arXiv subjects

Simret Araya Gebreegziabher

Publications and source records attributed to Simret Araya Gebreegziabher.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Stayin' Aligned Over Time: Towards Longitudinal Human-LLM Alignment via Contextual Reflection and Privacy-Preserving Behavioral Data

Current human-AI alignment and evaluation methods for large language models (LLMs) often rely on preference signals collected immediately after an interaction. This practice implicitly treats preference as static, even though many LLM-mediated decisions unfold over time and may be re-evaluated differently after real-world consequences and observed outcomes. Therefore, we argue for a methodological shift from single-moment preference elicitation to longitudinal, context-situated alignment measurement. We present a methodological framework for collecting temporally grounded alignment signals by combining (1) in-situ preference capture, (2) context-triggered follow-up preference reflection, and (3) privacy-preserving behavioral traces that help interpret preference change. As an instantiation of this methodology, we introduce BITE, a browser-based system that detects consequential LLM interactions, prompts reflection across later decision points, and supports progressive, user-controlled consent for sharing behavioral data. Through a two week longitudinal deployment study with 8 participants, our approach surfaced differences between immediate and later user preferences in accuracy, relevance and other dimensions of the LLM output. Our findings highlight the limitations of single-moment preference datasets and underscore the importance of longitudinal methods for alignment evaluation in everyday use.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Designing Staged Evaluation Workflows for LLMs: Integrating Domain Experts, Lay Users, and Model-Generated Evaluation Criteria

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly utilized for domain-specific tasks, yet evaluating their outputs remains challenging. A common strategy is to apply evaluation criteria to assess alignment with domain-specific standards, yet little is understood about how criteria differ across sources or where each type is most useful in the evaluation process. This study investigates criteria developed by domain experts, lay users, and LLMs to identify their complementary roles within an evaluation workflow. Results show that experts produce fact-based criteria with long-term value, lay users emphasize usability with a shorter-term focus, and LLMs target procedural checks for immediate task requirements. We also examine how criteria evolve between a priori and a posteriori phases, noting drift across stages as well as convergence in the a posteriori phase. Based on our observations, we propose design guidelines for a staged evaluation workflow combining the complementary strengths of these sources to balance quality, cost, and scalability.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

The Behavioral Fabric of LLM-Powered GUI Agents: Human Values and Interaction Outcomes

Large Language Model (LLM)-powered web GUI agents are increasingly automating everyday online tasks. Despite their popularity, little is known about how users' preferences and values impact agents' reasoning and behavior. In this work, we investigate how both explicit and implicit user preferences, as well as the underlying user values, influence agent decision-making and action trajectories. We built a controlled testbed of 14 common interactive web tasks, spanning shopping, travel, dining, and housing, each replicated from real websites and integrated with a low-fidelity LLM-based recommender system. We injected 12 human preferences and values as personas into four state-of-the-art agents and systematically analyzed their task behaviors. Our results show that preference and value-infused prompts consistently guided agents toward outcomes that reflected these preferences and values. While the absence of user preference or value guidance led agents to exhibit a strong efficiency bias and employ shortest-path strategies, their presence steered agents' behavior trajectories through the greater use of corresponding filters and interactive web features. Despite their influence, dominant interface cues, such as discounts and advertisements, frequently overrode these effects, shortening the agents' action trajectories and inducing rationalizations that masked rather than reflected value-consistent reasoning. The contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) an open-source testbed for studying the influence of values in agent behaviors, and (2) an empirical investigation of how user preferences and values shape web agent behaviors.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Dark Patterns Meet GUI Agents: LLM Agent Susceptibility to Manipulative Interfaces and the Role of Human Oversight

The dark patterns, deceptive interface designs manipulating user behaviors, have been extensively studied for their effects on human decision-making and autonomy. Yet, with the rising prominence of LLM-powered GUI agents that automate tasks from high-level intents, understanding how dark patterns affect agents is increasingly important. We present a two-phase empirical study examining how agents, human participants, and human-AI teams respond to 16 types of dark patterns across diverse scenarios. Phase 1 highlights that agents often fail to recognize dark patterns, and even when aware, prioritize task completion over protective action. Phase 2 revealed divergent failure modes: humans succumb due to cognitive shortcuts and habitual compliance, while agents falter from procedural blind spots. Human oversight improved avoidance but introduced costs such as attentional tunneling and cognitive load. Our findings show neither humans nor agents are uniformly resilient, and collaboration introduces new vulnerabilities, suggesting design needs for transparency, adjustable autonomy, and oversight.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Leveraging Variation Theory in Counterfactual Data Augmentation for Optimized Active Learning

Active Learning (AL) allows models to learn interactively from user feedback. This paper introduces a counterfactual data augmentation approach to AL, particularly addressing the selection of datapoints for user querying, a pivotal concern in enhancing data efficiency. Our approach is inspired by Variation Theory, a theory of human concept learning that emphasizes the essential features of a concept by focusing on what stays the same and what changes. Instead of just querying with existing datapoints, our approach synthesizes artificial datapoints that highlight potential key similarities and differences among labels using a neuro-symbolic pipeline combining large language models (LLMs) and rule-based models. Through an experiment in the example domain of text classification, we show that our approach achieves significantly higher performance when there are fewer annotated data. As the annotated training data gets larger the impact of the generated data starts to diminish showing its capability to address the cold start problem in AL. This research sheds light on integrating theories of human learning into the optimization of AL.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Supporting Co-Adaptive Machine Teaching through Human Concept Learning and Cognitive Theories

An important challenge in interactive machine learning, particularly in subjective or ambiguous domains, is fostering bi-directional alignment between humans and models. Users teach models their concept definition through data labeling, while refining their own understandings throughout the process. To facilitate this, we introduce MOCHA, an interactive machine learning tool informed by two theories of human concept learning and cognition. First, it utilizes a neuro-symbolic pipeline to support Variation Theory-based counterfactual data generation. By asking users to annotate counterexamples that are syntactically and semantically similar to already-annotated data but predicted to have different labels, the system can learn more effectively while helping users understand the model and reflect on their own label definitions. Second, MOCHA uses Structural Alignment Theory to present groups of counterexamples, helping users comprehend alignable differences between data items and annotate them in batch. We validated MOCHA's effectiveness and usability through a lab study with 18 participants.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

A Taxonomy for Human-LLM Interaction Modes: An Initial Exploration

With ChatGPT's release, conversational prompting has become the most popular form of human-LLM interaction. However, its effectiveness is limited for more complex tasks involving reasoning, creativity, and iteration. Through a systematic analysis of HCI papers published since 2021, we identified four key phases in the human-LLM interaction flow - planning, facilitating, iterating, and testing - to precisely understand the dynamics of this process. Additionally, we have developed a taxonomy of four primary interaction modes: Mode 1: Standard Prompting, Mode 2: User Interface, Mode 3: Context-based, and Mode 4: Agent Facilitator. This taxonomy was further enriched using the "5W1H" guideline method, which involved a detailed examination of definitions, participant roles (Who), the phases that happened (When), human objectives and LLM abilities (What), and the mechanics of each interaction mode (How). We anticipate this taxonomy will contribute to the future design and evaluation of human-LLM interaction.

cs.HC↗