Voice Assistant-Based CBT for Depression in Students: Effects of Empathy-Driven Dialog Management.

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportChapter in book/Anthology/ReportContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

With a rising number of students with depression, new low-threshold solutions have to be found to strengthen the resilience against and help those affected by mental disorders. One approach lies in the usage of chatbots (CBs) to provide tools based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that can be used independently in order to reduce symptoms of depression. To ensure the adherence to such systems, a good usability and acceptance is important. Conversational agents (CAs) that provide CBT-based content should further be sensitive to the users emotional state, as empathy is one central aspect of therapy. While promising research has been going on in the field of CB-based empathy-driven CBT, voice assistant-based (VA-based) solutions have thus far not been investigated deeply. Therefore, we propose a VA-based, empathy-driven system, capable of delivering selected methods from CBT to students with depression. To assess the effects of empathy-driven dialog management on perceived usability and acceptance, we conducted a single blind randomized controlled A/B testing experiment with 10 participants. While the application of empathetical dialog management shows no benefits to the usability and acceptance, results overall indicate a good usability and acceptance of the system in the target group.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputers Helping People with Special Needs - 18th International Conference, ICCHP-AAATE 2022, Proceedings
EditorsKlaus Miesenberger, Georgios Kouroupetroglou, Katerina Mavrou, Roberto Manduchi, Mario Covarrubias Rodriguez, Petr Penáz
PublisherSpringer, Cham
Pages451-461
Number of pages11
ISBN (print)9783031086472
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85134309500
unpaywall 10.1007/978-3-031-08648-9_52
Mendeley 23c7bccc-4615-3e42-a2da-00c54a369af3
WOS 000874455200052
ORCID /0000-0002-1890-4281/work/141544923

Keywords

Keywords

  • Affective disorders, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Conversational agents, Depression, Human-computer interaction, Speech, Usability, Voice assistants, Voice interaction