Expressive richness: A comparison of speech and text as media for revision

Barbara L. Chalfonte, Robert S. Fish, Robert E. Kraut

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

Both theory and data suggest that that richer, more informal, and more interactive media should be better suited for handling the more complex, equivocal, and emotional aspects of collaborative tasks. To test this hypothesis, we constructed an experiment in which participants were required to make either written or spoken annotations to a document to help a fictional co-author revise it. We seeded relatively error-free texts with errors of different scope . The results provide strong evidence that a richer - in the sense of a more expressive --medium is especially valuable for the more complex, controversial, and social aspects of a collaborative task. Subjects stated that they preferred to use voice to comment on higher-level issues in a document and to use text to deal with lower-level problems of spelling and grammar. When subjects' annotation modalities were restricted, using written annotations led them to comment on more local problems in the text, while using speech led them to comment on higher level concerns. When they did use written annotations to comment on global problems, they were less successful than when they used spoken annotations. Finally, when they offered spoken annotations, they were more likely to add features, such as personal pronouns and explanation, that made their comments more equivocal and socially communicative. These results indicate the uses to which systems that provide voice annotation are likely to be put.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 1991
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages21-26
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)0897913833, 9780897913836
DOIs
StatePublished - 1991
Externally publishedYes
Event1991 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 1991 - New Orleans, LA, United States
Duration: Apr 27 1991May 2 1991

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference1991 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 1991
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Orleans, LA
Period4/27/915/2/91

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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