Given the increasing portion of elderly people in the western world and severe lacks in care-taking, we believe that we should research possibilities to employ robots in elderly care. Social robots could offer companionship as well as treatment of physical and psychological disturbances. In our research, we propose to adapt treatments from positive psychology to robots in order to increase the wellbeing of elderly people in the long run. In a first study, we suggest that the role that the users will subscribe to the robot (therapist or companion) might make a severe difference on the effectiveness of the treatment and the social acceptance of the robot systems

Evers, Vanessa

Gallego-Pérez, Jorge

Lohse, Manja

Gallego Pérez, Jorge

University of Twente Research Information

Position paper: Robots as companions andtherapists in elderly careJorge Gallego-Perez1, Manja Lohse1, and Vanessa Evers1University of Twente, Enschede, AE 7500, the Netherlands,j.gallegoperez@utwente.nl,WWW home page: http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/Abstract. Given the increasing portion of elderly people in the westernworld and severe lacks in care-taking, we believe that we should researchpossibilities to employ robots in elderly care. Social robots could offercompanionship as well as treatment of physical and psychological distur-bances. In our research, we propose to adapt treatments from positivepsychology to robots in order to increase the wellbeing of elderly peoplein the long run. In a first study, we suggest that the role that the userswill subscribe to the robot (therapist or companion) might make a severedifference on the effectiveness of the treatment and the social acceptanceof the robot systems.Keywords: elderly care companion robots, companion robots for ther-apy, positive psychology1 Why can robots be useful as companions and therapistsfor the elderly?Based on intense efforts in research on human-robot interaction, social robotsemerge that have the ability to relate to people respecting their social bonds andto support their physical as well as mental wellbeing. Some studies have alreadyfocused on various types of psychological effects that robots could potentiallyexert on humans. The most prominent examples are robots and virtual agentsas coaches, typically as motivators to lose weight, do more exercise, or be moreactive in the rehabilitation process ([1],[2]).One group of people that have been identified as being particularly in needfor such treatments is the growing number of elderly that - with increasing age -suffer from physical and mental impairment ([3],[4]). Thus, research has startedto look into the topic of robots for elderly care. In a recent study, Fasola andMatarić [5] found that elderly users preferred a robot that showed behaviorswhich are known to improve one’s intrinsic motivation, such as praising the userupon completion of an exercise, providing reassurance in case of failing, showinghumor or calling the participant by name. Another example of robots to im-prove elderly people’s mood is Paro, the seal robot. In studies, Paro is typicallybrought to nursing homes where older people - often suffering from dementia- hold the robot and interact with it [6]. Some of the reported positive effects2of interacting with Paro are general improvement in feelings and reduction indepression. As an example of on-going research, the EU FP7 project ACCOM-PANY aims to develop an assistive robot that, as part of an intelligent homeenvironment, will be able to support independent living of elderly in their ownhomes (http://www.accompanyproject.eu/).2 How should robots be used as companions andtherapists for the elderly?In our own work, we envision robots that at the same time are elderly care com-panion robots and companion robots for therapy. One major task of these robotsshould be to perform activities from positive psychology with elderly people inorder to improve their psychological wellbeing. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyihave coined the field known as positive psychology to refer to studies that tacklevalued subjective experiences (such as contentment, hope, and optimism), pos-itive individual traits (for example perseverance and originality) and civic andinstitutional virtues (for instance responsibility and altruism) [7]. Their viewcontrasts previous psychological approaches that have focused on mental suffer-ing, aiming to develop cures for mental illnesses, while paying little attention tohappiness and wellbeing.Given that the robots should at the same time be companions and thera-pists, we consider two types of scenarios when applying techniques of positivepsychology to robotics. Robots could openly act as coaches or therapists, di-rectly delivering a treatment; or, alternatively, they could interact with partici-pants through activities such as games and conversations, which would containa psychological exercise in a hidden manner. In other words, in the first typeof scenario participants would be made aware of the psychological exercise thatis taking place, whereas in the second type of scenario participants would notbe made aware. The question connected to this is how these two roles wouldincrease the social acceptance of the robot by the users and the effectiveness ofthe treatment.3 What do our first results suggest?We conducted a first study with the Giraff robot (http://www.giraff.org/) eitheradministering a psychological treatment directly (the robot was presented as acoach with the intention to perform a psychological exercise) or indirectly (therobot was presented as a conversation partner having a chat with the partici-pants). Experiments were carried out individually and in a lab. After the intro-duction by the experimenter and filling in various questionnaires, the participantwould interact alone with the robot, remaining seated, with the robot static andin front of the participant. In both role conditions, the interaction with the robotconsisted in having a conversation which served as basis for the psychologicalexercise. This intervention from positive psychology was based on the so-called3”three