arXiv subjects

Joel Wester

Publications and source records attributed to Joel Wester.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Who Gets to Interpret the Workout? User Tensions with AI-Generated Fitness Feedback

Fitness tracking platforms increasingly integrate generative AI to interpret activity data, such as Strava's Athlete Intelligence. These integrations raise questions about how athletes engage with AI-supported fitness self-tracking. We analyzed 297 Reddit threads and 5,692 comments from r/Strava following the company's launch of AI features to examine user reactions to AI-generated fitness feedback. Our findings revealed four recurring tensions: (1) numerical evaluation versus contextual understanding; (2) isolated session summaries versus ongoing training narratives; (3) a fixed AI tone versus diverse emotional states; and (4) a single AI voice versus different athletic types. Across these tensions, users resisted AI feedback that constrained interpretations of their own lived experiences. These findings shed light on the implicit challenges of integrating AI into self-tracking platforms. We conclude with implications for the design of AI-supported self-tracking systems that preserve interpretive openness and user agency.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

PlantWhisperer: Designing Conversational AI to Support Plant Care

Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has shown that caring for others, including both humans (e.g., close friends) and computers (e.g., Tamagotchi), can have a positive effect on people's wellbeing. However, we know less about the potential role of conversational AI in such settings. In this work, we explore how AI chatbots can support plant care and, in turn, positively influence people's well-being. We developed a mobile application that allows users to `talk' to their plants via chatbots. We evaluated the application with ten participants and conducted semi-structured interviews based on Seligman's PERMA model, which identifies pillars of psychological well-being. Our findings suggest positive effects, with participants reflecting on a sense of connection to their plants and corresponding feelings of accomplishment. While our findings suggest that participants were generally positive about the app, they also raised concerns about the diverse preferences and expectations of users regarding interactions with chatbots representing plants.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

How College Students Use AI to Navigate Course Readings: Evidence from an Eight-Week Study

College students increasingly use AI chatbots to support academic reading, yet we lack granular understanding of how these interactions shape their reading experience and cognitive engagement. We conducted an eight-week longitudinal study with 15 undergraduates who used AI to support assigned readings in a course. We collected 838 prompts across 239 reading sessions and developed a coding schema categorizing prompts into four cognitive themes: Decoding, Comprehension, Reasoning, and Metacognition. Comprehension prompts dominated (59.6%), with Reasoning (29.8%), Metacognition (8.5%), and Decoding (2.1%) less frequent. Most sessions (72%) contained exactly three prompts, the required minimum of the reading assignment. Within sessions, students showed natural cognitive progression from comprehension toward reasoning, but this progression was truncated. Across eight weeks, students' engagement patterns remained stable, with substantial individual differences persisting throughout. Qualitative analysis revealed an intention-behavior gap: students recognized that effective prompting required effort but rarely applied this knowledge, with efficiency emerging as the primary driver. Students also strategically triaged their engagement based on interest and academic pressures, exhibiting a novel pattern of reading through AI rather than with it: using AI-generated summaries as primary material to filter which sections merited deeper attention. We discuss design implications for AI reading systems that scaffold sustained cognitive engagement.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Chaplains' Reflections on the Design and Usage of AI for Conversational Care

Despite growing recognition that responsible AI requires domain knowledge, current work on conversational AI primarily draws on clinical expertise that prioritises diagnosis and intervention. However, much of everyday emotional support needs occur in non-clinical contexts, and therefore requires different conversational approaches. We examine how chaplains, who guide individuals through personal crises, grief, and reflection, perceive and engage with conversational AI. We recruited eighteen chaplains to build AI chatbots. While some chaplains viewed chatbots with cautious optimism, the majority expressed limitations of chatbots' ability to support everyday well-being. Our analysis reveals how chaplains perceive their pastoral care duties and areas where AI chatbots fall short, along the themes of Listening, Connecting, Carrying, and Wanting. These themes resonate with the idea of attunement, recently highlighted as a relational lens for understanding the delicate experiences care technologies provide. This perspective informs chatbot design aimed at supporting well-being in non-clinical contexts.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Polite But Boring? Trade-offs Between Engagement and Psychological Reactance to Chatbot Feedback Styles

As conversational agents become increasingly common in behaviour change interventions, understanding optimal feedback delivery mechanisms becomes increasingly important. However, choosing a style that both lessens psychological reactance (perceived threats to freedom) while simultaneously eliciting feelings of surprise and engagement represents a complex design problem. We explored how three different feedback styles: 'Direct', 'Politeness', and 'Verbal Leakage' (slips or disfluencies to reveal a desired behaviour) affect user perceptions and behavioural intentions. Matching expectations from literature, the 'Direct' chatbot led to lower behavioural intentions and higher reactance, while the 'Politeness' chatbot evoked higher behavioural intentions and lower reactance. However, 'Politeness' was also seen as unsurprising and unengaging by participants. In contrast, 'Verbal Leakage' evoked reactance, yet also elicited higher feelings of surprise, engagement, and humour. These findings highlight that effective feedback requires navigating trade-offs between user reactance and engagement, with novel approaches such as 'Verbal Leakage' offering promising alternative design opportunities.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Distributed Cognition for AI-supported Remote Operations: Challenges and Research Directions

This paper investigates the impact of artificial intelligence integration on remote operations, emphasising its influence on both distributed and team cognition. As remote operations increasingly rely on digital interfaces, sensors, and networked communication, AI-driven systems transform decision-making processes across domains such as air traffic control, industrial automation, and intelligent ports. However, the integration of AI introduces significant challenges, including the reconfiguration of human-AI team cognition, the need for adaptive AI memory that aligns with human distributed cognition, and the design of AI fallback operators to maintain continuity during communication disruptions. Drawing on theories of distributed and team cognition, we analyse how cognitive overload, loss of situational awareness, and impaired team coordination may arise in AI-supported environments. Based on real-world intelligent port scenarios, we propose research directions that aim to safeguard human reasoning and enhance collaborative decision-making in AI-augmented remote operations.

cs.HC↗