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Improving Immersion in Symptom-Checker Chatbot Studies through Sensory Symptom Simulation

Institute
Lehrstuhl für Ergonomie (TUM-ED)
Type
Master's Thesis /
Content
experimental /  
Description

Background

User studies with medical symptom-checking chatbots often rely on hypothetical scenarios. Participants are asked to imagine that they have a symptom and then interact with a chatbot. While this approach allows experimental control, it limits ecological validity: Participants are not actually experiencing the symptom, uncertainty, discomfort, or urgency of a real health situation.

 

Objective

The goal of this thesis is to design and evaluate an immersion-enhancing scenario induction method for healthcare chatbot studies. The thesis will compare traditional text-based scenarios with one or more sensory or multimodal simulation methods.

 

Possible Research Questions

  • Which scenario induction method leads to higher perceived immersion in a symptom-checker chatbot study?
  • Does sensory symptom simulation increase perceived realism?
  • Does increased immersion influence chatbot evaluation outcomes such as trust, perceived usefulness, acceptance, or intention to follow advice?

 

Methodological Approach

The thesis may include:

  • literature review on immersion, symptom simulation, and ecological validity;
  • design of different scenario induction conditions;
  • empirical user study comparing the conditions;
  • quantitative measurement of immersion, realism, trust etc.

 

Expected Outcome

The thesis should result in:

  • a structured overview of immersion methods for medical chatbot studies;
  • a reusable scenario-induction protocol;
  • empirical evidence on whether sensory symptom simulation improves immersion;
  • recommendations for future symptom-checker user studies.
Requirements
  • interest in human–AI interaction, healthcare chatbots, and experimental research;
  • basic knowledge of study design and quantitative analysis;
  • ability to work with online survey tools or simple chatbot prototypes;
  • experience with physiological measurement equipments: eg. EEG
  • optional: experience with Python, JavaScript, LimeSurvey, or web-based prototyping.
Possible start
sofort
Contact
Rutuja Joshi
Room: MW3329
Phone: +49 162 2062924
rutuja.joshitum.de
Announcement