Michelle Cohn

Jul 6, 2024 | nature.com | Michelle Cohn |Santiago Barreda |Katharine Graf Estes |Zhou J. Yu |Georgia Zellou

This study compares how English-speaking adults and children from the United States adapt their speech when talking to a real person and a smart speaker (Amazon Alexa) in a psycholinguistic experiment. Overall, participants produced more effortful speech when talking to a device (longer duration and higher pitch). These differences also varied by age: children produced even higher pitch in device-directed speech, suggesting a stronger expectation to be misunderstood by the system. In support of this, we see that after a staged recognition error by the device, children increased pitch even more. Furthermore, both adults and children displayed the same degree of variation in their responses for whether “Alexa seems like a real person or not”, further indicating that children’s conceptualization of the system’s competence shaped their register adjustments, rather than an increased anthropomorphism response. This work speaks to models on the mechanisms underlying speech production, and human–computer interaction frameworks, providing support for routinized theories of spoken interaction with technology.

Jul 5, 2024 | flipboard.com | Michelle Cohn |Santiago Barreda |Katharine Graf Estes |Zhou J. Yu |Georgia Zellou

6 hours agoSay what? I would be quite surprised if you perchance knew what hurkle-durkle means. You would either need to be on top of the latest online viral trend that has been chattering endlessly about hurkle-durkling or you have an impressive vocabulary and ought to pat yourself on the back accordingly. …

Jun 13, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Michelle Cohn

What does it mean to “normalize” something? Is it acknowledging the importance so consistently that we accept its weight as a fact of life (marriage, divorce, death)? Is it establishing such widespread support for a topic that the social tide eventually sways towards one opinion over another (bank floats at pride, consulting firms tweeting about International Women’s Day)? Is it making something so banal that it’s hard to imagine it was ever revolutionary (online shopping, cell phones)?

Jun 4, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin |Michelle Cohn

We’re only halfway through 2024, and already it feels like a banner year for comedy. We here at the Paste had a difficult time narrowing things down to the ten best comedy specials of 2024 (so far), and unfortunately had to leave some greats on the cutting room floor that are still very much worth your time.

May 14, 2024 | vulture.com | Michelle Cohn

Let’s not pretend Tom’s bleach job wasn’t Jo using her hair powers for evil. You have to be at least slightly delusional to agree to be on a reality show. Even more so to be on Vanderpump Rules this season, as the stench of Scandoval hangs over every episode like a fart in a crowded room.