Interaction Studies - Current Issue

The primary objective of this study is to determine how the perception of educational information by students through the use of musical charts affects their academic performance compared to traditional teaching methods. The experiment entailed a qualitative analysis of sound maps created using the JamBoard application. A total of 120 students from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture participated in the study and were divided into control and experimental groups. The results were analyzed using a paired-sample t-test. The practical significance of the statistical information obtained from the research is rather high. Primarily, it can be utilized by musicologists for further contrastive analysis of the effectiveness of musical charts among student groups with and without prior musical education. Additionally, the study holds significant practical value in terms of serving as a foundation for developing educational plans and methodologies within the context of the educational process.

The rising social value of pet ownership is influenced by social media and evidence of positive effects on well-being, leading to a rise in dog ownership in younger generations. However, the mental health outcomes of this broader shift, especially in India, have not been studied. The study explored the association between dog owners’ relationships, mental health, and satisfaction with life among university students. A cross-sectional correlational design was used with 250 students aged 18–25 who were either dog owners or without pets. The dog owners responded to the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale, apart from the Mental Health Continuum and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Results showed a non-significant difference between mental health and satisfaction with life between dog owners and non-pet respondents. A positive relationship could not be established between dog ownership, mental health, and satisfaction with life. The dog’s gender and breed influenced the owners’ emotional bonding and interactions. Low perceived costs were related to a strong emotional bond with the dog, highlighting the complex nature of the pet ownership experience. Dog ownership’s effect on students’ well-being is not universal and might depend on various individual, cultural, and contextual factors. Exploration of these human-animal interactions is warranted.

This research aims to investigate the potential implementation of robotic classes and robotics in modern music education. The research methodology is based on experimental approaches, the questionnaire method, static data analysis techniques, and the descriptive method of analysing the results obtained. A total of 245 students from Chinese music universities and conservatories participated in the survey. The research findings revealed that 88% of the students were willing to transition entirely to robotics-based education. Among them, 90% exhibited familiarity with contemporary technologies and their specific applications in music education. Over half of the students (80%) had grown accustomed to the robotic learning format and saw no need for attending classes with human instructors (85%). Furthermore, 81% of the participants in the study expressed confidence in the potential for complete automation of music education in the future. The majority of the students (94%) welcome the use of robotics in music education.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on various fields, including education. This study investigates the emotional effects of learning English as a second language using AI tutoring tools in comparison to traditional classroom methods. The research focused on students from Shiraz University and used the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire to measure eight distinct emotions: enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. The study discovered that students using the Praktika AI-based app reported notably lower levels of negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness) and higher improvement of hope and enjoyment compared to those in traditional classroom settings. The personalised feedback and interactive nature of AI tools contributed to these emotional benefits, suggesting that AI can effectively support second language acquisition by creating a more emotionally supportive learning environment. The implications for educators and policymakers are significant, indicating the potential for AI tools to enhance student motivation and emotional well-being, resulting in improved learning outcomes. Despite the promising results, the study acknowledges limitations such as a small sample size and the focus on short-term emotional impacts. Future research should investigate long-term effects, include diverse populations, and use comprehensive metrics to fully understand the role of AI in language learning.

One of the characteristics of dialogue is that interlocutors tend to converge on the same linguistic choices, called alignment. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether structural alignment — the tendency to use the same syntactic structures — has a positive effect on cognitive load and task completion in a task-based conversation. To do so, we engage participants in a collaborative task where they have to interact with another interlocutor (actually a bot) and inform each other about the location of landmarks on a map. In one condition the bot aligns with the participant and in the other it does not. Participants are recorded with an eye tracker during the experiment so that we can evaluate cognitive load and performance in the task. We found that when participants interact with an aligning bot, their cognitive load decreases and task completion is facilitated, but only to a certain degree. The results of the study suggest that alignment is a strategy that can be used in order to facilitate task performance.

Motor interference is an effect of movement deviations resulting from activation of mirror neurons due to a counterpart’s movements. This paper presents results from a study investigating the impact of elbow configuration changes of a physical robot arm on human elbow configurations, while performing a linear hand movement task. A within-subjects design is chosen with different elbow configuration change conditions (upwards, downwards, no change) presented to the participants. Results show various types of imitation behavior of elbow movements by the participants. Significant differences of the variability of height differences of optically tracked wrist and elbow positions measured by standard deviations of the time series of height difference progressions are found compared to a baseline condition without elbow movements. These results show, that recently found principles in human-human-interaction do also apply to human-robot interaction, where involuntary arm configuration changes induced by a robotic counterpart may lead to unwanted sensitivity and manipulability variations, which could interfere with given interaction tasks.