Alternative Object Use in Adults and Children: Embodied Cognitive Bases of Creativity

Why does one need creativity? On a personal level, improvisation with available resources is needed for online coping with unforeseen environmental stimuli when existing knowledge and apparent action strategies do not work. On a cultural level, the exploitation of existing cultural means and norms for the deliberate production of novel and valuable artifacts is a basis for cultural and technological development and extension of human action possibilities across various domains. It is less clear, however, how creativity develops and how exactly one arrives at generating new action possibilities and producing multiple alternative action strategies using familiar objects. In this theoretical paper, we first consider existing accounts of the creative process in the Alternative Uses Task and then present an alternative interpretation, drawing on sociocultural views and an embodied cognition approach. We explore similarities between the psychological processes underlying the generation of new uses in the Alternative Uses Task and children’s pretend play. We discuss possible cognitive mechanisms and speculate how the generation of new action possibilities for common objects in pretend play can be related to adults’ ability to generate new action strategies associated with object use. Implications for creativity development in humans and embodied artificial agents are discussed

Boosting children's creativity through creative interactions with social robots

Creativity is an ability with psychological and developmental benefits. Creative levels are dynamic and oscillate throughout life, with a first major decline occurring at the age of 7 years old. However, creativity is an ability that can be nurtured if trained, with evidence suggesting an increase in this ability with the use of validated creativity training. Yet, creativity training for young children (aged between 6-9 years old) appears as scarce. Additionally, existing training interventions resemble test-like formats and lack of playful dynamics that could engage children in creative practices over time. This PhD project aimed at contributing to creativity stimulation in children by proposing to use social robots as intervention tools, thus adding playful and interactive dynamics to the training. Towards this goal, we conducted three studies in schools, summer camps, and museums for children, that contributed to the design, fabrication, and experimental testing of a robot whose purpose was to re-balance creative levels. Study 1 (n = 140) aimed at testing the effect of existing activities with robots in creativity and provided initial evidence of the positive potential of robots for creativity training. Study 2 (n = 134) aimed at including children as co-designers of the robot, ensuring the robot’s design meets children’s needs and requirements. Study 3 (n = 130) investigated the effectiveness of this robot as a tool for creativity training, showing the potential of robots as creativity intervention tools. In sum, this PhD showed that robots can have a positive effect on boosting the creativity of children. This places social robots as promising tools for psychological interventions.Criatividade é uma habilidade com benefícios no desenvolvimento saudável. Os níveis de criatividade são dinâmicos e oscilam durante a vida, sendo que o primeiro maior declínio acontece aos 7 anos de idade. No entanto, a criatividade é uma habilidade que pode ser nutrida se treinada e evidências sugerem um aumento desta habilidade com o uso de programas validados de criatividade. Ainda assim, os programas de criatividade para crianças pequenas (entre os 6-9 anos de idade) são escassos. Adicionalmente, estes programas adquirem o formato parecido ao de testes, faltando-lhes dinâmicas de brincadeira e interatividade que poderão motivar as crianças a envolverem-se em práticas criativas ao longo do tempo. O presente projeto de doutoramento procurou contribuir para a estimulação da criatividade em crianças propondo usar robôs sociais como ferramenta de intervenção, adicionando dinâmicas de brincadeira e interação ao treino. Assim, conduzimos três estudos em escolas, campos de férias, e museus para crianças que contribuíram para o desenho, fabricação, e teste experimental de um robô cujo objetivo é ser uma ferramenta que contribui para aumentar os níveis de criatividade. O Estudo 1 (n = 140) procurou testar o efeito de atividade já existentes com robôs na criatividade e mostrou o potencial positivo do uso de robôs para o treino criativo. O Estudo 2 (n = 134) incluiu crianças como co-designers do robô, assegurando que o desenho do robô correspondeu às necessidades das crianças. O Estudo 2 (n = 130) investigou a eficácia deste robô como ferramenta para a criatividade, demonstrando o seu potencial para o treino da criatividade. Em suma, o presente doutoramento mostrou que os robôs poderão ter um potencial criativo em atividades com crianças. Desta forma, os robôs sociais poderão ser ferramentas promissoras em intervenções na psicologia

Perceiving Sociable Technology: Exploring the Role of Anthropomorphism and Agency Perception on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

With the arrival of personal assistants and other AI-enabled autonomous technologies, social interactions with smart devices have become a part of our daily lives. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these social interactions emerge, and why users appear to be influenced by them. For this reason, I explore questions on what the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon, known as anthropomorphism, are as described in the extant literature from fields ranging from information systems to social neuroscience. I critically analyze those empirical studies directly measuring anthropomorphism and those referring to it without a corresponding measurement. Through a grounded theory approach, I identify common themes and use them to develop models for the antecedents and consequences of anthropomorphism. The results suggest anthropomorphism possesses both conscious and non-conscious components with varying implications. While conscious attributions are shown to vary based on individual differences, non-conscious attributions emerge whenever a technology exhibits apparent reasoning such as through non-verbal behavior like peer-to-peer mirroring or verbal paralinguistic and backchanneling cues. Anthropomorphism has been shown to affect users’ self-perceptions, perceptions of the technology, how users interact with the technology, and the users’ performance. Examples include changes in a users’ trust on the technology, conformity effects, bonding, and displays of empathy. I argue these effects emerge from changes in users’ perceived agency, and their self- and social- identity similarly to interactions between humans. Afterwards, I critically examine current theories on anthropomorphism and present propositions about its nature based on the results of the empirical literature. Subsequently, I introduce a two-factor model of anthropomorphism that proposes how an individual anthropomorphizes a technology is dependent on how the technology was initially perceived (top-down and rational or bottom-up and automatic), and whether it exhibits a capacity for agency or experience. I propose that where a technology lays along this spectrum determines how individuals relates to it, creating shared agency effects, or changing the users’ social identity. For this reason, anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to support future interactions with smart technologies

