Date of Defense

4-15-2020

Date of Graduation

4-2020

Department

Business Information Systems

First Advisor

Autumn Edwards

Second Advisor

Yvette Hyter

Third Advisor

Alan Rea

Abstract

This project is a study of the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on children’s politeness by providing positive reinforcement for good verbal behavior. How children communicate with artificial intelligence is identified. There is an observation as to how positive reinforcement will influence their behavior. The survey administered before and after the introduction of the Google Nest Hub into the homes of participating families (pre-intervention survey and post-intervention survey) is included in this document. There was an observation period during which the Google Nest Hub recorded queries made by the child participant within each of those families. These records were used for analysis. Five families participated in this study. All five child participants were between the ages of 5 and 13 and were all considered to be of average or above-average at being polite. There was a slight increase in the use of polite forms over the five weeks in 3 of the children. Reasons as to why the positive reinforcement feature may not be as effective were identified by using Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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