Linguistics & Codability

Research Activities

Investigated linguistic codability and its effects on perception and memory. Gathered, measured, and codified verbal descriptions of taste, then conducted a recognition memory task to find effect of codability. Compared results with codability ratings for odor.

Conducted linguistic analyses of side effects terminology. Experiments revealed dramatic overestimation by participants of adverse drug reaction frequency terms and misconceptions of severity terms. Analyzed inconsistencies in the terms used in professional medical information materials to denote frequency and severity information.

Reviewed literature on empirical studies of medical informed consent for the elderly. Analyzed studies using informed consent model that decomposes informed consent process into nine aspects: Attitudes toward process, authorization, capacity, disclosure, the informed consent form itself, policies and procedures, recruitment issues, understanding, and voluntariness.

Selected Publications

Sugarman, J., McCrory, D.C., & Hubal, R.C. (1998). Getting meaningful informed consent from older adults: A structured literature review of empirical research. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 46(4), 517-524.

Guinn, C., & Hubal, R. (2003). Extracting emotional information from the text of spoken dialog. Proceedings of the Workshop on Assessing and Adapting to User Attitudes and Affect: Why, When and How? Johnstown, PA: User Modeling, Inc.

Guinn, C., & Hubal, R. (2004). An evaluation of virtual human technology in informational kiosks. Proceedings of the International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces (pp. 297-302). New York, NY: ACM Press.

Guinn, C., Hubal, R., Frank, G., Schwetzke, H., Zimmer, J., Backus, S., Deterding, R., Link, M., Armsby, P., Caspar, R., Flicker, L., Visscher, W., Meehan, A., & Zelon, H. (2004). Usability and acceptability studies of conversational virtual human technology. Proceedings of the SIGdial Workshop on Discourse and Dialogue (pp. 1-8). East Stroudsburg, PA: Association for Computational Linguistics.

Guinn, C., & Hubal, R. (2006). Augmented transition networks (ATNs) for dialog control: A longitudinal study. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Intelligence Special Session on Natural Language Processing for Real Life Applications (#523-815) (pp. 395-400). Calgary, AB: Acta Press.

Hubal, R., & Day, R.S. (2006). Understanding the frequency and severity of side effects: Linguistic, numeric, and visual representations. Proceedings of the Workshop on Argumentation for Consumers of Healthcare, American Association for Artificial Intelligence Spring Symposium Series (pp. 69-75). New York, NY: ACM Press.

Hubal, R.C., & Day, R.S. (2006). Informed consent procedures: An experimental test using a virtual character in a dialog systems training application. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 39(5), 532-540.

Eriksson, E.J., Rodman, R.D., & Hubal, R.C. (2007). Emotions in speech: Juristic implications. In C. Müller (Ed.), Speaker Classification I: Fundamentals, Features, and Methods (pp. 152-173). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag.

Frank, G., Evens, N., Hubal, R., & Whiteford, B. (2008). Automated, interactive AARs: A positive spin. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (pp. 67-76). Arlington, VA: National Defense Industrial Association.