A Critical Bricoleur Assumes Positive Intent: \u3ci\u3ePablito\u27s Problem\u3c/i\u3e

This dissertation serves to further critical theory research through bricolage autoethnography of a Latinx English teacher from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The bricolage functions to unify reflective constructs that expose an emancipatory catharsis and painful reacquaintance with individual and cultural identity. This project offers the concept of a happening as a construct embedded with the ongoing, reflective, and liberating critical consciousness process. Four happenings are offered and establish that the dichotomies of oppression and liberation, how they happened, are happening or may happen are not easily recognizable unless critical introspection is involved. The leading happening titled Pablito’s Problem chronicles the first recollection of oppression as a prepubescent. Followed by the second happening titled The Monkey—set during the \u2770s and \u2780 through secondary education, Jesús Mil Veces—looks at family traditions, and followed by fear—which narrates the occasions as an adult that challenge the tendency towards positive intent. Ultimately, the analysis of the four happenings identifies four critical consciousness moments as serendipitous results that, while struggling to maintain the fundamental notion of compassion, follow the critical pedagogy mantra

WHEN A CHILD MEETS A ROBOT: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT MAKE INTERACTION POSSIBLE

La presente tesi di dottorato, dal titolo When a child meets a robot: the psychological factors that make interaction possible, vuole introdurre ed esplorare un campo abbastanza nuovo della ricerca psicologica che si occupa specificatamente dell’interazione bambino-robot, presentando le molteplici sfaccettature che la caratterizzano e i principali costrutti psicologici come la Teoria della Mente (ToM), la fiducia, la relazione di attaccamento, non tralasciando, inoltre, la valenza del design dei robot utilizzati nelle ricerche che hanno reso possibile questa tesi. I lavori di ricerca, qui presentati, vanno ad esplorare i costrutti sopra citati, indagandoli in profondità e con curiosità scientifica. Nel dettaglio, sono presentate le seguenti ricerche: 1) Shall I trust you? From Child-Robot Interaction To Trusting Relationship, 2) Can a robot lie? The role of false belief and intentionality understanding in children aged 5 and 6 years, 3) A robot is not worth another: exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots, 4) Coding with me: exploring the effect of coding intervention on preschoolers’cognitive skills. Infine, nell’ultimo capitolo, relativo alle conclusioni, viene sviluppata una riflessione teorica riguardante il ruolo rilevante assunto dallo sviluppo cognitivo dei bambini nei processi interazionali con gli agenti robotici.This PhD thesis, title When a child meets a robot: the psychological factors that make interaction possible, wants to introduce and explore a fairly new field of psychological research that specifically deals with the child-robot interaction, presenting the many facets that characterize it and the main psychological constructs such as the Theory of Mind (ToM), trust, attachment relationship, without neglecting, moreover, the value of the design of the robots used in the studies that have made this thesis possible. The research works, presented here, exploring the constructs mentioned above, investigating them in depth and with scientific curiosity. In detail, the following studies are presented: 1) Shall I trust you? From Child-Robot Interaction To Trusting Relationship, 2) Can a robot lie? The role of false belief and intentionality understanding in children aged 5 and 6 years, 3) A robot is not worth another: exploring Children’s Mental State Attribution to Different Humanoid Robots, 4) Coding with me: exploring the effect of a coding intervention on preschoolers’cognitive skills. Finally, in the last chapter, concerning the conclusions, a theoretical reflection is developed regarding the relevant role assumed by children's cognitive development in interactional processes with robotic agents

Arboreal thresholds - the liminal function of trees in twentieth-century fantasy narratives

Trees, as threshold beings, effectively blur the line between the real world and fantastical alternate worlds, and destabilise traditional binary classification systems that distinguish humanity, and Culture, from Nature. Though the presence of trees is often peripheral to the main narrative action, their representation is necessary within the fantasy trope. Their consistent inclusion within fantasy texts of the twentieth century demonstrates an enduring arboreal legacy that cannot be disregarded in its contemporary relevance, whether they are represented individually or in collective forests. The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct a study of various prominent fantasy texts of the twentieth century, including the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robert Holdstock, Diana Wynne Jones, Natalie Babbitt, and J.K. Rowling. In scrutinising these texts, and drawing on insights offered by liminal, ecocritical, ecofeminist, mythological and psychological theorists, I identify the primary function of trees within fantasy narratives as liminal: what Victor Turner identifies as a ‘betwixt and between’ state (1991:95) where binaries are suspended in favour of embracing potentiality. This liminality is constituted by three central dimensions: the ecological, the mythological, and the psychological. Each dimension informs the relationship between the arboreal as grounded in reality, and represented in fantasy. Trees, as literary and cinematic arboreal totems are positioned within fantasy narratives in such a way as to emphasise an underlying call to bio-conservatorship, to enable a connection to a larger scope of cultural expectation, and to act as a means through which human self-awareness is developed.English StudiesD. Litt. et Phil. (English