good things in life” exercise [8] consisting in telling the robot three thingsthat went well on that day and their causes. After the interaction with therobot, participants completed more questionnaires and were interviewed. Twodays after the experiment, participants received a survey questionnaire by emailto report on longer-term effects.We analyzed the data of 37 participants. Two subgroups were considered aspart of the sample: non-elderly and elderly participants. The non-elderly sub-group was composed of 29 participants, with ages ranging from 20 to 55 (M =30.48, SD = 7.49; 11 male, 18 female). The elderly group was composed of 8individuals, 5 male and 3 female. Their ages ranged between 62 and 83 (M =70.38, SD = 7.84).First results of our analysis of the Positive Affect Scale, which is part of thePositive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) developed by Watson and colleagues[9], showed that the mood of the participants actually improved only after thedirect treatment (mdirect−post = 31.15, sddirect−post = 4.58; in a possible rangeof 10 to 50 resulting from 10 items on a 5-point scale) compared to the samemeasure taken before the interaction (mdirect−pre = 28.95, sddirect−pre = 4.78);T(20) = 1.971, p = .032, one-tailed. In fact, the mood even seemed to havedecreased after the indirect treatment (mindirect−post = 26.41, sdindirect−post =6.51) compared to before the interaction (mindirect−pre = 29.00, sdindirect−pre =4.89); T(17) = 2.053, p = .057, two-tailed.One week after the trials, all participants rated their mood the same asbefore the experiment (mindirect−followup = 28.71, sdindirect−followup = 6.75;mdirect−followup = 28.31, sddirect−followup = 5.84). A long-term effect wouldalso not have been expected given that the treatment was only administered tothe participants in one session.Acceptance of the robot was similar in both conditions. We did not dis-cover any significant differences on the Godspeed scales [10]. However, in bothconditions the users found the robot very likeable (Cronbach’s α .861; m =3.89, sd = .64) and safe (Cronbach’s α .793 (without the item quiescent - sur-prised); m = 3.72, sd = .79). Liking the robot and feeling safe in its surroundingare highly important factors that most likely lead to social acceptance of therobot by the users. Thus, it is very positive that they are high, independent ofthe condition. Participants liked to chat with the robot as well as to undergothe treatment.4 What questions should future research address?We believe that our first study is very promising and shows that robots canindeed be employed to deliver treatments inspired by positive psychology to el-derly patients. The finding that participants experienced a greater improvementin mood when they knew the robot’s goal (to improve mood of participants)indicates that robots will more efficiently do so when playing the role of a ther-apist rather than the role of a companion. However, these results might havebeen influenced by the fact that participants in the direct condition with overt4treatment might have had higher hopes or expectations or have simply aimedto confirm to the experimenter’s expectations. Also, the results obtained in one-session experiments do not necessarily need to be congruent with results fromlonger-term experiments. Therefore, long-term studies are needed to determinehow exactly the robot roles need to be designed in order to - at the same time- achieve the most efficient therapy for the users and the highest possible socialacceptance of the robots. Furthermore, we need to determine which treatmentsfrom positive psychology are the most promising ones in the long run and howthese can be best integrated in the daily life of elderly people, always keepingthe goal of improving their wellbeing in mind.5 AcknowledgmentsThe research leading to these results has received funding from the [EuropeanUnion’s] Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agree-ment n[287624].References1. Kidd, C. D., Breazeal, C.: Robots at home: Understanding long-term human-robotinteraction. 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots andSystems. 3230-3235 (2008)2. Colombo, R., Pisano, F., Mazzone, A., Delconte, C., Micera, S., Carrozza, M. C.,Dario, P., Minuco, G.: Design strategies to improve patient motivation during robot-aided rehabilitation. Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation. 4 (2007)3. Cole, M. G., Yaffe, M. J.: Pathway to psychiatric care of the elderly with depression.International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 11, 157-161 (1996)4. Steffens, D. C., Skoog, I., Norton, M. C., Hart, A. D., Tschanz, J. T., Plassman, B.L., Wyse, B. W., Welsh-Bohmer, K. A., Breitner, J. C. S.: Prevalence of Depressionand Its Treatment in an Elderly Population. Archives of General Psychiatry. 57,June 2000, 14-18 (2012)5. Fasola, J., Matarić, M.J.: Using Socially Assistive Human-Robot Interaction to Mo-tivate Physical Exercise for Older Adults. Proceedings of the IEEE Special Issue onQuality of Life Technology, 100(8), 2512–2526, Aug. (2012).6. Wada, K., Shibata, T., Saito, T., Sakamoto, K., Tanie, K.: Psychological and SocialEffects of One Year Robot Assisted Activity on Elderly People at a Health ServiceFacility for the Aged. Science and Technology. 2785-2790 (2005)7. Seligman, M. E. P., Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Positive psychology: An introduction.American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14 (2000)8. Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., Peterson, C.: Positive PsychologyProgress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421 (2005)9. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., Tellegen, A.: Development and validation of brief measuresof positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 54, 1063–1070 (1988)10. Bartneck, C., Croft, E., Kulic, D., Zoghbi, S.: Measurement instruments for theanthropomorphism, animacy, likeability, perceived intelligence, and perceived safetyof robots. International Journal of Social Robotics, 1(1), 71-81 (2009)

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