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Conversational Agents (CAs) are characterized by their roles within a narrative and the communication style they adopt during conversations. Within computer games, users' evaluation of the narrative is influenced by their estimation of CAs' intelligence and believability. However, the impact of CAs' roles and communication styles on users' experience remains unclear. This research investigates such influence of CAs' roles and communication styles through a crime-solving textual game. Four different CAs were developed and each of them was assigned to a role of either witness or suspect and to a communication style than can be either aggressive or cooperative. Communication styles were simulated through a Wizard of Oz method. Users' task was to interact, through real-time written exchanges, with the four CAs and then to identify the culprit, assess the certainty of their judgments, and rank the CAs based on their conversational preferences. In addition, users' experience was evaluated using perceptual measures (perceived intelligence and believability scales) and behavioral measures (including analysis of users' input length, input delay, and conversation length). The results revealed that users' evaluation of CAs' intelligence and believability was primarily influenced by CAs' roles. On the other hand, users' conversational behaviors were mainly influenced by CAs' communication styles. CAs' communication styles also significantly determined users' choice of the culprit and conversational preferences.

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BACKGROUND: Nursing home residents with dementia commonly experience low food intake, leading to negative functional and nutritional consequences. While the importance of staff-resident (dyadic) interactions during mealtime is acknowledged, little research has examined the role of dyadic verbal interactions on food intake. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the relationship between food intake and dyadic verbal interactions. METHODS: This study was a secondary analysis of 110 videotaped observations of mealtime care interactions among 25 residents with dementia and 29 staff (42 unique dyads) in 9 nursing homes. Staff positive utterances and resident positive and negative utterances (independent variables) and food intake (dependent variable) were coded from the videotaped observations using the Cue Utilization and Engagement in Dementia video coding scheme. A linear mixed model was fit to the data. The two-way interaction effects of food type and video duration with each independent variable as well as two-way interaction effects among the independent variables were tested. Covariates included in the model were the number of years staff worked as a caregiver, and resident age, gender, and eating function. RESULTS: The model included three significant interaction effects involving verbal variables: the interaction effect of staff positive utterances with resident positive utterances (p=.030), the interaction effect of staff positive utterances with food type (p=.027), and the interaction effect of resident negative utterances with video duration (p=0.002). Increased number of intakes of liquid food per minute was associated with increased number of staff positive utterances per minute when residents did not make positive utterances. Decreased number of intakes of solid food per minute was associated with increased number of staff positive utterances per minute, especially when residents made between 0 and 3 positive utterances per minute. As the duration of the videos increased, the number of intakes per minute increased for residents who made one or more negative utterances and decreased for residents who made no negative utterances in the videos. The number of intakes per minute was associated with resident gender in that male residents had increased number of intakes per minute compared with female residents (p=.017), and was not associated with other participant characteristics. CONCLUSION: Intake was associated with dyadic verbal interactions, and such relationship was complex in that it was moderated by food type and video duration. Findings support the significant role of dyadic verbal interactions on intake, and inform the development of effective, tailored mealtime care interventions to promote intake.

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PURPOSE: Part of the local hidden curriculum during clinical training of students in the University of Maiduguri medical college in Nigeria, metaphorically referred to as "toxic" practice by students, are situations where a teacher belittles and/or humiliates a student who has fallen short of expected performance, with the belief that such humiliation as part of feedback will lead to improvement in future performance. Through a framework of sociocultural perspective, this study gathered data to define the breadth and magnitude of this practice and identify risk and protective factors with the aim of assessing effectiveness of current intervention strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a mixed method research approach, quantitative data were collected from fourth-year medical students in a Nigerian medical college through a survey questionnaire, and qualitative data were obtained through a face-to-face, individual, semi-structured interview of students attending the same institution. RESULTS: Findings indicate that many students continue to experience "toxic" practice, with only very few reporting the incidents to relevant authorities, raising important questions about the appropriateness of current intervention efforts. CONCLUSION: Current intervention strategies grossly underestimate the influence of institutional forces that can lead to or promote this behavior. Acknowledgment of this has implications for an appropriate intervention strategy.

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Com base na ideia de que as necessidades de, e as intervenções em saúde são condições e ações humanas permeadas e construídas, com frequência, por atos comunicativos, este artigo discute categorias centrais do pensamento do filósofo da linguagem Mikhail Bakhtin tais como: dialogia, enunciado, gênero e polifonia como referencial para a análise de interações verbais no campo da saúde. Bakhtin desenvolve um pensamento cujo fundamento é a natureza social da linguagem, entendendo que a comunicação de cada época e de cada grupo social reflete as condições específicas e as finalidades dos respectivos campos da sociedade. Para ele, o sujeito se constitui discursivamente ao apreender vozes alheias e é integralmente social e singular. Tomando como referência essa constituição social e singular dos indivíduos, o artigo também apresenta, de forma seminal, uma proposição prática para a construção de espaços e de atividades no campo da saúde.

Based on the idea that both the needs and interventions in health are human conditions and actions often permeated and built by communicative acts, this article discusses central categories of Mikhail Bakhtin's philosophy of language - such as: dialogue, utterance, gender and polyphony - and proposes their use as a framework for the analysis of verbal interactions in the health field. Bakhtin conceives language social in nature, understanding that the communication in every field of society reflects their specific purposes, historical and social conditions. According to him, the subject is constituted in a discursive manner, by means of appropriating other's voices, being also entirely social and unique. With reference to that social and unique constitution of individuals, the article also presents, in a seminal way, a practical proposition for the construction of spaces and activities in the health field.

Con base en la idea de que las necesidades de, y las intervenciones en la salud son condiciones y acciones humanas permeables y construídas por actos comunicativos, se discuten categorías centrales del pensamiento del filósofo del lenguaje Mikhail Bakhtin tales como: dialogismo, enunciado, género, polifonía como base de un marco analítico de interacciones verbales en el campo de la salud. Bakhtin desarrolla un pensamiento cuyo fundamento es la naturaleza social del lenguaje, entendiendo que la comunicación de cada época y grupo social refleja las condiciones específicas y los fines de los respectivos campos de la sociedad. Para él, el sujeto se constituye discursivamente aprehendiendo voces ajenas y es integralmente social y singular. Tomando como referencia esa constitución social y singular de los individuos, se presenta, de forma seminal, una proposición práctica para la construcción de espacios y de actividades en el campo de la salud.

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It has been documented that adolescent mothers are less verbally and emotionally responsive in their interactions with their children compared to adult mothers. These less than optimal adolescent mother/infant interactions have been found to affect the child's healthy growth and development. This small study aimed to identify and characterize the frequency of verbal behaviors exhibited in the infant/adolescent mother dyad during feeding sessions during a baseline phase of a study that employed single subject methodology. An individualized bug-in-the-ear feedback and prompting parent training model was instituted in the intervention phase of the study to improve the frequency and quality of infant-mother interaction. Results of the study clearly revealed low frequency of verbal interaction in the baseline phase. After a structured prompting intervention was instituted there were positive effects in the mother's behaviors which in turn positively impacted infant behavior.