Parrots have shown the ability to interact with tablet-based speech boards to engage in parrot-human communication. However, the influence of speech boards’ interface design on avian usability and, thus, on speech boards’ potential to optimally support parrot-human communication, is yet to be explored. As a first step in this direction, we report on a longitudinal four-year in-the-wild study of a Goffin's Cockatoo's interactions with three successive speech board interfaces. The study explored, for the first time, possible relations between interface design variables typically considered for human speech board users - type, granularity, repertoire and arrangement of speech board representations - and the bird's selections under different conditions and across different design iterations. Based on our findings, we contribute key considerations and hypotheses to inform further research into the relevance of interface design choices for the avian usability of speech boards and, thus, their potential to optimally support functional parrot-human communication.

Augmentative and alternative communication devices (AACs) are designed to assist humans with complex communication needs. Recently, AAC use has been reported in non-human animals. Such tools may potentially provide enrichment and increase interspecies connection. However, there is no evaluation framework and little data available to assess AAC potential. Here, we examine seven months of a single parrot’s sustained use of a tablet-based AAC totaling 129 sessions within 190 days. After devising a coding schema, we propose a framework to explore the expressive potential and enrichment value for the parrot. Our results suggest that the choice of destination words cannot be simply explained based on random selection or icon location alone, and 92% of corroborable selections are validated by behaviors. The parrot interactions also appear significantly skewed toward social and cognitive enrichment. This work is a first step toward assessment of AAC use for parrot enrichment.

This Research-to-Practice Full Paper expands upon prior work to improve the engagement of engineering students with peer writing tutors and improve tutor feedback on engineering students' technical reports. Before meeting with the engineering students, tutors received focused training from both the engineering course instructor and the writing tutor supervisor. In the prior research, all students completed the same assignment and met with writing tutors with their individual lab reports. In this iteration, the research was expanded to group lab reports in a multi-semester capstone course sequence, where the uniqueness of each project introduces additional dynamics. Strategies such as student elevator speeches and an additional tutor training session are employed to help improve the engagement during the tutoring session. Selected quantitative and qualitative results indicate an improved level of student-tutor engagement.