Cited by 65Innovative Human-Technology InteractionHuman-Automation Interaction and SafetyExplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)

A Slow Algorithm Improves Users' Assessments of the Algorithm's Accuracy

Open access
Park, Joon Sung, Barber, Rick, Kirlik, Alex, Karahalios, Karrie·2019·Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

With computational algorithms making an increasing number of deeply consequential, and often problematic judgments on our behalf, there is a growing interest in slowing down technology to encourage users to reflect on judgments made by algorithms. Prior work in slow technology has established slowness as an agent of reflection and serendipity; however, it has been unclear whether this waiting time actually helps users gain useful insight or any other benefits as they make judgments using an algorithm. To this end, we conducted a series of online and in-person between-subject user studies in which we isolate the impact of an algorithm's speed on how users incorporate the algorithm's advice when making judgments in the context of simple visual recognition tasks. We find that our participants followed good quality algorithms more and bad quality algorithms somewhat less if the response time of the algorithm is slower. Furthermore, qualitative analysis of the in-person study interviews reveals that the waiting was not time wasted, but was often used to reflect on the task and the estimation process of themselves and the algorithm, and to compare and reevaluate the two processes. Based on these findings, we outline design implications of future algorithmic systems.

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  • Several mechanisms have been proposed to optimize the combination of human and AI decisions and facilitate appropriate reliance, including interpretable explanations, cognitive forcing functions, and feedback loops.

    “These mechanisms include providing interpretable explanations for AI advice [21, 72, 123], using cognitive forcing functions[17, 47, 99], and incorporating feedback loops to enhance the interaction between humans and AI systems [10, 11, 139].”
  • Referring to AI predictions as suggestions counteracts perfect automation schemas and emphasizes that the suggestion can be rejected.

    “We always refer to AI predictions as “suggestions” [74] to counteract perfect automation schemas [21] and emphasize that this suggestion can be rejected.”
  • This is arguably a necessary trade-off within current GenAI systems, as it enables diversity of output, yet it exacerbates the challenge of confidence adjustment, particularly when working iteratively across prompting and output evaluation.

    “This is arguably a necessary trade-off within current GenAI systems, as it enables diversity of output [136,156], yet it exacerbates the challenge of confidence adjustment, particularly when working iteratively across prompting and output evaluation (as per §3.1).”

    From The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI (2024) · cites this paper as [136]

    The citation is attached to the claim that a GenAI trade-off enables diversity of output. The Introduction and §5.1 discuss assessing algorithmic accuracy, not GenAI output diversity; searches for varied outputs and iterative prompting found no passage addressing that point. The later confidence-adjustment clause refers to the citing paper's §3.1 rather than this source. (LLM, conf=0.77)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • GenAI models are non-deterministic.

    “Moreover, as noted, GenAI models are non-deterministic [136].”

    From The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI (2024) · cites this paper as [136]

    The Introduction discusses imperfect machine-learning algorithms, and the Procedure describes a machine-vision algorithm used to estimate jelly-bean counts. Neither passage addresses generative AI or whether models produce different outputs for the same input; searches for non-determinism, randomness, and repeated-input behavior found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.74)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Cognitive forcing functions have been found to decrease humans' reliance on AI.

    “These cognitive forcing functions are found to be able to decrease humans' reliance on AI.”

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. [17]17. Siân Lindley, Robert Corish, Elsa Kosmack Vaara, Pedro Ferreira, and Vygandas Simbelis. 2013. Changing perspectives of time in HCI. In CHI'13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 3211-3214.
  2. [31]31. Goodman T. and Spence R. 1978. The effects of system response time on users of interactive computer systems. SIGGRAPH '78 Proceedings of the 5th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (August 1978), 100-104.
  3. [32]32. Jaime Teevan, Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Ryen W White, Susan T Dumais, and Yubin Kim. 2013. Slow search: Information retrieval without time constraints. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval. ACM, 1.
  4. [34]34. W. C. Tsai, A. Y. S. Chen, S. Y. Hsu, and R. H. Liang. 2015. CrescendoMessage: interacting with slow messaging. Proceedings of the International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference (2015), 2078-2095.
  5. [38]38. Ming Yin, Jennifer Wortman Vaughan, and Hanna Wallach. 2019. Understanding the Effect of Accuracy on Trust in Machine Learning Models. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2019).

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Authors
Park, J. S., Barber, R., Kirlik, A., & Karahalios, K.
Affiliations
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Published
2019-11-07
Volume
3
Issue
CSCW
Pages
1-15
ISSN
2573-0142 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2983137008
Cited by
65
References
23
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4
FWCI
2.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation (NSF 1564041)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
Keywords
slow technology, algorithmic decision support, algorithm speed, response time, algorithmic advice, reflection, human-algorithm interaction

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