Why UX Research Matters for HRI: The Case of Tablets as Mediators

Many human-robot interaction systems involve a third component: a tablet, which can either be separate or integrated in the robot (as is the case in SoftBank Robotics' Pepper robot). Such a tablet can be used, for instance, to present information to the human user or to gain control over the robot's complex surroundings, by introducing a virtual environment as a substitute for interactions that would normally happen in the physical world. While such a tablet can potentially have a big impact on the usability of the entire system and affect the interaction between human and robot, it is often not explicitly included when evaluating the user experience of human-robot interaction. This paper describes a case study where three evaluation methods were combined in order to get a comprehensive overview of the user experience of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), consisting of a robot and a tablet. The results show several major usability issues with the virtual environment, which could have affected the experience of interacting with the robot. This underlines the importance of including not only the robot itself, but also any other interaction mediators in an iterative design process

Robotic Task Complexity and Collaborative Behavior of Children with ASD

Social interactions are essential in the everyday lives of humans. People with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display shortages of social skills, thus making their day-to-day encounters more difficult. This paper reports on two small-scale studies, investigating whether the use of collaborative robot tasks in an educational setting stimulates the collaborative behavior of children with ASD, and whether robotic task complexity affects collaborative behavior. A total of 24 children participated in robotic tasks of varying complexities. The sessions were videotaped and analyzed. Children's supervisors completed questionnaires, evaluating the social behavior of participants. Results demonstrate that children collaborated during the robot activities. The influence of robotic task complexity on collaboration skills was not significant, possibly due to the small number of participants. The results show the promise of using robots in education for children with ASD, although further research is needed to investigate the implementation of robots in special education

Social/dialogical roles of social robots in supporting children's learning of language and literacy - A review and analysis of innovative roles

One of the many purposes for which social robots are designed is education, and there have been many attempts to systematize their potential in this field. What these attempts have in common is the recognition that learning can be supported in a variety of ways because a learner can be engaged in different activities that foster learning. Up to now, three roles have been proposed when designing these activities for robots: as a teacher or tutor, a learning peer, or a novice. Current research proposes that deciding in favor of one role over another depends on the content or preferred pedagogical form. However, the design of activities changes not only the content of learning, but also the nature of a human–robot social relationship. This is particularly important in language acquisition, which has been recognized as a social endeavor. The following review aims to specify the differences in human–robot social relationships when children learn language through interacting with a social robot. After proposing categories for comparing these different relationships, we review established and more specific, innovative roles that a robot can play in language-learning scenarios. This follows Mead’s (1946) theoretical approach proposing that social roles are performed in interactive acts. These acts are crucial for learning, because not only can they shape the social environment of learning but also engage the learner to different degrees. We specify the degree of engagement by referring to Chi’s (2009) progression of learning activities that range from active, constructive, toward interactive with the latter fostering deeper learning. Taken together, this approach enables us to compare and evaluate different human–robot social relationships that arise when applying a robot in a particular social role

A toy or a friend? Children's anthropomorphic beliefs about robots and how these relate to second-language word learning

This study investigates the degree to which children anthropomorphize a robot tutor and whether this anthropomorphism relates to their vocabulary learning in a second-language (L2) tutoring intervention. With this aim, an anthropomorphism questionnaire was administered to 5-year-old children (N = 104) twice: prior to and following a seven-session L2 vocabulary training with a humanoid robot. On average, children tended to anthropomorphize the robot prior to and after the lessons to a similar degree, but many children changed their attributed anthropomorphic features. Boys anthropomorphized the robot less after the lessons than girls. Moreover, there was a weak but significant positive correlation between anthropomorphism as measured before the lessons and scores on a word-knowledge post-test administered the day after the last lesson. There was also a weak but significant positive correlation between the change in anthropomorphism over time and scores on a word-knowledge post-test administered approximately 2 weeks after the last lesson. Our results underscore the need to manage children's expectations in robot-assisted education. Also, future research could explore adaptations to individual children's expectations in child-robot interactions

Engagement in longitudinal child-robot language learning interactions: Disentangling robot and task engagement

