Effects of message style on users' attributions toward agents
Susan E. Brennan, Justina O. Ohaeri · 1994
We used a Wizard-of-Oz paradigm to study effects of message style on dialog and on people's mental models of computer agents. People made airline reservations using a simulated reservation agent from which they received one of three message styles: Telegraphic, Fluent, or Anthropomorphic. The agent accepted any kind of language or command input people typed. When people took the initiative, they tended to model their inputs on the computer's messages. They expended more effort in the Anthropomorphic than in the Fluent or Telegraphic conditions. We found no evidence that natural language messages caused higher expectations of intelligence than telegraphic messages.