People

Constantina Maltezou

Postgraduate Research Student
Department of Psychology
 Constantina Maltezou

Profile

Ask me about
  • Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience (UX)
  • Emotion perceptions from voice (emotional prosody)
  • Speech and prosody (tone of voice)
  • Perceived trust from vocal cues (including Artificial Intelligence and voice assistants)
  • Acoustic analysis
  • Qualitative and quantitative research methods
  • Working in the tech industry of London
  • Computer Science and Software Engineering career in the industry
  • Team and project management

Biography

My area of expertise is Human-Computer Interaction / User Experience, and Psychology of Voice (previously I worked as a full-stack software engineer, specialising in front-end development). I have seven years of industry experience in leading projects and multidisciplinary teams in the UK and abroad (ranging from financial and investment products, to telematics and car insurance, to AI social listening tools, etc). Past clients and employers include Aviva, Panasonic Avionics, Disney and PepsiCo among others. I'm also a certified Design Sprint organiser and facilitator (i.e. running participatory design workshops). I come from a multidisciplinary background, which stems from computer science, human-computer interaction, psychology and ethnographic methods. I'm currently working on my PhD research, which combines psychology with human-machine interaction to determine factors derived from vocal cues that influence the perceived trustworthiness of a speaker (whether human or AI), how this impacts acceptance and use of voice technologies by older adults and ethnic minorities, and how this in turn can impact their social inclusion, motivation and empowerment. When I'm not working I love social boardgame nights, playing squash and I'm a big foodie (so, cakes are always welcome!) ------------------------------------------------ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9443-4226 ------------------------------------------------ JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS: Maltezou-Papastylianou, C., Russo, R., Wallace, D., Harmsworth, C., & Paulmann, S. (2022). Different stages of emotional prosody processing in healthy ageing - evidence from behavioural responses, ERPs, tDCS, and tRNS. Plos one, 17(7), e0270934.

Qualifications

  • BSc Hons Computer Science (2011)

  • MSc Advanced Computer Studies (2012)

  • MSc Psychology (2020)

Research and professional activities

Thesis

Can I trust you? How vocal cues affect trust judgements in minority groups: implications for accessibility and social inclusivity in voice interfaces.

Supervisor: Prof. Silke Paulmann , Prof. Reinhold Scherer

Research interests

Emotional prosody (tone of voice)

Perceived trust from vocal cues (human and AI speakers)

Cognitive psychology & ageing

Minority groups and atypical populations

Mixed methods research

Usability & accessibility studies

Human-computer interaction and UX

Contact

cm19066@essex.ac.uk

Location:

Colchester Campus