Social Presence in Evaluations for a Humanoid Robot and Its Effect on Children-Robot Relationship
Journal
Communications in Computer and Information Science
Journal Volume
1419
Pages
191-199
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Abstract
As children are at a critical stage in their lives in developing and practicing social skills, they tend to imagine objects as interactive agents. For example, even a toy dinosaur can be perceived as affable and more as a social entity, namely, with a strong social presence (SP). This study investigated whether perceived SP changes (measured using the SP questionnaire) as children interacted with a robot. Furthermore, we investigated how SP modulated children-robot relationships and children’s overall attitudes towards robots. Children aged 6–12 interacted with a companion robot, RoBoHoN, for short intervals. Attitude evaluations were completed at three-time points: prior-, mid-, and post-interaction. SP and rapport with RoBoHoN were measured and compared mid-and post-interaction, while attitudes towards the robot were tested prior- and post-interaction. The results showed a stronger intention to use robots before interaction correlated with higher SP scores with RoBoHoN. As SP level was stable across mid- and post-interaction, we analyzed SP as a between-groups factor to compare attitude evaluations among children who rated RoBoHoN with higher versus lower SP scores. The high SP group found RoBoHoN to be more likable and playing with it as more enjoyable, but the effect on rapport level was marginal. The Implicit Association Task revealed no bias towards robots among children in both groups. This study shows SP’s positive effect on children-robot interaction and highlights the importance of SP in designing social companion robots for children. ? 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Subjects
Children-robot interaction
Implicit association task
Negative attitude towards robots
Robots acceptance
Social presence
Anthropomorphic robots
Economic and social effects
Holmium compounds
Human computer interaction
Children robot interactions
Companion robot
Humanoid robot
Intention to use
Interactive agents
Short-interval
Social entities
Social robots
SDGs
Type
conference paper