient tool to retrieve publicly available online information for clinical or research purposes. A web-scraping method allows users to obtain target information in analytically friendly formats without requiring laborious manual efforts. Future rehabilitation research studies could leverage web scraping to support making efficient clinical decisions, classifying rehabilitation data, evaluating research impact, and exploring online attitudes, sentiment and behaviors. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> All authors listed in the abstract do not have any conflicts or lack thereof.

Promoting Less Complex and More Honest Price Negotiations in the Online Used Car Market with Authenticated Data

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) sales of used and or high-value goods are gaining more and more relevance today. However, since potential buyers cannot physically examine the product quality during online sales, information asymmetries and consequently uncertainty and mistrust that already exist in offline sales are exacerbated in online markets. Authenticated data platforms have been proposed to solve these problems by providing authenticated data about the negotiation object, integrating it into text-based channels secured by IT. Yet, we know little about the dynamics of online negotiations today and the impact of the introduction of authenticated data on online negotiation behaviors. We address this research gap based on two experimental studies along with the example of online used car trade. We analyze users’ communicative and strategic actions in current P2P chat-based negotiations and examine how the introduction of authenticated data affects these behaviors using a conceptional model derived from literature. Our results show that authenticated data can promote less complex negotiation processes and more honest communication behavior between buyers and sellers. Further, the results indicate that chats with the availability of authenticated data can positively impact markets with information asymmetries. These insights provide valuable contributions for academics interested in the dynamics of online negotiations and the effects of authenticated data in text-based online negotiations. In addition, providers of trade platforms who aim to advance their P2P sales platforms benefit by achieving a competitive advantage and a higher number of customers.