This study investigated a seven sessions interaction between a peer-tutor robot and Dutch preschoolers (5 years old) during which the children learned English. We examined whether children’s engagement differed when interacting with a tablet and a robot using iconic gestures, with a tablet and a robot using no iconic gestures and with only a tablet. Two engagement types were annotated (task engagement and robot engagement) using a novel coding scheme based on an existing coding scheme used in kindergartens. The findings revealed that children’s task engagement dropped over time in all three conditions, consistent with the novelty effect. However, there were no differences between the different conditions for task engagement. Interestingly, robot engagement showed a difference between conditions. Children were more robot engaged when interacting with a robot using iconic gestures than without iconic gestures. Finally, when comparing children’s word knowledge with their engagement, we found that both task engagement and robot engagement were positively correlated with children’s word retention

Designing and Evaluating Iconic Gestures for Child-Robot Second Language Learning

In this paper, we examine the process of designing robot-performed iconic hand gestures in the context of a long-Term study into second language tutoring with children of approximately 5 years old. We explore four factors that may relate to their efficacy in supporting second language tutoring: The age of participating children; differences between gestures for various semantic categories, e.g. measurement words, such as small, versus counting words, such as five; the quality (comprehensibility) of the robot's gestures; and spontaneous reenactment or imitation of the gestures. Age was found to relate to children's learning outcomes, with older children benefiting more from the robot's iconic gestures than younger children, particularly for measurement words. We found no conclusive evidence that the quality of the gestures or spontaneous reenactment of said gestures related to learning outcomes. We further propose several improvements to the process of designing and implementing a robot's iconic gesture repertoire

Guidelines for Designing Social Robots as Second Language Tutors

In recent years, it has been suggested that social robots have potential as tutors and educators for both children and adults. While robots have been shown to be effective in teaching knowledge and skill-based topics, we wish to explore how social robots can be used to tutor a second language to young children. As language learning relies on situated, grounded and social learning, in which interaction and repeated practice are central, social robots hold promise as educational tools for supporting second language learning. This paper surveys the developmental psychology of second language learning and suggests an agenda to study how core concepts of second language learning can be taught by a social robot. It suggests guidelines for designing robot tutors based on observations of second language learning in human–human scenarios, various technical aspects and early studies regarding the effectiveness of social robots as second language tutors

Dataset (Language) learning skills moderate RALL

Dataset of Individual Differences in Children’s (Language) Learning Skills Moderate Effects of Robot-Assisted Second Language Learning (van den Berghe et al., 2021) Abstract The current study investigated how individual differences among children affect the added value of social robots for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary to young children. Specifically, we investigated the moderating role of three individual child characteristics deemed relevant for language learning: first language (L1) vocabulary knowledge, phonological memory, and selective attention. We expected children low in these abilities to particularly benefit from being assisted by a robot in a vocabulary training. An L2 English vocabulary training intervention consisting of seven sessions was administered to 193 monolingual Dutch five-year-old children over a three- to four-week period. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) a tablet only, 2) a tablet and a robot that used deictic (pointing) gestures (the no-iconic-gestures condition), or 3) a tablet and a robot that used both deictic and iconic gestures (i.e., gestures depicting the target word; the iconic-gestures condition). There also was a control condition in which children did not receive a vocabulary training, but played dancing games with the robot. L2 word knowledge was measured directly after the training and two to four weeks later. In these post-tests, children in the experimental conditions outperformed children in the control condition on word knowledge, but there were no differences between the three experimental conditions. Several moderation effects were found. The robot’s presence particularly benefited children with larger L1 vocabularies or poorer phonological memory, while children with smaller L1 vocabularies or better phonological memory performed better in the tablet-only condition. Children with larger L1 vocabularies and better phonological memory performed better in the no-iconic-gestures condition than in the iconic-gestures condition, while children with better selective attention performed better in the iconic-gestures condition than the no-iconic-gestures condition. Together, the results showed that the effects of the robot and its gestures differ across children, which should be taken into account when designing and evaluating robot-assisted L2 teaching interventions