Call for RAs: Alexa- vs. human-directed speech project (Dr. Michelle Cohn, UCD Phonetics Lab)

Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Michelle Cohn, is recruiting undergraduate research assistants (RAs) to serve as confederates in the Alexa- (Amazon Echo) vs. human-directed speech project for Spring 2020 (with possibility of a paid STDT 2 position in Summer 2020 and LIN 199 units in Fall 2020).

RAs are expected to work approximately 6-8 hours a week on the project and will receive 2 units of LIN 199 credit per quarter (Note that 4 units count as upper division elective toward LIN major). 

Details (Spring Qtr 2020):

• Act as a confederate in an interactive psycholinguistic experiment 
• Will receive 2 units of LIN199 (6-8 hours / week) 
• Attend lab meetings (if possible)

The project: Alexa- vs. human-directed speech

• We are comparing how adults and children talk to Amazon's Alexa compared to a real human (you!). There will be both scripted and open ended interactions between you and the participants (and they will complete the same tasks with Alexa). Note that the scripted portion will not require memorization. 

​Requirements: 

• Since 'Alexa' has apparent social characteristics ('female', native English speaker), we are aiming to match those properties in our confederates. At this time, we’re seeking only female native English speakers. 

Desired qualifications

• Interest in research! (Prior experience not required) 
• Be a Linguistics or Cognitive Science Major
• Enthusiastic and interested in talking to new people

Application deadline: March 8, 2020 (by midnight PST)
To apply, email the following to the project PI, Dr. Cohn (mdcohn@ucdavis.edu): 

• CV / Resume
• Unofficial academic transcripts
• 1-2 paragraph description of your interest in the RA position (why do you want to be an RA? Why do you think you'll be a good fit?) 
• Spring 2020 course schedule 

Next steps: 

• After receiving your application, we may offer you an interview with the project PI (Dr. Michelle Cohn).
• Training will begin the first week of Spring quarter 2020. 

Georgia Zellou, Michelle Cohn, & Bruno Ferenc Segedin presented 4 papers at Interspeech in Graz, Austria. 

Congrats to Michelle Cohn for receiving a two year NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Dr. Georgia Zellou (PI: UC Davis Phonetics Lab, Dept. of Linguistics), Dr. Zhou Yu (PI: UC Davis Language and Multimodal Interaction Lab, Dept. of Computer Science) and Dr. Katharine Graf Estes (PI: UC Davis Language Learning Lab, Dept. of Psychology).
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​Click here to see the official NSF posting

Dr. Georgia Zellou and Dr. Michelle Cohn gave invited talks at the June 2019 Voice User Interface (VUI) Summit at the Amazon headquarters. 
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• Zellou, G. Exploring human “speech rules” during vocal interactions with voice-AI. 
• Cohn, M. Exploring cognitive-emotional expression: The impact of voice “emojis” in human-Alexa interaction.

A team led by Georgia Zellou has begun a collaborative research effort exploring how people adjust their speech to digital devices, such as Siri or Alexa. 

​For example, recent Ph.D graduate, Michelle Cohn, has been recording conversations with Gunrock, a social bot created by Zhou Yu's lab that is currently in the semifinals for the Amazon Alexa Prize. You can talk to it yourself if you have an Alexa-enabled device: just say "Let's chat!" and it will randomly invoke one of the three social bots in the running for the grand prize.