416 research outputs found
Childārobot relationship formation: A narrative review of empirical research
This narrative review aimed to elucidate which robot-related characteristics predict relationship formation between typically-developing children and social robots in terms of closeness and trust. Moreover, we wanted to know to what extent relationship formation can be explained by childrenās experiential and cognitive states during interaction with a robot. We reviewed 86 journal articles and conference proceedings published between 2000 and 2017. In terms of predictors, robotsā responsiveness and role, as well as strategic and emotional interaction between robot and child, increased closeness between the child and the robot. Findings about whether robot features predict childrenās trust in robots were inconsistent. In terms of childrenās experiential and cognitive states during interaction with a robot, robot characteristics and interaction styles were associated with two experiential states: engagement and enjoyment/liking. The literature hardly addressed the impact of experiential and cognitive states on closeness and trust. Comparisons of childrenās interactions with robots, adults, and objects showed that robots are perceived as neither animate nor inanimate, and that they are entities with whom children will likely form social relationships. Younger children experienced more enjoyment, were less sensitive to a robotās interaction style, and were more prone to anthropomorphic tendencies and effects than older children. Tailoring a robotās sex to that of a child mainly appealed to boys
Transparency about a robot's lack of human psychological capacities: Effects on child-robot perception and relationship formation
The increasing sophistication of social robots has intensified calls for transparency about robotsā machine nature. Initial research has suggested that providing children with information about robotsā mechanical status does not alter children's humanlike perception of, and relationship formation with, social robots. Against this background, our study experimentally investigated the effects of transparency about a robot's lack of human psychological capacities (intelligence, self-consciousness, emotionality, identity construction, social cognition) on children's perceptions of a robot and their relationship to it. Our sample consisted of 144 children aged 8 to 9 years old who interacted with the Nao robot in either a transparent or a control condition. Transparency decreased children's humanlike perception of the robot in terms of animacy, anthropomorphism, social presence, and perceived similarity. Transparency reduced child-robot relationship formation in terms of decreased trust, while children's feelings of closeness toward the robot were not affected
Robot morphology and children's perception of social robots: An exploratory study
The aim of this study was to investigate whether robot morphology (i.e., anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or caricatured) influences children's perceptions of animacy, anthropomorphism, social presence, and perceived similarity. Based on a sample of 35 children aged seven to fourteen, we found that, depending on the robot's morphology, children's perceptions of anthropomorphism, social presence and perceived similarity varied, with the anthropomorphic robot typically ranking higher than the zoomorphic robot. Our findings suggest that the morphology of social robots should be taken into account when planning, analyzing, and interpreting studies on child-robot interaction
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