Chad Edwards

Western Michigan University | WMU · School of Communication

The widespread use of Voice-Based Assistants (VBAs) in various applications has introduced a new dimension to human-machine communication. This study explores how users assess VBAs exhibiting either excessive or insufficient communication accommodation in imagined initial interactions. Drawing on Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) and the Ste...

Background Education is often the primary arena for exploring and integrating new technologies. AI and human‐machine communication (HMC) are prevalent in the classroom, yet we are still learning how student perceptions of these tools will impact education. Objectives We sought to understand student perceptions of credibility related to written fee...

[English Abstract] Integrating machine actors into daily life blurs the line between humans and machines, presenting opportunities and challenges. Within this context, the field of human-machine communication (HMC) stands at the forefront, poised to explore this emerging phenomenon of human-machine interaction. As we look into the future of this ra...

This study examines the role of voice-based assistants (VBAs), specifically Alexa, in the mediatization paradigm framework. The authors hypothesize that emerging technologies such as chatbots and VBAs intensify the process of online meta-reintermediation of news. Three research questions were investigated through a questionnaire administered to 655...

This paper delves into what the application of authenticity to Human-Machine Communication (HMC) can teach us about authenticity and us as HMC researchers and as a com- munity. Inspired by the 2023 pre-conference “HMC: Authenticity in communicating with machines,” two central questions guide the discussion: How does HMC contribute to our understand...

What happens when a social robot attempts to accommodate its communicative behavior towards the human interlocutor? The present experiment seeks to expand understanding of how people evaluate social robots when they (the social robots) engage in cases of over-and under-accommodation during interactions. Additionally, the current study partially rep...

Mute machines offer clues to understanding social dynamics simply by their function and proximity to humans. We used followbots, robots that haul equipment without social interaction, to investigate perceptions of leader configuration on credibility, attraction, and social presence across three scenarios (leader, leader/followbot, leader/human). Th...

Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in...

Human-Machine Communication refers to the collaborative process in which humans and machines use messages to create and participate in social reality. Among the most important aspects of social reality are personal relationships, which are accomplished through communication and social interaction with others. As communication between humans and art...

The gendering of machine agents risks further complicating the social framework in ways that reverberate to humans' relationships and identities. This paper explores how users perceive the gender and status of Amazon's Alexa. We argue that voice-based assistants, particularly those with feminine names and voices, may contribute to reinforcing a ret...

Despite a relatively short history, the modern-day study of communication has grown into multiple subfields. To better understand the relationship between Human-Machine Communication (HMC) research and traditional communication science, this study examines the published scholarship in 28 communication-specific journals from 2011–2021 focused on hum...

Social distancing policies such as limits on public gatherings and contact with others were utilized around the world to slow the spread of COVID-19. Yet, decreased social interactions may also threaten people’s well-being. In this project, we sought to understand novelty-relevant experiences surrounding in-home companion robot pets for adults that...

Increasingly, people interact with embodied machine communicators and are challenged to understand their natures and behaviors. The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE, sometimes referred to as the correspondence bias) is the tendency for individuals to overemphasize personality-based or dispositional explanations for other people's behavior while u...

The current study examines qualitative responses from participants about their opinions on a weather forecast delivered by a professional meteorologist, an amateur meteorologist, and a social robot standing in for a meteorologist. Through thematic analyses, this study identified that people evaluated each weather forecast agent’s performance based...

In this study, we investigated the differences in perceived competence , credibility, and social presence within socially supportive interactions (emotional or instrumental) using human, AI, and social robot actors. We further differentiated our findings by actor and type of support and found that participants thought the human and social robot dif...

Human-to-human scripting accounts for a user’s tendency in human-robot interactions (HRI) to utilize scripts just as they would if talking to another person. Can a robot’s emotional verbal expression, however, impact perceptions and further elicit human-to-human scripting? The present study examines the effects of a robot’s emotional expression of...

Teaching is inherently collaborative. The input teachers receive from colleagues, students, and administrators can influence curriculum choices and alter classroom dynamics. A teaching team is a group of professionals who choose to actively collaborate for a common instructional purpose (Cook & Friend, 1995). The model of shared teaching responsibi...

Weather-related communication lends itself well to various styles of delivery and medium. Yet, new communication technologies have changed information consumption in this domain and created changes for broadcast media. Some new media platforms allow the participation of nonprofessional (amateur) agents, whereas others, such as social robotics or ch...

The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional or personality-based explanations for others’ behavior while under-emphasizing situational explanations. Compared to people, current robots are less agentic and autonomous and more driven by programming, design, and humans-in-the-loop. People do nonet...

M. Chad McBride, immediate past president of the Central States Communication Association and Chad Edwards, past executive director share thoughts about helping navigate CSCA through troubling times whether it was the pandemic of 2020 or the dire situation the organization was in related to our nonprofit and organizational status. The aim of this a...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized that (1) participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support anima...

