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      The Effects of Voice Qualities in Mindfulness Meditation Apps on Enjoyment, Relaxation State, and Perceived Usefulness

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          Abstract

          In recent years, mindfulness meditation apps—which offer voice-guided exercises for relaxation—have been promoted as an effective tool for self-managing stress. This study examines how the type of voice—human male, human female, synthetic male, or synthetic female—can impact users’ levels of relaxation, perceived usefulness, and enjoyment when following a guided meditation. Participants listened to a guided meditation and then evaluated their feelings toward both the voice and the meditation exercise. Those who listened to a human voice rated the voice as more enjoyable than those who listened to a synthetic voice. Additionally, respondents in the human voice conditions rated the meditation exercise itself as more enjoyable and useful and themselves as more relaxed than did participants guided by a synthetic voice. Finally, the effect of voice human-likeness on perceived usefulness was significantly more pronounced with female voices. These findings suggest that natural-sounding speech is preferable for individuals completing guided mindfulness exercises. In turn, to enhance users’ enjoyment and perceptions of meditation effectiveness, generated speech used in such apps should sound human-like and utilize natural speech patterns.

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            Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: a review of empirical studies.

            Within the past few decades, there has been a surge of interest in the investigation of mindfulness as a psychological construct and as a form of clinical intervention. This article reviews the empirical literature on the effects of mindfulness on psychological health. We begin with a discussion of the construct of mindfulness, differences between Buddhist and Western psychological conceptualizations of mindfulness, and how mindfulness has been integrated into Western medicine and psychology, before reviewing three areas of empirical research: cross-sectional, correlational research on the associations between mindfulness and various indicators of psychological health; intervention research on the effects of mindfulness-oriented interventions on psychological health; and laboratory-based, experimental research on the immediate effects of mindfulness inductions on emotional and behavioral functioning. We conclude that mindfulness brings about various positive psychological effects, including increased subjective well-being, reduced psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, and improved behavioral regulation. The review ends with a discussion on mechanisms of change of mindfulness interventions and suggested directions for future research. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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              Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Technology, Mind, and Behavior
                American Psychological Association
                2689-0208
                November 7, 2022
                : 3
                : 4
                Affiliations
                [1]Division of Emerging Media Studies, College of Communication, Boston University
                Author notes
                Action Editor: Danielle S. McNamara was the action editor for this article.
                Disclosures: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
                Data Availability: There have been no prior uses of this data. Data and study materials are publicly available to other researchers at https://osf.io/52ta9/ ( Menhart & Cummings, 2022).
                Open Science Disclosures:

                The data are available at https://osf.io/52ta9/.

                The experimental materials are available at https://osf.io/52ta9/.

                [*] James J. Cummings, Division of Emerging Media Studies, College of Communication, Boston University, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215-2422, United States cummingj@bu.edu
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6239-2634
                Article
                2023-10946-001 tmb
                10.1037/tmb0000089
                d18e1954-5081-4835-8691-9ac1bc608fb1
                © 2022 The Author(s)

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format for noncommercial use provided the original authors and source are credited and a link to the license is included in attribution. No derivative works are permitted under this license.

                History

                Education,Psychology,Vocational technology,Engineering,Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                mindfulness,voice,synthetic speech,mobile health,meditation

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