- Study Design
Number of participants: 6 people (all participants from baseline study)
Duration: 5 days (Wednesday, Feb 2th – Sunday, Feb 6th)
Overview
For this intervention study, we decided to carry out two interventions:
- Speech partner: accountability partners have proven to be an effective tool in maintaining consistent participation in behavior change tasks
- Plant-watering therapy: similar to the effects of meditation, research found that people experienced reduced anxiety levels when interacting with plants. Ultimately, reduced anxiety and stress levels helps people become better and more confident speakers.
Speech Partner Protocol
- Practice public speaking prompts with accountability buddies
- Everyday the users would be asked to get together with an accountability partner and practice a prompt. During the 2-5 minutes practice, the user would try to avoid use of filler words – the accountability partner will remind them to avoid filler words and give them tips on how to do that.
- After the prompt they do with the accountability partner, the user would be asked to do a prompt independently at a later time of the day and record themselves.
Data Collection
Recordings of the user speaking their independent prompts; a post-prompt questionnaire on “what is your mood”; “did the tip from your accountability buddy help you”; and etc;
Plant Intervention Protocol
- Plant-watering task as relaxation exercise
- Everyday the user would be asked to record themselves speaking one 2-5 minutes prompt
- Before the prompt, the user would be asked to water a plant that our team designed on figma (https://tinyurl.com/plantspeak)
Data Collection
Recordings of the user speaking their independent prompts; a post-prompt questionnaire on “what is your mood”; did the plant help you feel more relaxed”; and etc;
Interview Questions
We compiled 5 interview-style questions (a combination of more unique and thought-provoking questions as well as standard interview questions):
- What two things, aside from food and water, would you want on a deserted island?
- Sometimes, it’s almost impossible to get everything done on your to-do list. What do you do when your list of responsibilities becomes overwhelming?
- You just won a lottery ticket worth $10 million dollars. What do you do with it?
- If you could choose one superhuman ability, what would it be and why?
- Give me an example of a time you were able to be creative with your work. What was exciting or difficult about it?
- Findings and Synthesis
Raw Data
Link to the raw data spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1atxFLnzgHYm9UUdnQZ57DS2tHC7Q_zcTDo8Eh7kDpyU/edit#gid=0
Insights on Speech Partner Intervention
- Participants felt more confident when the accountability partner focused on saying positive affirmations like “great job, you spoke fluently without the use of fillers” when they actually succeed in doing a good speech
- Participants tend to feel more annoyed if partner jump in to critique before they finish talking
- Speech Partner intervention seems to be effective in helping people reduce number of times they say filler words, because among the participants that attended both diary study and intervention study, the participants that did speech partner intervention seemed to have improved the most
Insights on Plant Intervention
- Participants that did plant intervention have less significant improvements
- One participant gave the feedback that “pairing watering the plant and medication/breathing exercise together might be more helpful”
- Participants felt like the plant is a good distraction before a formal speech but they would appreciate some more long-term habit changing plans
- The simple action of clicking on the bucket made the app more accessible to more people
Other Findings
- A combination of short-term and long-term practices in helping people reduce filler words are appreciated
- Participants’ active awareness and willingness to reduce the use of filler words are the most important in changing their speaking patterns, at least in the short term
- Models
