Exploring the role of trust and expectations in CRI using in-the-wild studies

Studying interactions of children with humanoid robots in familiar spaces in natural contexts has become a key issue for social robotics. To fill this need, we conducted several Child-Robot Interaction (CRI) events with the Pepper robot in Polish and Japanese kindergartens. In this paper, we explore the role of trust and expectations towards the robot in determining the success of CRI. We present several observations from the video recordings of our CRI events and the transcripts of free-format question-answering sessions with the robot using the Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) methodology. From these observations, we identify children’s behaviors that indicate trust (or lack thereof) towards the robot, e.g., challenging behavior of a robot or physical interactions with it. We also gather insights into children’s expectations, e.g., verifying expectations as a causal process and an agency or expectations concerning the robot’s relationships, preferences and physical and behavioral capabilities. Based on our experiences, we suggest some guidelines for designing more effective CRI scenarios. Finally, we argue for the effectiveness of in-the-wild methodologies for planning and executing qualitative CRI studies

On the role of trust in child-robot interaction

In child-robot interaction, the element of trust towards the robot is critical. This is particularly important the first time the child meets the robot, as the trust gained during this interaction can play a decisive role in future interactions. We present an in-the-wild study where Polish kindergartners interacted with a Pepper robot. The videos of this study were analyzed for the issues of trust, anthropomorphization, and reaction to malfunction, with the assumption that the last two factors influence the children’s trust towards Pepper. Our results reveal children’s interest in the robot performing tasks specific for humans, highlight the importance of the conversation scenario and the need for an extended library of answers provided by the robot about its abilities or origin and show how children tend to provoke the robot

Afordancje obiektów 3D i ich wpływ na zachowanie człowieka w środowisku wirtualnym

Aplikacje Wirtualnej Rzeczywistości (VR) są obecnie powszechnie stosowane w różnych obszarach, z tego powodu ważne jest rozwinięcie dobrze przemyślanych wytycznych dla ich projektowania. Celem tej pracy jest zbadanie wpływu afordancji obiektów w wirtualnym środowisku (VE) na wykonanie zadań typu eksploracyjnego przez użytkownika. Problem ten przybliżam za pomocą metod mieszanych. Zaczęłam od zebrania danych ilościowych i jakościowych dla oceny efektu użycia trzech rodzajów afordancji obiektów 3D. Najważniejszy wniosek z mojego badania to oszacowanie wpływu afordancji na realizację poszczególnych stadiów zadań eksploracyjnych. Stadia te zbudowane są na podstawie modelu interakcji przedstawionego w przeszłych badaniach. Badanie to może być przydatne dizajnerom VR, poprzez prezentację wskazówek do projektowania obiektów 3D, jak i badaczom VR, poprzez opisanie narzędzia badawczego służącego odkrywaniu wzorców zachowań użytkowników.Virtual Reality (VR) applications are widely used in various fields these days, hence it would be useful to develop well-considered guidelines for VR design. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of object affordances in Virtual Environments (VE) on user performance in exploratory tasks. I approach the problem by applying a convergent parallel mixed-method approach, starting with collecting qualitative and quantitative data for evaluating the effects of applying three types of 3D object affordances. The main result of this study is an assessment of the impact of affordances on exploratory task stages built on the basis of a VR interaction model. This study is useful for VR designers as well as VR researchers by providing guidelines for 3D object design and methodological tools for investigating behavioural patterns