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I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment

Modern text-to-speech voices can convey social cues ideal for narrating multimedia learning materials. Amazon Alexa has a unique feature among modern text-to-speech vocalizers as she can infuse enthusiasm cues into her synthetic voice. In this first study examining modern text-to-speech voice enthus...

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Main Authors: Liew, Tze Wei, Tan, Su-Mae, Pang, Wei Ming, Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam, Kew, Si Na
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2023
Subjects:
H Social Sciences (General)
Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/106583/1/KewSiNa2023_IAmAlexaYourVirtualTutor.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/106583/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11255-6
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spelling my.utm.1065832024-07-09T07:52:04Z http://eprints.utm.my/106583/ I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment Liew, Tze Wei Tan, Su-Mae Pang, Wei Ming Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam Kew, Si Na H Social Sciences (General) Modern text-to-speech voices can convey social cues ideal for narrating multimedia learning materials. Amazon Alexa has a unique feature among modern text-to-speech vocalizers as she can infuse enthusiasm cues into her synthetic voice. In this first study examining modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm effects in a multimedia learning environment, a between-subjects online experiment was conducted where learners from a large Asian university (n = 244) listened to either Alexa’s: (1) neutral voice, (2) low-enthusiastic voice, (3) medium-enthusiastic voice, or (4) high-enthusiastic voice, narrating a multimedia lesson on distributed denial-of-service attack. While Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not enhance persona ratings compared to Alexa’s neutral voice, learners could infer more enthusiasm expressed by Alexa’s medium-and high-enthusiastic voices than Alexa’s neutral voice. Regarding cognitive load, Alexa’s low-and high-enthusiastic voices decreased intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load ratings compared to Alexa’s neutral voice. While Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not impact affective-motivational ratings differently from Alexa’s neutral voice, learners reported a significant increase of positive emotions from their baseline positive emotions after listening to Alexa’s medium-enthusiastic voice. Finally, Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not enhance the learning performance on immediate retention and transfer tests compared to Alexa’s neutral voice. This study demonstrates that a modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm can positively affect learners’ emotions and cognitive load during multimedia learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of the Cognitive Affective Model of E-learning, Integrated-Cognitive Affective Model of Learning with Multimedia, and Cognitive Load Theory. We further outline this study’s limitations and recommendations for extending and widening the text-to-speech voice emotions research. Springer 2023 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/106583/1/KewSiNa2023_IAmAlexaYourVirtualTutor.pdf Liew, Tze Wei and Tan, Su-Mae and Pang, Wei Ming and Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam and Kew, Si Na (2023) I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment. Education and Information Technologies, 28 (2). pp. 1455-1489. ISSN 1360-2357 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11255-6 DOI : 10.1007/s10639-022-11255-6
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building UTM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.utm.my/
language English
topic H Social Sciences (General)
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
Liew, Tze Wei
Tan, Su-Mae
Pang, Wei Ming
Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam
Kew, Si Na
I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
description Modern text-to-speech voices can convey social cues ideal for narrating multimedia learning materials. Amazon Alexa has a unique feature among modern text-to-speech vocalizers as she can infuse enthusiasm cues into her synthetic voice. In this first study examining modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm effects in a multimedia learning environment, a between-subjects online experiment was conducted where learners from a large Asian university (n = 244) listened to either Alexa’s: (1) neutral voice, (2) low-enthusiastic voice, (3) medium-enthusiastic voice, or (4) high-enthusiastic voice, narrating a multimedia lesson on distributed denial-of-service attack. While Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not enhance persona ratings compared to Alexa’s neutral voice, learners could infer more enthusiasm expressed by Alexa’s medium-and high-enthusiastic voices than Alexa’s neutral voice. Regarding cognitive load, Alexa’s low-and high-enthusiastic voices decreased intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load ratings compared to Alexa’s neutral voice. While Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not impact affective-motivational ratings differently from Alexa’s neutral voice, learners reported a significant increase of positive emotions from their baseline positive emotions after listening to Alexa’s medium-enthusiastic voice. Finally, Alexa’s enthusiastic voices did not enhance the learning performance on immediate retention and transfer tests compared to Alexa’s neutral voice. This study demonstrates that a modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm can positively affect learners’ emotions and cognitive load during multimedia learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of the Cognitive Affective Model of E-learning, Integrated-Cognitive Affective Model of Learning with Multimedia, and Cognitive Load Theory. We further outline this study’s limitations and recommendations for extending and widening the text-to-speech voice emotions research.
format Article
author Liew, Tze Wei
Tan, Su-Mae
Pang, Wei Ming
Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam
Kew, Si Na
author_facet Liew, Tze Wei
Tan, Su-Mae
Pang, Wei Ming
Khan, Mohammad Tariqul Islam
Kew, Si Na
author_sort Liew, Tze Wei
title I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
title_short I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
title_full I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
title_fullStr I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
title_full_unstemmed I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
title_sort i am alexa, your virtual tutor!: the effects of amazon alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment
publisher Springer
publishDate 2023
url http://eprints.utm.my/106583/1/KewSiNa2023_IAmAlexaYourVirtualTutor.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/106583/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11255-6
_version_ 1805880835171155968
score 13.211869

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