Human mental models of humanoid robots

Effective communication between a person and a robot may depend on whether there exists a common ground of understanding between the two. In two experiments modelled after human-human studies we examined how people form a mental model of a robot’s factual knowledge. Participants estimated the robot’s knowledge by extrapolating from their own knowledge and from information about the robot’s origin and language. These results suggest that designers of humanoid robots must attend not only to the social cues that robots emit but also to the information people use to create mental models of a robot.published_or_final_versio

Attitude towards and use of Internet among adolescents in Hong Kong

The present study examined the relationships between Internet use and perception concerning Internet use amongst Hong Kong adolescents and young adults. The study used as its theoretical basis Eagly and Chaiken's (1993) model of attitude and behavior. Five hundred and twenty-two respondents answered questions concerning their computer and Internet use, attitude towards the Internet, perception of significant others with relation to the Internet, perceived behavioral control over Internet use, and demographics. In general, respondents have rather positive attitude towards the Internet; however, they were also aware of some of the possible problems that could arise from its use. Personal characteristics, resources-related variables, and positive attitude towards the Internet were found to be important predictors of Internet use. Positive perception of and having significant others using the Internet for social communication predicted actual use of the Internet for such purpose