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support, and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized: 1. participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support animal; 2. percei...

Extending previous research on the Computers Are Social Actors paradigm and the human-to-human interaction script, this study examines the interpersonal impressions of a social robot evaluator versus a human evaluator in a performance evaluation context. A between-subjects experiment was conducted to measure participants’ impressions of the credibi...

When social robots are used in communicative contexts, the norms, values, and expectations associated with the process of communication itself are important considerations. Message design logics (MDL) are working models of communication that lead to distinct ways of thinking about communication situations and reasoning from goals to messages. The t...

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become more common and capable interaction partners (human-machine communication; HMC), understanding how people perceive and interact with them becomes increasingly important to study. This essay argues that one important avenue for this study is the application of relevant interpersonal and computer-me...

https://ijtelepresence.org/1-2/

Artificially intelligent (AI) agents increasingly occupy roles once served by humans in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Technological affordances like emoji give interactants (humans or bots) the ability to partially overcome the limited nonverbal information in CMC. However, despite the growth of chatbots as conversational partners, few CMC...

This study examines how players describe their rationale behind decisions made during gameplay of Detroit: Become Human and how responses may coincide with character attachment (CA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the presence of character attachment and how it may lead to the player's understanding of their gameplay choices....

Although both HRI and Communication Science often trace their origins to the transdisciplinary cybernetics of the 20th century, they have since developed in relative isolation, with scant scholarly exchange concerning the similarities and differences in their assumptions, insights, and approaches. The purpose of this half-day workshop is to explore...

The purpose of this study was to test the strength of the machine heuristic; specifically when suspicion is primed in a message receiver concerning the veracity of information from a robot delivering news. Results demonstrate that low suspicion led to higher credibility evaluations, which consequently increased behavioral intentions. Findings are d...

This study examines the pratfall effect and interpersonal impressions of how humans perceive robots that appear forgetful and apologetic regarding information given to them by a human. Results demonstrated that the non-forgetful robot was perceived higher for interpersonal impressions when compared to the forgetful and forgetful apologizing robots.

This experiment was conducted to determine inter-personal impressions of two types of compliance-gaining strategies (warning and obligation) used to ask for the consideration of robot rights. Findings demonstrated that the strategy of obligation produced higher levels of petitioner perceived caring (a factor of source credibility) and higher percep...

This chapter outlines research in human-machine interaction and explains potentials for abuse, misuse, and anti-social behaviors towards and from machines. We focus on social bots—algorithms or artificial intelligence (AI) designed to act in ways that are similar to humans in social spaces online, and social robots—embodied social agents with anthr...

When faced with the prospect of being judged on public speaking by either a human or a robot, which is the more desirable partner? Robots could serve as a potential useful partner in practicing public speeches. This chapter reports the results of an experiment demonstrating that participants reported significantly higher levels of public speaking a...

Human–machine communication has emerged as a new relational context of education and should become a priority for instructional scholarship in the coming years. With artificial intelligence and robots offering personalized instruction, teachers’ roles may shift toward overseers who design and select machine-led instruction, monitor student progress...

Extending previous research on the human-to-human interaction script, the MAIN model, and the Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm, this study examines the influence of weather-related communication sources with varying levels of expertise and agency cues (i.e. human versus bot) on impressions of communication quality. Specifically, an exper...

This study employs the Computers are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm to extend the predictions of Social Identity Theory (SIT) to human-robot interaction (HRI) in the context of instructional communication. SIT posits that individuals gain a sense of personal worth from the groups with which they identify. Previous research has demonstrated that age...

Tips offered center on classroom discourse, curriculum choices, and potential assignments. In this article, we present tips for creating a thriving undergraduate and graduate communication research lab. Based on our experiences developing and co-directing the Communication and Social Robotics Labs (CSRLs), we offer 10 best practices for acquiring r...

Message design logics (MDLs) are working models of communication that lead to different conceptions of how to rationally construct messages, or reason from goals to messages1. The three MDLs are expressive (transmitting thoughts and feelings), conventional (following socially appropriate rules to coordinate activity), and rhetorical (using language...

Social robots are communicative partners that need interpersonal communication skills. Vocal fillers have been shown to act as cues during interpersonal communication. The purpose of this experiment was to test people’s perceptions of their social presence with social robots utilizing vocal fillers. Participants reported an increase in their percep...

Telepresence facilitates social presence over geographically separated individuals and is commonplace in modern organizations. However, few studies explore individuals' perceptions of leadership and communication quality when such telepresence technologies are used. With consideration to the Human-to-Human Interaction Script Theory, a two-group pos...

This paper presents a study investigating perceptions of an agent (human, robot, or A.I. computer program) delivering a treatment plan. Results demonstrate that human, robot, and A.I. physicians were perceived to be credible and attractive. However, the human physician received higher ratings when compared to the machine agents. Results are explain...

