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Article published In: Interaction Studies
Vol. 16:2 (2015) ► pp.219–248

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Autistic traits and sensitivity to human-like features of robot behavior

 | General and Experimental Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Chair for Cognitive Systems, Technische Universität München |
 | Neuro-cognitive Psychology Master Programme, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
 | Chair for Cognitive Systems, Technische Universität München |
 | Chair for Cognitive Systems, Technische Universität München |
Published online: 26 November 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/is.16.2.09wyk
This study examined individual differences in sensitivity to human-like features of a robot’s behavior. The paradigm comprised a non-verbal Turing test with a humanoid robot. A “programmed” condition differed from a “human-controlled” condition by onset times of the robot’s eye movements, which were either fixed across trials or modeled after prerecorded human reaction times, respectively. Participants judged whether the robot behavior was programmed or human-controlled, with no information regarding the differences between respective conditions. Autistic traits were measured with the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) questionnaire in healthy adults. We found that the fewer autistic traits participants had, the more sensitive they were to the difference between the conditions, without explicit awareness of the nature of the difference. We conclude that although sensitivity to fine behavioral characteristics of others varies with social aptitude, humans are in general capable of detecting human-like behavior based on very subtle cues.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Sensitivity to detecting human behavior
    • 1.2Evolutionary benefits
    • 1.3Social aptitude
    • 1.4Aim of study and design
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Ethics statement
    • 2.3Stimuli and apparatus
    • 2.4Procedure
    • 2.5Data analysis
      • 2.5.1Sensitivity to human behavior
      • 2.5.2Social aptitude
      • 2.5.3Target discrimination performance
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Social aptitude and sensitivity to human-like behavior
    • 3.2General sensitivity to human’s behavior
    • 3.3Target discrimination task
      • 3.3.1Perceived humanness
      • 3.3.2Actual humanness
    • 3.4Questionnaire data
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1General sensitivity to human’s behavior
    • 4.2The influence of humanness attribution on social attention mechanisms
    • 4.3Implications
  • 5 Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
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