The purpose of this study is to determine levels of support for consideration of the rights of robots and to identify predictors of support for robot rights. Findings demonstrated that negative attitudes toward robots, perceived credibility of the petitioner, and prior interaction with robots were significant predictors of individuals agreeing to s...

Telepresence facilitates social presence over geographically separated individuals and is commonplace in modern organizations. However, few studies explore individuals' perceptions of leadership and communication quality when such telepresence technologies are used. With consideration to the Human-to-Human Interaction Script Theory, a two-group pos...

Education has long involved the use of machines, ranging from calculators, to computers, to multimedia presentation systems, to mobile phones. Yet, the central players in education— teachers and students—could be relied upon to take the form of old-fashioned, flesh and blood, human beings. However, educational encounters of the future (and increasi...

Telepresence, a group of technologies that facilitate social presence over distance, is commonplace in the team-driven modern organization. Despite this, little research explores small group communication and leadership quality over telepresence technologies. With consideration to research on workplaces, telepresence, and the perspectives of the Hu...

This paper presents a study investigating perceptions of a human versus NAO robot physician conducting a simulated medical interview with undergraduate students. Results show that both human and NAO doctor were perceived to be credible and produced positive patient affect. However, the human doctor received significantly higher ratings when compare...

Robots are becoming increasingly popular in social applications and have demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of contexts such as education, health, task management, and other complex cooperative roles. The purpose of this study was to examine human–robot interaction in a nonassistive environment: a negotiation scenario. Specifically, the author...

Twitter's design allows the implementation of automated programs that can submit tweets, interact with others, and generate content based on algorithms. Scholars and end-users alike refer to these programs to as “Twitterbots.” This two-part study explores the differences in perceptions of communication quality between a human agent and a Twitterbot...

As artificial intelligence, robotics, and ICTs continue to develop and merge, we are increasingly interacting with digital interlocutors such as voice-based agents, robots, and social bots. We also are sending and receiving messages to and from wearable devices. We directly interact with the technologies surrounding us, and digital entities have be...

Twitterbots are automated programs that can tweet and interact with users of Twitter. With consideration to the growing usage of social media for communicative and informational functions and to current events such as the "Black Lives Matter ” movement, this study explores differences in perceptions of communication quality between racially-depicte...

As social robotics becomes more utilized and routine in everyday situations, individuals will be interacting with social robots in a variety of contexts. Centered on the use of human-to-human interaction scripts, the current study hypothesized that individuals would be more uncertain, have less liking and anticipate less social presence when they a...

Social media have emerged as increasingly important sources through which the public seeks information concerning crises or risks. Despite this increased dependence, little is known about the psychological processes associated with perceptions of source credibility or the desire to seek additional information related to the risk. The current study...

Because robots and other electronic agents perform increasingly social functions, people will soon face the possibility of more frequent human–robot interactions. But what kinds of expectations do people bring with them into these potential interactions? Based on the possibility of a human-to-human interaction script, the current research hypothesi...

Using a convenience sample, 172 college students' (M age = 20.2 yr., SD = 2.5) motives for communicating with their instructors and their own verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness were studied using the Argumentativeness Scale, the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale, and the Student Motives to Communicate Scale. Significant negative relationships we...

The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of expectancies formed through computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student learning. Increasingly, students rely on computer-mediated WOM through sites such as RateMyProfessors.com to aid in the process of information-gathering and course selection. It was hypothe...

This study investigated the link between college students' perceptions of instructors' aggressive communication and students' involvement in and out of the classroom. Participants were 218 students enrolled in introductory communication courses. Results indicated that students' reports of instructor argumentativeness were not positively associated...

The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student perceptions of instructors (attractiveness and credibility) and on student attitudes toward learning course content (affective learning and state motivation). It was hypothesized that students who receive positive com...

The purpose of this study was to examine how an instructor's perceived use of argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness affects students' perceptions of instructor credibility. Results indicate that students rated the instructor who was high in argumentativeness and low in verbal aggressiveness as higher in competence, character, and caring than...

The purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived instructor credibility (i.e., competence, character, caring) differs based on instructor teaching philosophy. Participants were 244 students who read a short vignette describing an instructor with either a transmissive or a progressive teaching philosophy and completed the Measure of Source...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student pre‐performance concerns, student evaluation apprehension, and receiving a grade for a speech. It was hypothesized that in the public speaking course, (a) a positive relationship would exist between student pre‐performance concerns and student evaluation and (b) students who...

Social Identity Theory (SIT) posits that individuals gain a sense of personal worth from the groups they identify with. Age group identification has been shown in the literature to have positive esteem consequences for its members. This study extends the current literature by broadening SIT to the instructional context. The results demonstrate that...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kansas, Communication Studies, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-88).